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(12/15) I have been challenging you to discover "A New Normal: Finding New Rhythms of Life" because what has become normal for us is just so much less than what God desires for us as the church. And so, it’s important that we "Stretch Our Vision" because we don’t limp into 2021, but we want to stretch ourselves, becoming more flexible, increasing our stamina, and growing stronger as we continue to reach people throughout our community; connecting and equipping them to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ and doing the work of the ministry. And so, you and I need to stretch our vision, expanding our capacity for what God is doing in his Kingdom, because we’re surrounded by people who need the faith, the hope, and the love that God has for them in Christ, in the Church, in the community of believers, the body of Christ.

It’s in these unprecedented times that many of us need to stretch our capacity, stretching our vision for what God is doing in our lives and in his Church. It’s "A New Normal" and I know that many of you have the privilege of worshiping with us every week, you may have been coming and serving for years, and so it might be easy for you to perceive this as normal. But for a lot of people this isn’t normal, the fellowship that we get to experience, the presence of God that we enjoy together is unique, and it’s something that we don’t ever want to take for granted. And so, sometimes we have to step outside, unblocking our vision, so that we can count the stars. We’ve got to stretch our vision, broadening our perspective and enlarging our borders.

Last week, I talked to you about the "Seed of Faith" and how many of us have lowered our expectations of what God might do in our lives. We’ve started to settle down, we’ve lost our passion when it comes to spiritual things, and like Abraham we’ve got to step outside of our dwelling, the parameters, the boundaries in place in our lives and look beyond.

God spoke to Abraham and challenged him to take a step of faith. He told him,

"Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you" (Genesis 12:1).

And he did, he left his country, he left his people, and he went to the land God showed him. But there was so much more that he didn’t see, so much that he didn’t understand, and I wonder if there are some of you who’ve been praying and believing God for something, you’re walking in faith, but the details are still so unclear.

Abraham left, he stepped out in faith, and the Bible says,

"He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan and they arrived there. Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem…" (Genesis 12:5-6).

I wonder if like Abraham, you’ve ever found yourself in a place that you never expected to be, but you were really in the right place at the right time. You see, this wasn’t part of his 10-year plan, this wasn’t on his bucket list, but by faith he obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. Abraham found himself at the great tree of Moreh at Shechem, he was in the right place at the right time; and I think when it comes to spiritual things, as we walk in faith, we too will find ourselves in the right place at the right time.

You see, the Bible says in Ecclesiastes,

"The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all" (Ecclesiastes 9:11).

In other words, we’ve got a chance, and that’s good news; because while we may not be the fastest, the strongest, or the smartest, we may find ourselves in the right place at the right time. In fact, this is really encouraging because I believe it’s more than just a chance. The Bible says God is the author of life, he’s the author of time and space, and in Acts chapter 17,

"He determined the times set for (us) and the exact places where (we) should live" (Acts 17:26).

And so, it’s more than just a chance, it’s God who places us in the right place, at the right time.

Now, I know there are some of you who think, well that never happens to me, but maybe you’re not looking for the right things, maybe you’re not looking through your spiritual eyes. You see, if you’re here, you are part of God’s work, you’re in the right place at the right time, because we’ve seen him working here at Christ’s Community Church time and time again. In fact, when we heard about this vacant building, from the very beginning we could see how God was working, and we knew it was one of those right place, right time moments; because within weeks of contacting the town we were cleaning up the building, we’d acquired an interest free church loan, and were purchasing equipment needed for our first worship experience.

Abraham was in the right place at the right time, because in faith he went to the land God was showing him, and the Bible says he arrived at the site of…

"The great tree of Moreh at Shechem" (Genesis 12:6).

It was there that the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him,

"To your offspring I will give this land." So (Abraham) built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him" (Genesis 12:7).

Abraham was just passing through, but he stopped in Shechem, and he was in the right place at the right time, because he encountered God there. And so, he paused in Shechem to worship before continuing toward the hills east of Bethel.

I wonder if you’ve ever had to go into a situation not knowing any details, but confident that God was leading you to that place. That was Abraham, he had instructions from God, but he didn’t have any details. And so, when he came into Canaan, he encountered God at the first place he stopped, and he was able to understand with better clarity. You see, it was there that God told Abraham "This is it, this is the land,

"To your offspring I will give this land" (Genesis 12:7).

