This is a standalone sermon celebrating 15 years as a church family. You can watch more sermons here.
Sermon Manuscript
Let’s start with how we started. Our church family started with 17 adults sitting in our living room, probably had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.
Many of those people have moved on to serve the Lord in other churches around the world but we still have a few with us from the very beginning. We all rallied around this vision:
North Village Church is a family who places Jesus at the center of our lives so that it moves us to chase after every man, woman, and child in Greater Austin to experience the life-transforming power of Jesus Christ.
That’s our vision. I know that’s a long vision, and maybe a little abstract, so here’s another way to see our vision.
Who we ARE: We are a family, centered on Jesus so that we chase after others for His glory.
What we DO: We live godly lives that reflect His Word.
We commit to our church family.
We are soft-hearted about repentance.
We invite God’s Word to shape our decisions.
We pursue people who are far from Jesus.
We are spirit-led as we hold life with an open hand.
We want to grow in our faith and help others do the same.
What will we SEE: We will see a love for our church family, city and the world!
We will see a commitment to Sunday morning worship.
We will see a commitment to serving at least 1x a month on Sunday morning.
We will see where we live, work and play as supernatural opportunities for His glory!
We will see a variety of backgrounds engaged in our church family.
We will see people who are open-handed and generous with their resources.
How we Do what we Do: Sunday mornings / Groups / LWP.
We want to see Sunday mornings done with excellence.
We want to hear and see stories of life change in our groups.
We want to hear and see stories of spiritual conversations where we live, work and play.
That’s who we ARE, what we DO, what we want to SEE, and a little bit of HOW we want to get there. To help us accomplish our vision we focus on three areas every three years as we rotate through those areas; Jesus, Community and Church Family.
The last 12 months we have been focused on our relationships with Jesus as we leaned into “Embolden” as a church in Austin. We were asking the Lord to help grow in boldness and courage in our faith in Jesus.
As elders we noticed there was a lack of confidence in our church family around our faith in Jesus, so we asked the Lord to help us make three commitments:
IMBEDDED IN SCRIPTURE: When we know God’s Word, we are more confident in our faith. Right? We invited our church in Austin to memorize God’s Word and from the texting responses alone we know we had 38 men and women receiving these texts to help us memorize God’s Word together as a church in North Austin.
Let’s invite X to come and share what that experience has been like for them.
Listen to me, this might sound simple but if you see yourself shrinking back from your faith in Jesus at work, school or with friends, start reading God’s Word and memorizing God’s Word, and I promise you will grow in confidence in your faith.
INCREASED IN PRAYER: We also wanted to grow in our commitment to prayer, because when we are talking to God, the more we will know God, and the stronger we will be in our relationship with God.
Over the last 12 months we have invited our church in north Austin to take steps toward prayer Prayer and Worship we provide every quarter, prayer at the back during worship, people praying over one another, First Sunday Prayer, Prayer Tent on Anderson Ln. and we invited people into Fasting and Prayer.
Let’s invite X to come and share what that experience has been like for them.
Listen to me, if you are struggling with confidence in your faith, set aside time each day to pray. If you aren’t sure what prayer looks like practically, then ask someone, “Will you help me?” I promise prayer will help you grow in confidence in your faith.
INVESTED IN PEOPLE: We also know when we are closer to one another, it helps us grow closer to the Lord.
Let’s invite X to come and share what that experience has been like for them.
Over the last year we had 9 groups of men and women meeting to share their life stories with one another in the fall and then challenge one another in their faith in the spring.
We understand relationships are messy. We understand relationships are complicated but the opportunity of close relationships with others is one of our strengths as a church in Austin. I promise, when we are closer to one another it will produce a greater boldness in our faith in Jesus.
These last 12 months have been a whirlwind! We’ve seen new people connect with our non-denominational church in Austin. We’ve challenged ourselves financially as a church in Austin, which we will do again this year!
We’ve responded to challenges with prayer. We’ve launched a volunteer staff team! If you haven’t heard, we’ve paused our Ministry Leaders and put our focus on Sunday morning worship, Kids Village and First Impression which Jas, Chelsea and Mindy are leading.
And throughout it all, we see a deeper boldness of faith in our church in north Austin. I hear about us trusting in the Lord as we navigate challenges in our family, navigate legal decisions, navigate conflict with one another and it’s because our confidence is in the Lord.
Especially as we enter into an election year where it’s so easy to get swept up in the news, but we are turning from those things and putting our confidence in the Lord. Praise God! Praise God! Let’s look at where we are going.
