Mission Hills Church
According to Ephesians 3:20, God is able and eager to do far more than we could ever imagine. He wants to work in us and through us, bringing hope and transformation to a broken world. Join us from October 21 to November 12 as we explore God’s plan for the local church and what this looks like for Mission Hills here and around the world.
Today, we’re starting the first of a four-week series that we’re calling Imagine. The goal of this series is to begin to paint the picture of the future of our church. If you were with us a few months ago for our 75th anniversary, you may remember that I said celebrating all that God has done should lead to anticipating all that he is going to do. We know that he’s not done doing. And the question is, what does it look like for us to get ready for our next great adventure with God as a church? That’s what this series is all about. We’re going to be peeking through some doors and catching glimpses of what Mission Hills is going to look like in the future. In the simplest terms, what the elders and staff of Mission Hills believe is that God is calling us to increase our impact for His Kingdom, locally, regionally and globally.
Revelation tells us what’s coming in order to equip the church to persevere and prosper.
Revelation 2:1 NIV
The angel of the church is a personification of the church’s message/witness to the world.
The church doesn’t just have a message for the world, it is God’s message to the world.
Revelation 1:20 NIV
Stars = Angels = The Witness of the Church
The church is the way God holds up the Gospel message for the world to see.
Revelation 2:2-3 NIV
They were remaining faithful to Jesus in spite of persecution for that faith.
Revelation 2:4-5 NIV
Jesus is saying they had forsaken their love for the lost.
1 // Jesus identified the love for the lost as one of his own great loves.
verse - Luke 19:10
2 // The church in Ephesus was originally famous for their love for the lost.
verse - Acts 19
3 // Jesus says they lost “the love you had at first”, not “your most important” love.
4 // This makes sense of the “how far you have fallen” language.
5 // This makes sense of the “do the things you did at first” language.
6 // This makes sense of the warning about their lamp-stand.
All of these reasons suggest that Jesus isn’t saying that the church in Ephesus had stopped loving him but that they had stopped loving the lost. And, apparently, there’s no such thing as a church that doesn’t love the lost.
For many “churches”, inward attention replaces outward mission.
The church is God’s platform for declaring the good news to the lost.
A church’s love for the lost can never exceed that of its people so, whose salvation is weighing on you these days?
What are you going to do about it?
1 // Pray
2 // Give
3 // Go
Revelation 2:2-3 NIV