Kennystix's podcast
Treasuring Christ Together: The Vision and Its Cost
The following message is by Pastor John Piper. More information from Desiring God Ministries is available at www.desiringGod.org. Father in Heaven, we need your help now to see how Romans 12, your word plows into this church, shapes everything we do from budget building, to vision casting, to fund raising, to all of our interpersonal lives. So come and give me grace and help me to make the application of the word "plane." I ask in Jesus' name, amen. Most of my sermons are real short on application at the end. This one is all application almost, and so they kind of even out. So if you don't like it, that I don't do application, then like this sermon. And if you do like application, don't criticize me that this one is 90 percent application. Romans 12, keep your Bibles open there because we are there. I want to take a little byway in Romans 12. It's not away from Romans 12, a byway into the practicalities of the life of this church. I want you to see how Romans 12 confronts the way this church functions. You need to think and feel as a people how the Bible makes its way into elder meetings, makes its way into vision casting, makes its way into booklet construction, and makes its way into fund raising. And so go with me on a tour of Bethlehem by means of Romans 12. We'll present to you this Wednesday night a six million dollar budget for next year. That's the budget for next year. You need to come and find out about it. We will also talk about treasury and Christ together, which is going to cost upwards of thirteen and a half million dollars in addition to that. Now let me give you some examples of the way Romans 12 is working its way into the emergence of that vision and that budget. Last year, many of you were frustrated and rightly so by receiving the budget so late that you didn't have time to think much about it before you had to act on it. That's not going to happen this year. You'll get the budget in proposed form on Wednesday night. You don't vote on it until January. That came about not just because we don't like frustrated church members, but because when we as leaders and elders read Romans 12, we see things like verses 4 and 5 which talk about all the different gifts that are out there in the body and we say, "Use them. Use them. Get this done." And we see verse 8 where it says, "Let those who lead, lead with zeal." If it takes meetings until midnight to get this done, get this done. This is the way it ought to be. The people ought to have the time to need to see, think, pray about the budget and therefore Romans 12, it's working its way into the eldership of the church and they have embodied it beautifully. I wish you could be there for those midnight meetings as we pause to pray when we hit log jams about what staffing should be included and what things should be axed from this proposed budget, second illustration of how Romans 12 works in the building of budgets and the casting of vision. We are totally convinced as an eldership that Romans 12, too, is of the essence of making decisions in church life. Let's read it. Verse 2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Let me ask you, what would you do on the Council of Elders when there are no sentences in the Bible to tell you what percentage to increase this budget for next year? What would you do on the eldership when there are no sentences in the Bible that tell you what date to start a South Campus or to start one? What would you do if there are no sentences in the Bible that tell you when and where to plant churches? I want you to feel the weight of making decisions when the Bible doesn't address most of our decisions directly, answer, get on your face and get your minds changed into the image of the mind of Christ so that when you think about the practicalities of church life, you think the way Jesus thinks, and when you bring to the people proposals, they'll smell Jesus all over it. That's the only way I know. Romans 12, too, is the way you lead, and if it doesn't work, nothing works, and we just become a secular organization. So we pray, we seek a renewed mind, we humble ourselves, we look away to Christ, we love authentically, we abhor evil, we cleave to the good, we rejoice in hope, we're constant in prayer. That's happening among the leadership, and I believe it's happening among the people so that when we come together in united gathering on Wednesday night, these things we call all church strategy meetings, God's going to be there with transformed minds, much wisdom and vision. Third example, Romans 12 is shaping the practicalities of this church in the production of a six million dollar budget for church and missions, about a third of that goes to missions away from Bethlehem, and in the formation of treasuring Christ together, about $13.5 million. How does it work? Some are staggered by those numbers, others remember Jeremiah 12.5. If you were weirried by men on foot, how will you compete with horses? In other words, what if God wants to plant a hundred million dollars worth of churches? 