The focus of our next year is our relationship with chasing after others for God’s glory! We went with this language, “Immovable: Standing Firm in the Faith” because it’s a reminder that we have a strong foundation in Jesus and we want to invite others into that strong foundation as well.
I get it, our faith in Jesus has been high-jacked by political conversation, which makes it easy to feel like we should shrink back and hope we never find ourselves in a spiritual conversation with friends, neighbors or co-workers, but God’s Word calls us to Stand Firm in the Faith!
A few weeks ago, I was talking with someone about faith in Jesus and they said, “I don’t think about those things. I just enjoy life.” I said, “That makes sense, but that also makes you a bit greedy.” He said, “What do you mean?”
I said, “You wouldn’t come into my house and eat my food, enjoy my comforts, enjoy my provisions and never acknowledge me.” You would never do that in my house but meanwhile you are taking all His gifts, His provisions, His comforts, enjoying them and never acknowledging Him.” It’s a bit greedy!
This is the attitude we need to have as a church family. This city is His city. This world is His world. This Word is His Word and there is life and goodness in His Word, so that we are prayerfully looking for opportunities to invite people into His Word.
I know that makes some of us uncomfortable but God’s Word teaches us that the world hated Jesus and the world will hate us (John 15).
Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are mocked, persecuted and falsely accused (Matthew 5). Jesus calls us to give up our earthly treasure, earthly pleasure, and earthly leisure, so that we might follow Him! (Matthew 28). Galatians 2 teaches us to die to ourselves and live for Christ!
Therefore, we are asking the Lord to help us become IMMOVABLE in Him over the next 12 months in the following areas:
READING GOD’S WORD EVERYDAY: We love God’s Word. God’s Word lifts our eyes off our limitations and onto the limitless power in Christ.
Matthew 28, “Go make disciples of all the nations.”
1 Peter 3, “Always be prepared to make a defense of our faith.”
1 Corinthians 2, “I did not come to you with lofty speech or wisdom, because I know nothing except Jesus.”
Matthew 9, “The harvest is plentiful.”
Therefore, we are inviting our church family to commit to reading God’s Word every day. Texting seems to be a good fit for our church family, so you can text EVERYDAY to 877-664-5381 and we will send out weekly reminders and encouragements to get into God’s Word every day.
RISK ORIENTED FAITH: In addition, we are asking the Lord to help us take some risks in sharing our faith in Jesus with others.
God’s Word invites us to seek out opportunities for spiritual conversations where we live, work and play. Therefore, we are inviting our church family to commit to seeking out spiritual conversations every day.
The easiest push back on something like this is, “I need more training. I need more bible. I need to be stronger in my faith.”
No, you don’t. We’re so educated in our culture. We don’t need more resources. We need go! If you want resources and support, we can get you those things but also, we think the Holy Spirit in us is stronger than anything this world has to offer, so just “Go!” Here’ a simple grid to start this process:
Will you start asking the Lord give you an open heart to seek out spiritual conversations?
Will you simply write down the people in your life? Make note of the names of the people where you live, work and play on a weekly or monthly basis. (I’ve been doing this with people at open mics.)
Will you pray for those people? Will you pick 2 people and pray for them every day? (When we pray for people we are more likely to talk to those people about spiritual things.)
Will you consider sharing your testimony with someone? (30 seconds or 30 minutes)
Would you consider inviting someone to worship on Sunday morning? (Studies show that 80% of the people we invite to Sunday morning would come.)
Will you find someone to share the gospel and invite them to trust in Jesus? (How many followers of Jesus have never invited someone to trust in Jesus? What if at the end of the 12-months every person in our church family has invited someone to trust in Jesus?)
Listen to me, we live in a spiritually exciting city. People are moving here from all over the world and in my experience, people are spiritually curious about Jesus and the Bible.
People might know references but they don’t know the bible. People don’t know why Jesus died on a cross. People don’t understand why Jesus is important, and you guys could all pay me so that I go out and have those conversations with people, and I don’t think that’s what we see in Scripture.
Or, what I think we see in Scripture is that all followers of Jesus are invited, commanded to go and care for people, pray for people and invite them to live in His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
REJOICING EVERY DAY: Lastly, rejoicing every day.
God’s Word invites us to see His goodness every day (James 1:17-18).
Therefore, we are inviting our church in Austin to look for God’s blessing every day. You can participate in this commitment by emailing instances of His grace in our life to [email protected] throughout the year, so that these stories will be collected and shared anonymously.
