Illuminate Community Church

10/31/2021 - The House of God - Bigger Smaller Deeper - 1 Chronicles 29 - Pastor Jason Fritz

This Sunday marks an important day in the life of Illuminate. That little commitment card you received over the last two Sundays represents the work of God in our hearts. We are anticipating great things from the Illuminate family as we prayerfully consider what we will offer above and beyond our regular giving. The Bigger, Smaller, Deeper vision will be yet another, “Only God!” moment for us. As always, for His glory!

I am reminded of a beautiful prayer found in 1 Chronicles 29. It might surprise you to know the inspiration behind it. King David was getting old. He lived in a palace and yet God had no house of his own for the people to gather and worship. Before his death, he wanted to make this right. So he began by leading the way himself. He gave of his own resources and then the leaders gave afterward. This gave birth to excitement and a joy that fueled the people to give as well. The total amount for God’s house of worship - the temple, was raised in one day!

This causes David to break out in prayer…

“Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

“But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own. 1 Chronicles 29:10-16

Notice that David emphasizes more than once, “God, it all belongs to you.” Throughout this Bigger, Smaller, Deeper sermon series I’ve been trying to impress upon you this one fact: Giving is not about money, it’s never about money. It’s certainly not about what numbers you write on your commitment card. It’s not about building new space for kids, students, visitors and the expansion of outreach. It’s about your heart, your faith and your relationship with God. It’s about our commitment to the work of God in the Valley and even throughout the world. If we have trouble with our giving, it’s probably because we’ve never figured out that everything comes from God. We don’t own a thing. It’s all loaned to us and someday God will take it all back.

I read the story of a pastor who gave a powerful sermon titled, “God’s Ownership” and it rubbed a wealthy congregant the wrong way. The wealthy man invited the pastor to visit his house and then walked him through his palatial estate and said, “Now are you going to tell me,” he demanded when the tour was completed, “that all this land does not belong to me?” The pastor smiled and replied, “Ask me that same question a hundred years from now.”

If everything belongs to God and if he owns it all then there is no need for you to worry about your stuff, because it is not your stuff. It is all his stuff. You will find real contentment and real satisfaction, both in God and in life, when you finally realize that God owns everything, controls everything, and provides everything.

10/24/2021 - Kingdom Investing - Bigger Smaller Deeper - Matthew 25:14-30 - Pastor Jason Fritz

By now you’ve probably heard me say several times, "Illuminate’s desire is to be a gift to our city,” and “We want to make disciples and take as many people to heaven with us as possible!” This Saturday night we are praying for our biggest outreach event yet at Treat Street. Only God can make this happen. Likewise, our Bigger, Smaller, Deeper future vision is God-sized. To make this happen we need to be on our knees in prayer and we need to understand that we are stewards. A steward is the "ward" of what belongs to someone else.

A wise pastor put it this way: "Stewardship is not about occasional acts of generosity, or now and then making contributions to good causes. It's not even about money - it goes deeper than that. The core of stewardship is seeing things differently . . . seeing everything with new eyes."

It's not complicated. In fact, Jesus tells a story about it in Matthew 25. The point is this: We must realize that everything we have - our existence, our life, our goods no matter how we got them - all come from God and belong to God, and we are stewards of these things. Once we see it this way, we live it this way. We administer well God's goods on behalf of God. That's what stewardship is. 

When we die, God will ask us, "Well, how did you do in administering everything I gave you?" Imagine how off-base it would be if it turns out we spent our whole life thinking all these things belonged to us. You can count on it; God will not reward us for being misers.

Christians should be generous…and more.

It's an interesting word, “generosity." It comes from the Latin word "birth," and at its root it means "someone of noble birth". It can, without us intending it, carry the implication of bestowing some of our own riches on other people. Now that is not all bad, but what we need to do is move beyond generosity - as though we were giving away what rightfully belongs to us by birth or however we got it. What we all need to do is go beyond generosity and arrive at stewardship - the realization that it all belongs to God, no matter how we got it, and we are administering it on God's behalf.

In the end, we want to hear from Jesus, “Well done good and faithful steward, enter into the joy of your master!”

