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Teaching podcast from the Eagle Community Church of Christ in Mont Belvieu, TX.
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Eagle Community Church of Christ podcast. My name is John Guenter. Today, we'll be talking about our vision here at our church. We, because of the, upcoming holiday next week, we wanted to get this out so maybe more people could hear it and then we'll finish up with our Holy Spirit study next week.
John Gunter:So today we talk about what it looks like for our church, what what we hope, what we are planning, and all the things that go into that. So we hope you're this is interesting to you, and we hope you'll come and and wanna be involved in it. That's what I'm gonna challenge our church to do today. Well, thanks for listening. Have a great week.
John Gunter:Time to talking about our mission here, at this place. And we switched it. We've got one more Holy Spirit sermon that's next week, and I know because I've been in church enough that because we switched it, next week we'll have more people here, which is why we switched it, is to hopefully have more of you know, kind of hear about the vision. And I think right in front of you, each each week, we, we kinda have representative, both of these both of these lecterns are from Lakewood, and, they represent a lot. I can I can only imagine how much teaching has been done off of these things?
John Gunter:And we bring them with us. It's almost, I'll say just because it looks old and worn, that it's a picture of Lakewood, but it's been used. Right? And by the way, I am gonna refinish this one at some point too, so don't don't get attached to it. But we are at a new place, and we don't just rest on our laurels of what we have done in the past, as good as they may have been, we have to have a vision for what we want to accomplish here in this place.
John Gunter:And what we want to accomplish has to line up with god's will for us, what god wants to do in this place. And so I know for a lot of you, the the move may have been hard, may have been difficult to come to this place, and, to give up some of the things we've had to give up. We've had to sacrifice and and even what we can do. Right? To even have potlucks, we go to another place on 5th Sundays.
John Gunter:Right? We had to let go of the building, that you guys have had for so long, but we have to move forward. If we want to reach the kingdom of god in Mont Belvieu and the surrounding areas, we still have to continue moving. We don't stand in one spot. And so if you picked up a bulletin this morning, there's an insert in that.
John Gunter:Everybody got that? I'm I'm just gonna ask you to grab it if you've got it. Because what you're gonna see on the screen is gonna be right from this, to begin this today. And so number 1, our vision is to reach the rapidly growing area of Mont Belvieu by planting a church, and we're here. That church will become a light to Mont Belvieu and the surrounding area.
John Gunter:Now to be a light, you have to shine. Right? You have to do something. You have to be out there. And that's part of our vision here.
John Gunter:Again, we bring with us a sense of urgency and a sense of mission that we want to do something in this place. Number 2, a community of believers striving to know God through His word. Because how can we align our will and His if we don't know His word? And again, number 3, a people centered on Jesus Christ and His mission. We can have a lot of hopes and desires, can't we?
John Gunter:We can have a lot of wants and wishes and things I'd like to have happen, but what we hope to do and what we plan to do as a church is exactly this, is to be a people centered on Jesus. And, again, going back to number 2, striving to know God through his word. That god has given us his word so we understand him and his mission. And by those things, we can become, again, number 1, a light to Mont Belvieu and the surrounding area. I could have included all the communities you guys were from, but I would have missed one if somebody have been angry.
John Gunter:Surrounding area. We even got Winnie folks here this morning. Right? We got people from all over, and so we're thankful, for that. But our mission strategy, if you see on that page, the Holy Spirit enables us.
John Gunter:Guess what we just did? Study on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables us to accomplish our purpose by empowering us to have open hearts, open minds, and open hands, ready and eager to serve. I love that. I love that statement and I hope we embody that same attitude.
John Gunter:That it's not just us, that god has gifted us with his spirit to be able to do these things. That when God anointed people, it was always for a purpose, but you still had a choice, right? But God is empowering us to go and to do and to live out this mission right here in Mont Belvieu. And and I like this statement. Our purpose statement is to live and to love like Jesus.
John Gunter:We could put a lot of things there, but I think the example that Jesus embodies for all of us is enough. And if we live and love like him, imagine the church we'll have. People that are not just acquaintances in a room, but people who love and are invested in your group. How many of you let's talk to Lakewood folks for a minute how many of you are from Lakewood for a long time? Okay.