10,000 people giving a thousand dollars a year for 10 years. That's not even inconceivable. And the Bible talks about God doing things exceedingly beyond what you can ask or think. I can think of a hundred million and how it could happen. What Romans 12 says in verse eight is the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. Remember those words from that sermon, generosity, zeal, cheerfulness. What is that? We called it overflow from verse three. Think small of yourself, think big of Jesus. And when you're so satisfied in Jesus, your life becomes overflow. It doesn't become duty, gutting it out, willpower, religion. The life becomes overflow. How else can you explain this church giving apart from the million and a half you gave for Treasure in Christ Together, almost six million dollars to this church last year? And there are no demands, I mean you just do it. There's no arm twisting, there's no pledging at the beginning of the year, there's no threat that if you know we're going to check up on you, nobody in this church knows what you give except Paul Johnson, that's amazing to me that the flow of millions and millions of dollars comes out of your bank account, evidently because Christ is there. I mean I don't know why else you would give, why would you give? You got things you could spend this money on. I'm just staggered that an organization, an organism like this that will take six million plus to run next year got it this year. I mean we're not done yet, you've got to give a lot between now and the end of the year, but goodness gracious what you have done. The only way to explain that is Romans 12. Some of you, many of you, were not here in April when we voted on Treasure in Christ Together as the vision underneath the mission of this church and so let me talk about it for a moment and help you see it in relation to biblical priorities in Romans 12. My prayer is that the vision, treasure in Christ together will be big enough and bold enough and biblical enough and beautiful enough in relation to church planting and the lost and the poorest of the poor that you will embrace this vision and pray this vision and give this vision and delight in this vision. That's my prayer in response to reading what you read in this booklet. Some of us tremble not because it will cost so much but because it might be too small. The last three weeks or so, that's just about all I've been able to think about when I read my Bible. I'll just give you some texts that have been bang, bang, bang hitting me. For example, 2 Kings 13 where Elisha comes, Joash the king comes to Elisha, he's worried because the Assyrians are attacking, Elisha says open the window, he opened the window, Elisha says shoot an arrow out of the window, he shot an arrow out of the window and Elisha said death to the Assyrians and then Elisha said stamp your arrows on the ground and Joash took his arrows boom, boom, boom and he stamped three times on the ground and it says Elisha became angry and said you should have stamped five or six times now you will only defeat the Assyrians three times you might have made a full end of them. I do not want God to say that to me at the end of my life. You might have planted a thousand churches and you never even dreamed it. I don't want him to say that or I find texts like Isaiah 54 2. This is William Carey's text, you remember William Carey, a shoemaker, a nobody in England in 1792 and he reads this text and large the place of your tent, let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out, do not hold back, lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes, he read that and he went to India and he never came back for 40 years. He translated the Bible into 29 languages, he opened India to the gospel, an absolute nobody who happened to read a portion of scripture that said lengthen the cords of your tent, then I read that and I say oh God don't let me fall short of William Carey, don't let this church say oh I like this tent, oh I like this tent, don't want to miss those cords, don't want to miss those stakes. Oh how dangerous to start liking the way it is. You know what little motto he developed out of that, attempt great things for God, expect great things from God and the second clause is the ground of the first clause, otherwise you're legalist. Then I bump into texts like Romans 1519 from Jerusalem Paul says all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the gospel, that's from the bottom of Palestine near Egypt to the top of Italy Paul says I'm finished with my missionary work, I'm going to Spain, Timothy you finished the work here called evangelism, I'm doing missions in Spain. There is burning in this man's heart, something he read in Isaiah which says I will be a light to the nations and I will preach the gospel where the name of Christ has not yet been preached I prayed that fire burns in this church. Christmas is the most missionary time of the year, why? Christ crossed a culture from deity to humanity and it doesn't get any bigger or wider or harder. So Bethlehem, breed missionaries here, breed churches here, breed campuses here don't settle in spread or I bump into texts like 2 Thessalonians 3 1 the word of the Lord will run and be glorified and I bump into Matthew 28 19 make disciples I'll be with you I've got all authority and I bump into Ephesians 3 20 God is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that you ask or think and when I bump into all those texts or they bump into me I say Lord please please please don't let us have too small a vision this world is perishing nations are without Christ the twin cities right now how many percent are in church 20 30 40 hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people without Christ in the metro area in Christ together is a multiplying vision of new campuses