Where is Lifepoint?

Psalm 71: 17-18
O God, You have taught me from my youth, and I still declare Your wondrous deeds. And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me until I declare Your strength to this generation.

If I had one verse that I would consider a life verse it would be this one. I believe this verse sums up what many in the fellowship, called Lifepoint, originally joined together to do. To proclaim to this generation the wonders of our God.

So where is Lifepoint? Where have we been?  Where are we going? Sometimes, you have to know the past in order to understand the future.
  
When Lifepoint was first founded, our vision and motivation was to provide a life-giving-fellowship that would reach out to those “twenty-something’s” who, as young people, were connected to the church, but for one reason or another were now dis-connected and had lost there way.

As Lifepoint has grown over the years, it appeared that we had moved away from our original vision and purpose. Often I have asked the question, “Father what about the twenty-something’s? [which are now in their thirty’s]  Why have You held us back from accomplishing our original goal?” Until recently there had been no answer, but suddenly like a veil being removed, there it was I saw His answer!

One of the many lessons I’ve learned over my years in ministry, is that God seldom takes the straightest route to the intended destination. In fact, He often takes the long way around just as He did with the children of Israel, when He brought them out of slavery in Egypt.  Although they had left Egypt physically, God knew their hearts had not. God’s  ultimate “promised-land destination” now had to be postponed for a more important goal:
The goal of removing Egypt from their hearts.  There were lessons to be learned!
-The removal of their independent spirit and in its place put a complete trust in God and His ways.
-Their longing for the things of Egypt had to be replaced with the realization that God satisfies all the longings of the heart.
-They had to learn obedience; that God is a Holy God who does not condone sinful disobedience.
-That God loved them, would go before them, and provide for there every need.
-They had to be trained for battle, but not the typical types of battle preparation. Gods battle preparations.

  We at Lifepoint started out with a project in mind; something we felt that God wanted to accomplish through us. When one is learning to drive, it doesn’t take long to discover that a car has to be moving before it can be steered.  God got us moving by instilling in our hearts a burden to reach a generation that has lost its way. We decided on a specific target group when it now seems that the Lord had something much bigger in mind.
What is that something? I believe God is about delivering us from ourselves. The children of Israel had to first be delivered from Egypt, and God then had to remove Egypt from their hearts. The promised land was set aside until this was accomplished. Likewise He has a plan for us as individuals as well as the corporate body.
What is this plan?  In scripture, Egypt represents the world; its systems, traditions, politics, temptations and the earthly mindset that one can achieve, in one’s own power, without God. We, just like the children of Israel, must have Egypt [the world] removed from our hearts, in order for God to fulfill His purpose in and through us.

Francis Frangipane states:
What man calls “salvation” is simply the first stage of God’s plan for our lives: Which is to conform us in character and power into the image of Jesus Christ. If we fail to see our relationship to God as such we will allow too many areas within us to remain unchanged. Pulling down strongholds is the demolition and removal of our old ways of thinking, so that the actual presence of Jesus Christ can be manifested through us.

God’s plan is to make us into the likeness of His Son, and to make us into a people of God.  Aubry said it well last week when he said to a young man in our church who had just given his heart to the Lord, “The Christian life is an exchanged life. We exchange our mind for His mind, our faith for His faith, our desires and actions for His desires and actions. We not only believe in Christ we believe like him.
1. [Philippians 2:5]  “Have this attitude which was in Christ also.”  It literally means to take on the mind of Christ.
2. [Galatians 2:20] “I have been crucified with Christ: and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

I literally take on the faith of Christ. Faith and trust in Christ leads us to salvation, the faith of Christ transforms us to his image.

Francis Frangipane:
"We must allow the increase of His presence to be so absorbed into our spirits that we not only believe in Him, we believe like Him. His thoughts, His love, His desires flow out from within us, as naturally as fruit from a vine."    
 
That is the heart of God for you and me. In order for us to become the church He wants us to be, He has to transform us into the people He wants us to be. God is calling us to be conformed to the image of Christ because the more I’m conformed to His likeness; the more I have His heart. And the more I desire His heart, the more He can trust me and the more He trusts me, the more authority and power He makes available to me. And it’s in that place that I really become equipped to carry out the works He has created for me do. [Ephesians 2:10]  I believe these works are more than just handing out bottles of water on a hot day or candy to children at a public event. There’s nothing wrong with this for Jesus said that if you give a cup of water to the least of these it’s as though you have given it to me. However, I believe God is calling us to so much more. In the age to come there will be no room for random, independent, half committed believers.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it well when he said “When Christ bid a man come, He bids him come and die”

Die for what? Die to what? He is calling us to die to ourselves, in order that the fullness of His Spirit might flow through us like a river flowing at flood stage, uncontainable and somewhat dangerous. That is what Jesus spoke of when He said in John 7:38, “He who believes in me, as the scripture said, “from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” Are you walking in the fullness of the Spirit with the evidence of life-giving water gushing forth in an uncontainable fashion?

I use to find it offensive when people spoke of being filled with the Spirit verses those who are not.  It often seemed very condescending. But now I realize that throughout the book of Acts, the Scripture differentiates between believers filled with the Holy Spirit and those who are not. If the scripture characterizes believers in that way, then the question to be asked is, “Am I full of the Holy Spirit? And what evidences is there of that fullness?”  There will always be overwhelming evidences when a man or woman is walking in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.   

I’m no rocket scientist, but containing the force of a river is a difficult task. But when you direct that power or when the flow is harnessed it accomplishes incredible things that can power entire cities. What a comparison, Jesus makes here, He says that our lives will have the same force as that of a hard charging, barely containable river.
In order for the church to regain her influence over the culture of our day, in order to advance His Kingdom, we will have to collectively become a people walking in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, carrying out the very works of Jesus. We can no longer dismiss or rationalize Christ’s words in John 14:12 where Jesus says, “Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do: because I go to the Father.”

I am often asked “Mike how are things at Lifepoint?”  I usually respond, “Things are fine.” But what I long to say is what Jesus said to the disciples of John in Luke 7:22 when they asked, “Are you the one or should we look for another?” To which He replies, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard, the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

I believe God is longing for us to carry out these (and greater) works that Christ did for a people that desperately need His love displayed through a miraculous touch from Him. He will not give that authority and power to just any people. He will give it to those closest to his heart, who share his likeness.

What is the conclusion of all of this? Simply this, we started out to do one thing, God said, “Sure we can do that, but first, in order to accomplish this, we’re going to make a detour into the wilderness, because I have a few things to teach you. And when I know your prepared then we will attack that original dream you had.”

What’s the original dream? To declare to this generation the wonders of our God. And that, my friends, is exactly what He’s doing.

Where is Lifepoint? Like the children of Israel we stand looking across the Jordan and our future is before us. The question that begs to be asked is, “Will you join us in crossing over into the fullness Christ has for us and fight to take the land?” Or will you be left on the bank of the your familiarity? God is bringing those who have been away from Him back to Himself. This is evident because I prayed with two prodigals last week and baptized two river dwellers a few weeks ago. They’re not all “twenty something’s”,  but, oh well... the harvest is coming...are you coming too?