John Gunter:How many of you grew up or raised families where you knew you had a group with you? Raise your hand. Shake your head. Yeah. I mean, one of those where they can get on to your kid.
John Gunter:It's no big deal. Right? Yeah. Get on to them. Right?
John Gunter:And how is that feeling different from just, say, you're visiting a church, and you show up and you take a seat, and a lot of followers of Christ in there, right, hopefully? But how is that feeling different from we're doing life together? We are here together, and we love each other. We're invested in in what I'm doing, what you're doing, and I wanna see you succeed. I wanna see your kids succeed, and the same goes for me and my kids.
John Gunter:It's a different feeling, isn't it? And so all of this that we're talking about, it begins in this room. No doubt about it. It begins with the people sitting here right now. Maybe you need to look around and remind yourself who's here.
John Gunter:But It begins with the people sitting in this room who say, I'm gonna follow Jesus. We have a an obligation to be a part of the body. And that doesn't mean I'm just this unknown part that nobody ever sees, but I'm invested and I'm going to use my gifts, as we've been talking about in the Holy Spirit study. I'm going to use my gifts the way that God has gifted me to support and encourage and build up the body so that we can all live and love like Jesus. I'm sure, I have no doubt, there are things I want to change right now that I wish we had, in space, in opportunity, and all the things.
John Gunter:Same for you? Yeah. Let's do it. Let's get it done. But that's gonna take all of us.
John Gunter:That's not gonna take a bunch of hope, hopes and dreams and never doing. That's gonna take investment and moving forward. And before we do any of that, it starts with prayer. God, would you bless us as we come into this community? God, how would you have us go into the community?
John Gunter:And, God, what would you have us do? And what timeline would you have us on? Boy, I don't like that one. Because I'm pretty sure I know exactly when it ought to happen. Right?
John Gunter:That was yesterday. But if we want to be the church that we I believe we all want to be, this needs to be our mission, and I hope that you will hang on to this. Because as you can see there, at the bottom of this page, this is not day 1, is it? It felt like it took us 6 years to sell the Lakewood building. It did not take that long, and it is done.
John Gunter:And so we have done some things. We wanted to make sure we had some things on there to show we're moving forward. There are some checked off things in there. We have begun planning for a new building, we have land in here, we have a great, spot by a new school, with a subdivision going in beside it. Family.
John Gunter:Ways to interact with the community, but we don't do that unless we're all engaged and looking for it. If we're sitting here this morning hoping everything falls in our lap, we're gonna be sorely disappointed. What it takes is getting involved, being invested, and living and loving like Jesus. There's a, passage that I wanna turn your attention to from Romans 12, And I feel like as, I've been, you know, thinking about this sermon that this is really a good passage. We're gonna go Romans 129 through the end of the chapter.
John Gunter:We talked, the first eight verses last week. But to me this is a good kind of vision, this is who we should be type of scenario. Romans 12, verses 9, through 13 to begin here. Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil.
John Gunter:Cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourself. Can we start there? Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.
John Gunter:What does that sound like? Life in the spirit versus life in the flesh. Right? Hate what is evil, cling to what is good, be devoted to one another in love. We talked I I wish about this many people have been in class this morning.
John Gunter:Those of you in class know that wasn't the case. But just think about the relationships you have, the best friend you have. You're devoted to one another in this relationship. You probably didn't even give any thought to it, But, you know, your best friend, if you think of your best friend right now, they have quirks, don't they? You have quirks.
John Gunter:Did you know that? You probably do. Some of you more than others. Don't point. Yeah.
John Gunter:But we all do this without even thinking about it, but that's because we care. And so, I I form a relationship with a friend and it becomes a a deep relationship because I want to do that. And I want to work with that person, and we overlook each other's quirks, or we get used to it. Rebecca's not here, Heath, so I can pick on you. Right?
John Gunter:Okay? I picked on Rebecca in class, and it's it's one of those things where when you get to know somebody, you know kind of how to deal with them. Right? That you care about them enough to overlook those quirks, that when Heath gets a little snippy, I give him a doughnut. Raise that blood sugar, he's fine.