10/17/2021 - Generosity - Bigger, Smaller, Deeper - Pastor Jason Fritz

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

It’s not like Jesus needs money. It’s not like he’s poor and has to take out a loan. The truth is, the money is already his because he is God and God owns everything.

Jesus gave several powerful sermons and parables about giving and generosity and never once did he say to his disciples: "Now pass the plate.” He’s not after the money, he’s after your heart and your money is the quickest way to your heart. We know this to be true in our own lives. We spend money on what we value and what we’re passionate about. Our heart follows our money and our money follows our heart. So when we are intentional about giving to God what we’re saying is, “Our hearts are following you God, just look at where our money goes." It goes not to the temporary happiness of yet another purchase, but toward that which has eternal consequence.

When we started our Bigger, Smaller, Deeper vision series I began by saying this will be a journey of transformation. No better way to have your heart transformed than to evaluate its' affections. Those affections are made tangible by following the money.

Thankfully, we have the example of a generous first century church in the city of Philippi. Yes it’s true, words like “joy" and "cheerful” are the consequences of giving to the God whom you cannot possibly outgive. Think of God’s generosity toward you by sending his son to give you eternal life! The Illuminate family has all we need to accomplish the future vision of the church. That’s the good news. So there remains a challenge for each of us to speak with God and ask him, “What is my part?"

10/10/2021 - Serving at Illuminate - Bigger, Smaller, Deeper - Pastor Jason Fritz

Shortly after WWII came to a close, Europe began picking up the pieces. Much of the old country had been ravaged by war and was in ruins. Perhaps the saddest sight of all was that of orphaned children starving in the streets. Boys and girls walking around in the bitter cold searching for food after losing their parents. Early one chilly morning a US soldier was making his way back to the barracks in London. As he turned the corner in his Jeep, he spotted a little boy with his nose pressed against the window of a pastry shop. Inside the cook was making a fresh batch of dough for the doughnuts. The hungry boy stared there in silence, watching every move. The soldier pulled his Jeep to the curb, got out and walked quietly over to the little guy was standing. Through the steamed up window he could see these mouth watering doughnuts, piping hot, coming out of the oven. The boy salivated and released a slight grown as he watched the cook place them on the counter. “Son, would you like some of those?” The boy was startled. “Oh yeah, I would!” The soldier walked inside and bought a dozen and stuffed them in a bag. He walked up to the boy and with a big smile said, “Here you go.” As he walked away he felt a tug on his coat, the boy looked up at him and said, “Are you God?” 

We are never more like God than we selflessly serve another person. Read the words of Jesus as he explains his purpose for coming to the earth...

"...even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28.
 
His purpose is our purpose…

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

Serving others is good work. This is the reason why God created us, gifted us, and saved us so that we can be a blessing to others. Serving gives you life here and now and God will reward you in the life to come. The question is - What are you going to do about it? If you’re not serving others, then it’s simply a matter of not following God’s plan for your life. By his grace, God continues to draw people to Illuminate. This means we have many opportunities for you to bless others. So, if you’ve been on the bench it’s time to get in the game. We won’t be all that we can be without you!

10/3/2021 - Bigger, Smaller, Deeper - Outreach At Illuminate - Matthew 25:31-40; James 1:22-25 - Pastor Jason Fritz

The heart of Illuminate from day one has been to serve our community and beyond. Five years ago my garage was the drop off center as we collected basic necessities for orphans and refugees. 

Today we have nine local outreach partners and seven international outreach partners. The Illuminate family has provided a mobile kitchen to feed and minister to the homeless and also a bus for Teen Challenge which among other things, they use to join us for services. We do this because anyone who claims the name of Jesus must have the heart of Jesus and he came not to be served but to serve. He is our leader and our example in all things. But there’s something more going on than what you might realize. According to Jesus, when you show moral kindness to others, especially your fellow Christians, it’s like showing kindness to Jesus himself. In Matthew chapter 25 Jesus speaks of a future judgement of the nations. And here’s what he says...

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Matthew 25:31-40

Did you notice this judgment is based solely on one’s moral kindness toward those in need? There’s at least three things to take away from Jesus’ words…

1. We cannot afford to be indifferent towards Jesus and His return. 
2. We can’t afford to be indifferent towards the resources that God gives us. 
3. We can’t afford to be indifferent towards the needy people all around us.