Our prayer is that throughout the year we can go to this page and see a whole list of His grace captured in our church family throughout the year.
It can be stories of less traffic on a drive to work. Provisions for our church family. Protection for our country. Accomplishing a goal at school or work. Reconciling through conflict. Reading God’s Word. Sharing the gospel. Big or small we want to be on the lookout for His grace in our life every day!
Listen to me, I can’t stress this enough. I have this unusual gift where the Lord is doing thousands of things in my life but I can only focus on the 2-3 things He isn’t doing, so that I conclude, “God’s not working in my life.” We need this!
This is where we are going as a non-denominational church in Austin. We are trusting if we are in God’s Word, seeing His grace, we are going to be more likely to invite others to know Jesus, so that as a church family we see and hear stories of Jesus changing our lives and the lives of the people around us.
I don’t know if this is hokey but as I prayed for this year I kept having this vision of a jar with white rocks, so that every Sunday we show up we grab some for every day we read God’s Word, every step we take on risky faith, and every time we see God’s grace, so that on Sunday we might grab 8-10-15 pieces of rock and put them in the jar, so that throughout the year we would see this visual growth of a people who are “Immovable: Standing firm in the faith.”
It’s possible you might be thinking, “How does all this happen financially?” It happens through the people of North Village giving cheerfully, willfully and sacrificially:
We have navigated a lot of transition these last 12-months, so that our elders are taking a big step of faith again this next year.
We could pull back and play it safe but we wanted to take a bold step, so that we anticipate having to lean on our savings this next year.
Financial Slide: October 2024-September 2025
Budget: $33K ($31K)
Giving: Averaging $5K a month deficit with our current budget.
Reserve: $150K
I know we have new people in our church family who are still learning about North Village Church, so the easiest way for me to describe who we are and where we are going is that we love Jesus and His Word. That’s never going to change!
We don’t care who wins in November. We don’t care if our economy collapses. We don’t care about climate change. We don’t care about immigration reform. We don’t care if Roe v. Wade gets reinstated.
It doesn’t mean those things don’t matter. It doesn’t mean we don’t fight for and against things to improve or change but it means at the foundation of our soul we are going to be grounded in Jesus and His Word.
The word “immovable” isn’t about North Village Church or even about people in our church but that the hope of our salvation is immovable because we are standing firm in Jesus and His Word.
And where we are going is to help followers of Jesus know Jesus and His Word. It isn’t about getting thousands of people in this room. It isn’t about reaching thousands of people around the world.
It’s simply helping followers of Jesus know Jesus and His Word, so that we want to help others know Jesus and His Word, so that they want to help others know Jesus and His Word, because at this stage of my life that is what’s most important.
Careers are going to come and go. Our physical health is going to come and go. Our political party is going to come and go. Our possessions are going to come and go. Our loved ones are going to come and go, so that Jesus, His Word, and His people are what’s most important for all of life. That will never change!
Listen to me, we live in a spiritually exciting city. People are moving here from all over the world and in my experience, people are spiritually curious about Jesus and the Bible.
People might know references but they don’t know the bible. People don’t know why Jesus died on a cross. People don’t understand why Jesus is important, and you guys could all pay me so that I go out and have those conversations with people, and I don’t think that’s what we see in Scripture.
Or, what I think we see in Scripture is that all followers of Jesus are invited, commanded to go and care for people, pray for people and invite them to live in His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
REJOICING EVERY DAY: Lastly, rejoicing every day.
God’s Word invites us to see His goodness every day (James 1:17-18).
North Village Church
This sermon is brought to you by North Village Church, a non-denominational church in Austin. established in 2009 and built around Jesus and Bible teaching.
Are you looking for a church in Austin? At North Village Church we put Jesus at the center of our church family. We worship together every Sunday at 10:30am, encourage Christ centered fellowship through groups, and host special events such as Bible studies and Theological Training, to ensure that we are rooted in in God’s Word. We also serve our local community in association with several Austin based organizations.
North Village Church is made up of professionals, married couples, singles, and families who are wanting to experience the life-transforming power of Jesus. If you are a family with children or teens, we can support you with either or both our Kids Ministry and Youth Ministry.
You are welcome to contact us if you would like more information.
NVC Online
Unable to attend this Christian Church in Austin? Don’t worry, because, through God’s provision, we have created NVC online, an Online Church streaming a worship service every Sunday from 10:30am Central Time. You can also watch our short, powerful sermons on demand and follow us on Instagram for daily Christ centered content.