and new churches that are independent from us and a global deaconate that pours money love care in the name of Jesus into the crises of the world among the poorest of the poor. It is not enough Bethlehem to love our doctrine and to love our God we must spread our doctrine and spread a passion for our God it is in our mission because it's in the Bible and we do not believe as elders that the way to fulfill that spreading mission is just to tell you Sunday after Sunday go witness to your neighbors because if God is pleased to come down with Pentecostal power upon your mouth guess what a neighbor might believe and if he believes he should go to church and worship with the people of God and should be trained up to become a mature disciple where's that going to happen if every one of you one one person to Jesus in the next year the church would double where you're going to put him that's not a high expectation therefore elders have the burden of not just telling you to witness but of planning how do you do this when you move from 1200 people in 97 to 3400 in 2004 how do you do this in our answer is we will not build a bigger sanctuary downtown we will multiply campuses and we will plant churches that's the plan while I live and while we have breath together as a people let's go to pages 6 and 7 that's the campus in pages and there you are north campus there's the picture of the new building plan you can go over and drive over and see it there's a great new banner on it over there at the corner of 35 W and highway 10 Kenny and I before we drove here this morning drove over there to see the banner it's great construction has begun God willing into May or so we won't have to Jerry rig the communion table and we will God willing lift Jesus up in mounds you in such a way that that building will come become obsolete so fast you will wonder why we ever bought it but the answer to that is not to move now the answer to that is to move in more thank you I just want to publicly thank you this is not being recorded like last night that's being shown downtown but I can just personally say thank you for your patience faithful Bethlehem people thank you for your patience what a what a good word you're delivering that we're gonna do this spreading thing called campus even though this isn't always idea we thank God for Northwestern college but oh thank you for what you've given and what you've been patient in waiting for and let's work and give and pray the downtown campus that's finished it is paid for it's the nerve center of the movement it will not be added to accept we have bought all the houses to the west down to master works and there's a dream there of a neighborhood ministry center I got all kinds of ideas of things that could be in there to bless the city downtown but as far as the sanctuary the size is designed for about 2,000 to 2,500 people that's all we plan to ever have there so how does that work if they win somebody to Jesus like maybe another 2,000 people this year it works by starting a south campus the staffing for the south campus is in this budget will present to you Wednesday night August is the possible date for the south campus Kenny will talk to you Wednesday night about where that might be what school what church amazing possibilities exist there to do that you think we're gonna stretch with this budget for the north campus and a zero the price is high let's go to page 13 nothing to hide here be up front blunt shocking page 13 the first 7 bullets in that box add up to $10,950,000 and then 20% of that is coming out 10 for church planting and 10 for global deaconate that has to be added on top of the 10 in order to pay the 10 so the bottom number is 13,687,500 that's why I talked in terms of 13 and a half million dollars church planting let's go to page 8 I think it is an amazing providence that the three churches you see listed there that we are presently engaged in funding are in Florida North Carolina and St. Paul God saying something to us there this movement of planting churches that is planting churches that are not just generic homogenous believe the minimum evangelical churches but are radically focused on the supremacy of God and are standing on the Bethlehem Baptist Church elder affirmation of faith with its 12 pages of the whole council of God that kind of churches we won't plant a church whose eldership does not embrace that document we are a doctrinal movement we're not into multiplying churches to see how many we can do we are into spreading a passion for the supremacy of God understood biblically in all of its full reformed implications that's what we're about and there's one called desire in God community church in Charlotte and we're about to have one in Orlando and Dwayne Gibbs is on his way in St. Paul who will be the next among you some of you are to do campusing some of you are to leave here and no longer be organizationally connected when we talk about single campuses we mean one church one eldership one affirmation of faith one budget one world mission one philosophy ministry and one uniting expository exultation called preaching done by video through a Saturday night recording that's the plan that's what holds the whole thing into one but we also do church planting by saying to people now go next year in all likelihood we will call somebody to be an apprentice or to hear they will work among us will pay them and will say gather yourself a troop and let's go plant a church