And so, God was saying, "This is the place, this is where I’m going to multiply you, this is where I’m birthing nations from you, and this blessing is not just for you, but through you." The blessing of God is never meant to stay with the people of God, it’s meant to flow through the people of God, and so we can trust that if God can get it to us, he can get it through us. And it was there in Shechem that Abraham built an altar to the Lord, he worshiped and gave sacrifices to God, he praised him for the promise of offspring.

Now remember, at this point Abraham hadn’t seen it yet, it was just a promise, a seed planted in the ground, but God was working, and he is stretching Abraham’s vision. He’s taking him beyond normal, taking him outside of his unmet expectations, outside of his limited perspective, so that he can stretch his capacity to believe what God was doing. In Genesis chapter 15, God took him outside and said,

"Look up at the heavens and count the stars — if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be" (Genesis 15:5).

My challenge as your pastor is to stretch your vision of what God wants to do in you and through you. We’ve been here in this building for eight years, in this right place, right time moment, and now we’ve been given the opportunity to purchase this building instead of leasing it. God is taking us outside of the box, outside of the normal, and stretching our vision for Emmitsburg. He’s saying, "Look up and count the stars, if indeed you can count them."

That’s what you and I, that’s what we need to figure out as followers of Christ. In many ways, it’s like exercising, you’ve got to stretch yourself, stretching your vision, looking beyond what you’ve convinced yourself you can’t do, and recognizing that it’s really what you won’t do, because many of us come to church and say we want to be changed, but we don’t want to invest the time, we don’t want any stretching, we don’t want the work, the exercise, we don’t want any soreness or pain. But if we’re going to grow and become stronger we’ve got to be purposeful, getting up with the determination, stretching and challenging ourselves day after day, putting ourselves in uncomfortable positions, doing things that don’t come naturally, because we want to see growth like a seed planted.

Jesus said, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, just a little thing, just a little bit of faith, but he said,

"A man took it (that tiniest little seed) and planted in his garden. It grew and became a great tree" (Luke 13:19).

And it’s only as you challenge yourself, taking that little bit of faith, finding new rhythms in life, that you’re able to stretch your vision for what God is doing in and through you. And so, I don’t want any of you to become content with what you perceive as normal, but instead I want you to challenge yourself, stretching yourself, and pressing to a new normal, because we serve a God who is limitless. The Bible says that God is able…

He’s "able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20).

And so, I hope that none of you would be content to remain stuck where you are, stuck in that condition, just doing the same thing day in and day out when you have this incredible, limitless, immeasurable power at work within you.

Now, I recognize that a lot of people come to church when they’re hurting, when they’ve lost hope, and so they want to be comforted, but what if God wants to challenge you today to go beyond, to stretch yourself, giving you a vision for a new normal, and giving you the power to do what you never knew you could do?

How will you ever find a new rhythm of life, if you insist on your comfortable complacent lifestyle, just continuing to do what’s familiar, just doing what’s normal?

ARE YOU WILLING?

I wonder if any of you are willing to be stretched? Because here’s what I’ve seen, many of us come to church with our preconceived ideas of what God can and can’t do. And so, we bring God down to our own limitations, and then when we’re met at the level of our own low expectations, we assume that God was limited, when in fact it was our own limitations that kept us from seeing what God can do through us.

This morning, I’d like to ask you to consider challenging your perception of yourself or challenging some of the things that you’ve told yourself about yourself. You know, we’ve got to stop limiting ourselves, we’ve got to stop being so pessimistic, and instead start focusing on the goodness of God. You see, I believe God wants to stretch you, increasing your faith, increasing your capacity for the supernatural, so that you become more optimistic, making room in your life for joy, believing that you are a new creation in Christ, that you have a new name, and being confident of this… saying,

"I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (Psalms 27:13).

But what are you going to miss out on, what might you miss in your life, if you never stretch your vision, finding new rhythms of life?

You see, this is so important, because you could have peace, you could have joy, you could move forward if you would let go. You will when you do, but will you do it? I believe God is challenging some of you this morning, because he wants to stretch you, he wants to increase your faith, but will you do it?

INCREASE YOUR CAPACITY

In second Kings chapter 4, there is the story of a widow who cried out to Elisha in desperation, she was about to lose everything to her debtors. And so, Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you? What do we have to work with? What do you have in your house?" She replied,

"Your servant has nothing there at all except a little oil" (2 Kings 4:2).