John Gunter:Right? He would do the same for me. Make it 2. Make it 2, don't. But that's because we care and we love.
John Gunter:And if all we do is we come to a place and we just don't ever get involved, we don't ever grow those relationships, it is very easy to just go away. That the first thing that I get upset about that he said that I didn't agree with or somebody did something, I'm gone because I'm not invested. I haven't grown those roots. And I think that's our problem most of the time is that we have chosen not to get involved to that level. Maybe we'll come to a couple of things, but to actually put in the effort and to go.
John Gunter:How many of you wanna see this church succeed and grow? Yeah. Guess what? That means 2 services. It really does, and we hope for that, don't we?
John Gunter:I hope you do. That this space can't contain all the people that that wanna learn about Jesus, that wanna be a part of this body, that wanna come together week after week, and I'm part of this. Because we we do the same thing. We we think about, alright, what can I do as a person? What what power do I have?
John Gunter:What can I accomplish? A lot of times, we get stuck in that. Other times, we look, okay, what can we accomplish? That's good. That's better.
John Gunter:But what can God accomplish? What can God do with the people? We we don't even know their names yet. There's gonna be a time, maybe years from now, maybe not, where you walk into this place and you think, man, I haven't known them that long, but they are serving God in this place. Praise God for that.
John Gunter:But we need to be involved. We need to, again, as it says, honor one another above ourselves, care about each other. Get involved. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope.
John Gunter:Be joyful in hope. Now it's easy to become cynical, or I don't think we're ever going to build a building. Woe is us, right? But be joyful in the hope of things to come, of what can happen, what God can do. Be patient in affliction.
John Gunter:No. Thank you. I'd like to get through that quickly. How about you? Yeah.
John Gunter:But be faithful in prayer. He's one of my one of my guys that lives in my head now every time I need to start with a prayer. You know, sometimes I just rush into it. And he he's good about you know, I'll be mid sentence. He said, let's pray about that.
John Gunter:Okay. Probably should have thought about that first. K? But be faithful in prayer. We are a church that's gonna pray about all these things.
John Gunter:Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Again, that idea that not we don't just own what we have. Right? We are stewards.
John Gunter:God has gifted us with the things we have, and with that, we use to bless the body of Jesus, to practice hospitality. Some of you need to come over to my house. I need to practice hospitality. If you go to our website, I'm I'm sure many of you don't just frequent the website, but I've even updated my bio on the website that says ask for the ribs. Okay?
John Gunter:So you know what to ask for. But we should open our homes because this time together is not a time that we can grow those deep relationships. It's a time to come and encourage. We lift our our voices and praise, that We get encouragement from seeing the people and and saying hello and having short conversations, but it's really the outside time, the time outside of a couple hours a week, and we can really form those relationships. And I'll I'm gonna encourage you.
John Gunter:There are small group sign ups right there. Most frustrating thing I I have dealt with, and I've had somebody ask me to my face or actually come up in tears and say, I just can't make friends here, not at this place, but I can't make friends here. And you feel sorry for the person because they're upset. They want that relationship, and you think, man, that's good that you want the relationship, but I also know about you that you don't participate in life groups and you're one of the first people to leave every week. It doesn't just happen.
John Gunter:And I'll tell you, Heath mentioned we've got 5, groups over there. His is teenagers now. If you look at that list over there and you think, man, my schedule doesn't fit into any of those. We would love to have another group. If you wanna form a group, nobody's gonna stop you.
John Gunter:What we do every week is we will have a sermon. I will write up questions. I will send those to you and all you need to do is read them. Open up your home, invite people in, read the questions, and if they don't answer, just be real quiet, because they'll answer eventually. It'll get awkward.
John Gunter:Either people will leave or they'll start answering. And usually, they answer first. But become a part of this body and invest. Bless those who persecute you. Thank you very much, I'll have none of that.
John Gunter:Paul challenges us here, doesn't he? Because it's easy if if that last part we read is just filled with people who love me and care for me, and maybe they've done something before me, as we mentioned in class. Right? If Karen's already done these things for me, it's easy for me to give back to her. Right?