We have a really big goal ahead of us church. What if we sent 500 Jesus ambassadors from Illuminate to serve our city in one week? That’s what we want during Illuminate Serve Week November 6-13. Together, we’ve been praying, “God what do you want to do IN me and what do you want to do THROUGH me?” Serving our city is part of the answer!

9/26/2021 - Deeper - The Portrait of a Disciple - Luke 14:26-33 - Pastor Jason Fritz

Over the last two Sundays I have shared the future vision of Illuminate with three simple words: Bigger, Smaller, Deeper. We read about the promise of Jesus to build His church. Because of this, we want to accommodate all those He brings through our doors. As Jesus grows his church the challenge is to stay connected to each other. This is why we want to grow smaller. This was the model Jesus himself used. Yes, Jesus was in a small group. Small groups are the lifeblood of the church. It’s where the “one another’s” of the Christian life take place. Smaller gatherings allow our spiritual roots to deepen so that we can become disciples. “Deeper" is all about becoming a fully devoted follower of Jesus.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” -Matthew 28:19-20

Simply put, a disciple is a learner of someone else. The Greek word used in the New Testament is mathetas and it describes someone who follows in the footsteps of another. Ancient Rabbis said that a good disciple is covered by the dust of his teacher. This is why God put you on this planet. The fact is, we are all followers of someone, even if that someone is yourself. However, when we are covered in the dust of our Rabbi Jesus, our lives will never be the same. We’ve been asking God this simple question: “God, what do you want to do IN us and THROUGH us?” The answer begins with becoming a disciple!

9/19/2021 - Stop Attending and Start Engaging - Acts 2:46-47; Matthew 26:36-46 - Pastor Jason Fritz

Five years ago, when the church began to meet, we needed a name. We knew we wanted to have something that stated who we are and what we do. I’ve always loved the many metaphors of light that are used all throughout the Bible. The word "Illuminate" means to make something visible by shining the light on it: Illuminate Community Church. Community describes a group of people that have something in common. Of course, we have the greatest foundation upon which community is built. The sacrificial death of Jesus. 

This is why we want to grow smaller, because smaller is about building community. I find that a lot of Christians will talk about what you need to know, not who you need to be with. We’re too often concerned only with conversion and information download, and we fail to participate in the life of community and relationship-based discipleship. You see, if we get the relationships right, the information will follow. If we connect people in smaller, gospel-centered communities, they will grow spiritually. When we preach the gospel to one another in close-knit community, there is spiritual growth that changes us individually and as a whole. This change gives us an outward focus and encourages gospel transformation in places beyond our walls. This was the pattern of the early church…

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:46-47

I’ll admit, years ago I was the guy who didn’t see the need for community. For a long time I did not participate. And then I realized that Jesus was in a small group. Why? Because the Bible says it’s not good for us to be alone. Jesus is the example in all things. Genesis tells the story of God creating the world and everything in it and declares it all good. He creates Adam and then we hear God say, “It is not good...for man to be alone.” And Eve is created. However, many have mistakenly believed that if we are really mature, we don’t need anyone, we can be totally self-feeding and not dependent on others. Only the weak need somebody. That’s not true. Jesus had close friends, in fact three of these were very close. Jesus shared the most challenging moment of his life with Peter, James, and John in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus needed another to carry his cross. He spent all of his ministry life with a small group. Don’t you think that if it was the pattern of his life it should be the pattern for you too?

9/12/2021 - I Will Build My Church - Matthew 16:18 - Pastor Jason Fritz

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18

This verse forms the foundation for the future vision of Illuminate. We should never forget that Jesus has made this a promise. In other words, the church will be built because Jesus has all authority. Notice carefully who does the building. It rests solely upon Jesus himself. It is ultimately dependent on the power and wisdom and faithfulness of the risen and living Christ to keep this promise: "I will build my church." Not, "You will build my church." Or, "Missionaries will build my church." Or, "Pastors will build my church." But, "I will build my church."

