We do not like to talk about money, even if it means we get more of what God has for us. Of course, that is a very Christian application to a very human condition. No one really wants to talk about money, unless they are bragging about how much of it they have… and those are usually very “special” people.

But, we have to talk about it. We have to talk about money in order to have the right view of it, and we have to talk about it rightly. We have to talk about it biblically. But, God does want His people to be generous and expectant. God longs for His people to be generous and expectant.

Future Church | Generous & Expectant | Malachi 3:6-12

Authenticity is what the world wants most, with intentionality to match it.

With so much shallowness, emptiness, and falseness in our current culture, there is little more attractive than authenticity—even when it is messy!

Once again it is Paul who shows us that this is not a new principle, but a very old idea. The most attractive church we can be is an authentic and intentional church, willing to give to people not only our message but our very lives. Authentic and Intentional people form the church that changes the world.

Future Church | Authentic & Intentional | 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12

We need the leading of the Spirit to live lives of risk for Jesus. We need the power of the Spirit while being centered on Jesus!

We need the presence of the Spirit while dwelling on the loving sacrifice of Jesus. We need the gifts of the Spirit, while we live out of the righteousness of Jesus. It is not Jesus or the Spirit, it is Jesus and the Spirit, or our faith… indeed our church is incomplete.

James, Peter, Paul, and Barnabas certainly knew this to be true. They proclaimed the completed work of Jesus through the active work of the Spirit… One grounding, the Other leading, so that the church might be what God intended her to be. The true church is Jesus-centred and Spirit-led.

Future Church | Jesus-Centered & Spirit-Led | Acts 15:22-35

We have a tendency to neglect some and embrace others, ignoring that all are image bearers of God. [or, “ignoring that all are made in the image of God”]

But the Church, those who say they are representative of God and His interests, must be different and distinct in this matter.

We must be those who seek to see people as image bearers, embracing all into the family of God with no prerequisite other than their belief in and commitment to Jesus. We must be those who seek the good of the suffering, marginal, forgotten and discarded. The Future Church is one free of ethnic boundaries and social apathy.

Future Church | Socially Conscious & Transcultural | Acts 6:1-7; Acts 15:1-21

we would rather divide over preference than unite over priority. Human beings, Christian or not, this is our proclivity. We would rather divide over preference than unite over priority—even if it means ignoring the prayer of our shared Saviour.

This must not be. This cannot be, for if it is not only do we ignore Jesus’ prayer, but we forfeit the hope of His prayer that through our being one, the rest of the world might know that He indeed was sent by the Father and indeed is their Saviour.

Thanks be to God that by virtue of this same Saviour we have a chance, an opportunity to seek out that for which He prayed. And we have a promise in Isaiah that at some point Jesus’ people will get through their heads that we were always meant to be one people, in one metaphysical house, with one Father.

What the prophet tells us is that though God’s people are presently splintered into many streams, one day those many will become one again. Many streams will flow into the future house of God. The divisions will cease. The splits and splinters will be no more. Priority of His presence will overrule personal preference.

Future Church | Convergence Of Streams | Isaiah 2:1-4

We don’t talk to God like He is a loving father.

I know that seems like a strong accusation to open with. I think with a little reflection we will all agree this is true about us to one degree or another. The reasons for this will vary wildly.

For some us, it will be that we have a strong religious background. If you grew up in another religion, God as a father is most likely completely foreign. Your perception of Him is one of distance and otherness. A god that is separate and far off.

Or perhaps you grew up in the church, but the scriptures that describe God in his cosmicness where overemphasized. The stories your parents or pastors emphasized where about God being surrounded in unapproachable light or when Moses ask God to see Him, and God responds that you can not see me and live. For those that grew up in those traditions often feel as though we are offensive worms and God is a judge simply holding back his anger because of Jesus. As a result, we tend to pray to God in a manner that is aware of His holiness but absent His affections.

The second group of us actually talk to God like He is a father, it’s just as a reflection of the sins of our earthly father. We talk to God out of our daddy issues. Our communication with God was formed in how we communicated with our earthly fathers. For those people, myself included this manifest itself most commonly in a few ways.

We talk to God from a place of shame. We pray to Him as though He constantly disapproves of who we are. Almost as though we feel like He believes He made a mistake in creating us.

Or

Walk talk to God from a place of fear. We pray to Him as though He is at any moment we could push him over the edge. It sometimes feels like at any moment He will abandon us. So we pray from a place of trying to keep punishment at bay.

So the idea of talking to God as a loving father seems foreign.

While these categories by no way cover everyone, I think we can all agree that we don’t talk to God like a loving father.

For most of human history the ideas of distance, shame, and fear were normal for humanity’s understanding of its relationship with God.

But in the story we are going to read this morning, we are going to see a very different relationship that. In fact, scriptures position is that our heavenly Father wants to hear the heart of His children.

How To Pray | Stand Alone Sermon | Matthew 6

If we are honest today, Hope seems hidden in the waiting. Whether we are waiting for God’s promise, or a person's, hope seems hidden in the waiting. In other words, it is hard to wait with hope for the revelation of something. It is difficult to hope in what your eyes cannot presently see. It is a battle to hold out hope until what has been promised is revealed.

The good news for us today though is that God’s Spirit reveals God’s promise in God’s time.

Conspiracy of Hope | Luke 2:22-35 | Hope Revealed