somewhere and we'll do it other ways as well and the last thing and then we'll be done that page there page nine Scott Purse's picture what an amazing thing the global deaconate you've given about a million and a half dollars to TCT this year outside the budget 10% that means a hundred and fifty thousand of it is in the bank ready to bless the poorest of the poor under Scott's leadership as he detects around the world the kinds of crises where we can send teams or send money in the name of Jesus to alleviate suffering and I always add alleviate especially eternal suffering we're not about do good ism here we're about everlasting salvation and when you take somebody's broken body and lift it into health in the name of Jesus what you're doing is giving them a parable of the way God wants to do their soul and their body forever and ever we will say that I love the fact that 10% of our giving to TCT goes to church planting and 10% of it goes to the global deaconate among the poorest of the poor I love the fact that there's a prayer page in here where's that one 10 thank you the first prayer meeting referred to here we're going to undergird this movement with prayer the first TCT focused prayer meeting about eight other prayer meetings that lean on it but the full the focused one will be January 21st Friday night downtown let me close by a word about the funding I wrote a letter in here it's pages 11 through 13 and I hope that you'll read it but let me just sum up as we come to the end of this year how God might work you you you say what's the funding plan here the funding plan is to so preach the grace of God and so love the people of God and so be filled with the joy of God that second Corinthians nine eight will come true God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all contentment all sufficiency and all things at all times you may abound in every good work it happened in Macedonia and 2 Corinthians eight I want you to see the grace of God how in a severe test of affliction their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of liberality so if you say Piper what's what's the funding plan for 13 million dollars and six million dollars answer preach and lean on grace nurture overflowing joy in Jesus love each other authentically and give lavishly as God leads twice a year now that's what I'm doing and next May we'll say try extra hard to give to TCT and the way it works is this the elders voted that everything that comes into this church or Bethlehem after the budget will go to TCT anything you designate to TCT treasure in Christ together goes there but if you want to give lavishly to the budget of the church you don't have to worry that wow if they take you in a couple hundred thousand dollars more than they need they're just going to sit on it and make the pad fatter that's not what's going to happen rather once the budget is ended and completed everything else goes right to TCT so there are two options in front of you for loving this vision financially one is just designated for TCT here at the end of the year and go hard after TCT and then give what you would ordinarily give to the budget the other is to say I don't know how to divide it up like that I'm just going to give like crazy to the budget and when it's finished it's all going this way anyway so either one of those some people like to do one then some people like to do the other may God make this your prayer may God multiply campuses and may God plant new churches and may God bless in the name of Jesus the poorest of the poor so that in all these things we will spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples let's pray father in heaven I am thankful for Bethlehem I love this vision I love these leaders elders and staff that work alongside of me it is a high privilege to be a part of this team and I love your people I am amazed at the evidences of grace in their lives and I ask now as I have exhorted them to embrace the vision and as I have exhorted them to give to the vision that you would make grace abound at Bethlehem and that joy in Christ would well up in the hearts of all at Bethlehem and that lavish generosity would overflow out of this joy at Bethlehem and that treasuring Christ together would not only be a vision of campus multiplication church planting and global deaconate but would be the experience of our hearts it's all about spreading Lord it's all about spreading Jesus name I pray Amen. Thank you for listening to this message by John Piper pastor for preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis Minnesota feel free to make copies of this message to give to others but please do not charge for those copies or alter the content in any way without permission we invite you to visit desiring God online at www.desiringGod.org there you'll find hundreds of sermons articles radio broadcasts and much more all available to you at no charge our online store carries all of pastor John's books audio and video resources you can also stay up to date on what's new at desiring God again our website is www.desiringGod.org or call us toll free at 1-888-346-4700 our mailing address is desiring God 20601 East Franklin Avenue Minneapolis Minnesota 55406 desiring God exists to help you make God your treasure because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
John Piper | Beware of fearing a high price more than the possibility that God could be displeased that you didn't aim at something greater.