I don’t think a church can follow the command of Christ to make disciples without a growth mindset. At Illuminate, we value people and we lift up Jesus. Because of this, people will be attracted to us. As the church grows the culture is transformed. Growth keeps us from being inwardly focused. Growth gives more people the opportunity to serve God. Growth increases our influence in our city and beyond. This week we begin a five-week look into the future of Illuminate Community Church. We have three words we use to describe this: Bigger (greater influence for Christ) Smaller (moving from attending to engaging) and Deeper (becoming a disciple). Join me on this journey of spiritual transformation as we ask God - "What do you want to do IN and THROUGH me?"

9-5-2021 - Almost Christian - Acts 24-25 - Pastor Jason Fritz

It all comes down to this. Paul has had three separate trials with not one guilty verdict because he is innocent. Yet the powers that be don’t want to offend the Jews. So another trial is offered in the hostile city of Jerusalem. Paul avoids this by appealing to Caesar. In case you’re wondering, that would be the infamous Emperor Nero. One of the all-time preeminent killers of Christians. So why would Paul make this deal? From a human perspective Paul made a mistake. If only he wouldn’t have appealed to Caesar he would have been set free. Paul knew exactly what he was doing. A couple years earlier, Jesus told him this:

“Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.” Acts 23:11 

In the Roman court of Caesar, Paul will have the opportunity to preach to the most powerful man in the world at this time. Indeed, as Jesus told him earlier, “You will be my witness to Kings.” In Acts chapters 24 and 25 there are no converts in Paul’s preaching. Paul was told to be a witness, he was not told to make Christians. Christians are born through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I was thinking about how each church has its own personality. Each church has something they are known for. I think one thing people would say about Illuminate is that we teach the Bible and we love others. In all of our ministries throughout the church I know this is true. So we will attract people who want to know what the Bible says and that’s a really good thing. But there is a warning for a church like ours. 

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. James 1:22

Paul’s trials remind us of our calling. You see, every one of us is called to be a witness. We do that through our lifestyle and our words. It’s our testimony accompanied with the fact of the resurrection. 

We are about to embark on an amazing journey together as a church family. Beginning Sunday, September 12th, I’ll be rolling out what this looks like as I share the future vision of the church. We refer to it as "Illuminate 2.0." Our first five years gave us the opportunity to grow and discover our personality and now is the time to mature by having the entire church family put our collective personality into practice. We’re not just hearers of the Word, we are doers!

8/29/2021 - Deus Pro Nobis - Acts 23-24

Paul has finished his missionary journeys and is now in Jerusalem. Everything he has tried to do since he came to Jerusalem has ended in a riot. He tried to satisfy the Jewish Christians by purifying himself in the temple and paying the expenses of four men who had taken a vow; that ended in a riot. He tried to share the story of what God had done in his life to the Jewish crowd in the temple court, and that ended in a riot. He tried to testify before the Jewish Council, the Sanhedrin, and that ended in a riot. Now in Acts 23-24, we find that Paul is under Roman protective custody – almost a prisoner. The Jews are putting together a plot to assassinate him, and he’ll soon end up defending himself before the evil Antonius Felix – for two years! But God will, once again as he has several times before, in His providence protect Paul. 

The events of Acts 23-24 highlight God’s “providence.” The actual word is not found in the Bible, but the doctrine of providence is very biblical. The term means: "the universal sovereign rule of God." It is God’s preserving and governing of all His creatures and all their actions. One scholar puts it this way: “This is our Father’s world, and the affairs of men and nations, in the final analysis, are in His hands.” 

It doesn’t look too good for Paul in human terms. But God wants Paul and us to rest in His providence. That’s why Jesus comes to “stand by” Paul and encourage him in Acts 23:11. Paul gets the message and later on, in Romans 8:28-39, Paul gives us one of the most awesome statements ever made on providence (please read it before Sunday). 

One of the oldest sayings of the ancient church summarizes the essence of God’s providence: Deus pro nobis. It means “God for us.” That is what it is all about. It is God’s being for His people. “What then shall we say to these things?” Paul asks. “If God is for us, who can be against us, and who can separate us from the love of Christ?” Can an angry Jewish mob? Can an evil provincial governor? Can COVID? Can the loss of a job? Can unforeseen illness or tragedy? Can a broken relationship with your spouse or child separate you from God’s providential care? The answer may be clear to us. How He wants us to respond in the midst those circumstances is revealed through our passage.