John Gunter:Maybe it's easy to give even if you haven't because all are good Christian folks. They come to church with me. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Maybe just wanna sit with that a little bit.
John Gunter:I don't like it either, do you? But that is the fruit of the spirit right there. That's the evidence of the spirit of god lives in you that you care enough that even when someone maybe is your enemy who is persecuting you, who is doing something against you, bless and do not curse. Now I do not think this is the southern oh bless his heart. I do not we know that's implied some things there that, uh-uh, bless and do not curse.
John Gunter:Rejoice with those who rejoice. Mourn with those who mourn. And the only way you do that is if you care. If you know them, then you care. Because when you do life together, when you raise your kids together, as you guys have said you've done, then you care.
John Gunter:And it hurts when somebody loses someone. And when someone has something positive in their life, you do rejoice because you love them. You care about them. But it takes effort. Live in harmony with each other.
John Gunter:Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceded. So be a part of everyone's life is what he's what he's saying here. In verse 17, in our last section here, do not repay anyone evil for evil, even if they do something against you, even if they cut you off in traffic. I know that's hard.
John Gunter:Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. And I've told you before, I used to say I could get along with anyone. And now, because of one lady I worked with, I say I can get along with anyone who wants to be gotten along with. You've met that person, haven't you?
John Gunter:You worked with the same kind of person. But there's a responsibility here, not on them, but on you. Right? You do what you can do. You have the kind of spirit, the kind of care that says, okay.
John Gunter:We don't have to get along with everything, but that we love. I love in a way that I care about you. As far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for god's wrath. Get out of the way.
John Gunter:Let god have it. For it is written, it is mine to avenge. I will repay, says the lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
John Gunter:In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. We're not gonna dive into that sentence today. But you notice, give him something to drink. Give him something to eat. Do what you need to do.
John Gunter:Do what the spirit of god is leading you to do. Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. Man, that's one of those highlighted verses right there. Do not overcome do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good. It is so easy to be we use the word triggered all the time now, don't we?
John Gunter:To open social media, to go out in the world, to drive on the interstate, and be immediately triggered by something. And our thought is, what I need to do is set these people straight right now. And what happens a lot of times is instead of lifting them up, you drag yourself down into something that is not of god. I told, I told Evan, I think it was this week, maybe it's last week, I said, you know, there's a saying, and he was talking about some kids arguing or something. I said, there's a saying that never argue with an idiot because people walking by may not know which is which.
John Gunter:And that's the case with all of this. Now, yes, there are arguments to be had everywhere, but we're to be people of the light, are we not? We are taking god's we're taking the light of Jesus everywhere we go. And if all you're doing is dragging yourself into the muck and and screaming at people as they pass by, I'm the person of the light. I'm I'm of Jesus.
John Gunter:I don't think you're being real effective. Believe me, I'm the one that's from Jesus. Can you imagine? But I think that's the position we put ourselves in, and so my encouragement for us is to really be the church we need to be. Be the church that that God wants us to be right here in Mont Belvieu and see what happens.
John Gunter:But as I've said probably 8 times by now, that doesn't happen just by sitting here and waiting. That takes all of us. That takes names on these volunteer lists. That takes people signing up for life groups saying, I'm gonna give of my time. That I wanna become a part of this church in a way that is more than just a shallow relationship.
John Gunter:See what happened. Don't be the person that complains about, oh, man. I don't feel close to God, but I see every opportunity we have and you don't take advantage of any of them. There's a lot going on at this church. It may not feel like it.
John Gunter:It may not feel like the old, Lakewood and all the opportunities you had here or had there, God is doing something special in this place, I believe. And I wanna be a part of it. How about you? So let's do that. This week, I'd I'd love for you to reread this, scripture and just kind of dwell on that for the week.
John Gunter:Look in the mirror and say, how is it that I am being this? My community, to my church, to those around me. That is our mission to live and love like Jesus, and I pray that for each of us, that is an important thing in your life. Francisco's got a, an invitation song picked out, and we just wanna encourage you. If you have walked away from what God has wanted you to do, come back to him.
John Gunter:We'd love to pray with you. We'd love to see you baptized into his name this morning. Would you come as we stand for his