I love this, because God was about to increase her capacity, but first he had to stretch her vision for what he could do. And so, Elisha told her,

"Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars…" (2 Kings 4:3).

In other words, God was working, but she had to make room to receive his provision. She had to get something to put it in, and in the same way, some of you have to make room for God to move in your life and the only limit on what God can do through you is your imagination.

I want to encourage you to stretch your vision for what God wants to do through you, because I’m afraid that some of you have become complacent and your assuming where you are and what you have is all there is and you’ve become comfortable. The thing is that God won’t increase your capacity until you trust him and so he can’t leave you in comfort. You’ve got to be willing to stretch so that you can grow he, and so I wonder if you would be willing as one year ends and before another year unfolds to surrender? Would you be willing to offer yourself to God, so that you don’t remain stuck, trapped by your own self-imposed limitations?

REMOVING LIMITATIONS

Can you see that God is doing something, that we’re in the right place at the right time? I mean, can you really see it, do you recognize that God is working? I wonder how many of you want to join him, sowing into what he is doing, gathering more jars, and investing your resources? We have the opportunity to be a part of what God is doing in Emmitsburg, but it’s not just recognizing that we’re in the right place at the right time, it’s also having the right response. It’s sowing our resources, our time, our talent, and our treasure.

Jesus said that is the right response, that is the true test of your heart.

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21).

I wonder what limitations God is wanting to remove from your life so that there could be an increase of God’s vision and purpose? There are some of you who’ve been praying, believing, and waiting for God to do something, but you haven’t seen anything yet. You may be feeling like you’re in a holding pattern, just circling the airport waiting to land. You know, like the Israelites circled for 40 years, wandering in the wilderness that they could’ve passed through in just a matter of days, but sometimes you get stuck in a way of thinking, a way of behaving, or a way of believing.

Moses successor Joshua knew all about circling, wandering in the wilderness, because he was one of the two spies that wanted to go into the promised land, but God couldn’t let all the grumbling, doubting, unbelieving people go into the promise. And sometimes you get stuck in a generational loop, bearing the consequences of somebody else’s bad decisions, but Joshua chapter 24 describes his landing, settling and coming into the promise. Verse one says,

"Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God" (Joshua 24:1).

And so, now the Israelites are back in Shechem, back in the same place we started with Abraham, back where they started as one man and now, here they are as millions of people.

This was an important moment for the children of Israel, because sometimes you’ve got to go back to Shechem in your heart, looking at what God has done and thanking him for what he has brought to pass in your life. Joshua is now standing in Shechem, standing in the promise, living in what he looked forward to for so long, and he wants the children of Israel to know it. Verse two says,

"This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 'Long ago your forefathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau…" (Joshua 24:2-4).

In other words, he reminds them that when Abraham came through here, he was just one man passing through, looking for a promise and sometimes it’s hard to appreciate what you can’t see. In fact, sometimes it’s hard to see what’s right in front of you, and so Joshua brought the Israelites back to Shechem so that they could see through eyes of faith how God was working in their lives even when it felt like they were just circling. And so, they worshiped there, they presented themselves before God. It’s about learning to trust God even when you can’t see any progress but believing that God is working in your life someway, somehow.

As we close, there are some of you who’ve been looking for places to invest your financial resources that have the greatest return and now you can see it. This is your right time, right place moment, and some of you are going to honor God with the tithe for the first time. Others of you are going to go well beyond the tithe with a year-end offering because you want to be a part of what God is blessing, the work he is doing here in Emmitsburg, and it might be that some of you didn’t even realize this opportunity to be a part of what God is doing. And so, I want to challenge you to stretch your vision so that you don’t miss out on the blessing. The Bible says it this way in Ecclesiastes chapter 11,

"Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap" (Ecclesiastes 11:4).

In other words, if you wait for the conditions to be perfect before you take a step of faith and commit yourself, you may never see or experience it. And so, as we bring this year to an end, we have the opportunity to join God in his work, investing our time, talent, and treasure in what he is doing in Emmitsburg.

I have no doubt that this is the right place and the right time. The only question I have is what is your response? I believe if we position ourselves in the right place, at the right time, and we make the right response, God is going to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine and he’s going to do it through his people, through you, according to his power that is at work within us. Not so that we could receive the glory, but so that he could receive the glory.

Read Part 3

Read past sermons by Pastor John Talcott