Discipleship · Position · Mission · Vision

Jim Clements · Tidal Church Moncton · February 16, 2025 · Hope Is Rising series

Jim Clements explains Tidal Church's Wesleyan roots, vision and mission through 1 Peter 1, John 17 and Romans 12. He shows how holiness, transformation and discipleship shape one whole life, so that more people can know Jesus and hope can rise.

More from Jim Clements · The Hope Is Rising series

Topics: Mission & Outreach, Discipleship, Vision

Transcript

[0:00] Have you ever been in a place where you didn't know what was going on and you didn't know all that was happening, but you tried to just kind of fit in and make it look like you belong there? I was one time at an NHL hockey game with a friend of mine, and we found ourselves in this really nice place where the food was really good and they had nice seats to watch the game. And I was like, I don't know what this is all about. I've never seen seats like this and food like this. Like, just, let's just pretend like we're go along with the flow kind of thing. And so we ordered food and we sat down, but shortly after, someone came and told us that, well, you're not supposed to be here, and we had to go to our normal spot. But see, 'cause there's places in the world that they'll push you out of and say you're not welcome.

[0:50] But for us as a church, all people are welcome when they're seeking God. And so for me, when I arrived here 45 years ago as a 15-year-old whose parents was, were moving from Corner Brook, Newfoundland, to Moncton, I was moving to the big city, to me, 25,000 to a hundred thousand. Then I was like, whoa, I dunno if I can handle this. And I was raised Salvation Army my whole life, and then we came to a Wesleyan church and I was like, what's a Wesleyan? Is it Wesley and Anne, or is it like three people, or is it just Wesley? And I didn't know until I began to learn. And we have such a rich history for us, and maybe you're one of those people that have found your way to here.

[1:37] God's brought you here, or you've been watching online and you've become part of it. And we went through rebranding, if you remember, and we rebranded the church and with a new name because we're going to multiple places, and we took the word Wesleyan out of our name, and it's not because we didn't want it there or didn't wanna identify that we were Wesleyan. It was very important to us. We didn't want it to be the first question. We wanted the first question to be about God and seeking Jesus as Lord and Savior. And so what we did, because we wanted to honor it, we in the rebranding put the first thing first and we came up with this position statement.

[2:22] It says, we are Wesleyan in intentional pursuit of holiness, biblical social justice, evangelism, and transformative faith in Jesus. That is who we are as Wesleyans. We identify with a rich history that goes all the way back to John Wesley, who has a legacy of faith and our roots in the holiness movement that came through the lives of many people. The heart and the calling of a desire to live out God's commandments to be holy because He is holy Himself. This morning we're gonna explore this statement and our vision and mission statements as well, as we embrace the heritage that we have as Wesleyans that have led to many transformed lives in Jesus and disciples who have followed Christ throughout.

[3:15] John Wesley, just so you know, was driven from every pulpit and every church. As his ministry expanded, he was considered to be different. He was a preacher who was seeking God and in a moment in time had an experience with the Holy Spirit that he referred to as he felt strangely warmed. See, John Wesley decided that he was gonna preach and reach everyone, not a certain class of people, but everyone, even down to his time with the people that were just considered the common folk, that they would find out about the transformative power of Jesus Christ. He thought at that time that transformation for people's lives was now, and Tidal Church believes that the transformation for people's lives is now and for others is now, so part of the foundations that we built upon.

[4:09] When we look at, as followers of Christ, how do we live and share our faith is 1 Peter. It says, as obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you have when you lived in ignorance, but just as He who called you to be holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written, be holy because I am holy. Holiness is not an abstract thing, it's a tangible call to action, live differently because of the One who called you. Holiness is God's filling to us. Holiness is just not about a personal state or an accomplishment that you get to check off on the list. It's how we engage with God every day and then with the world, how we engage, how to be pure and holy is our goal.

[5:04] The Old Testament, there's plenty of stories in there about people seeking to be pure and holy, and even in sometimes they thought they could die in the presence of God if they weren't considered to be found pure and holy. We look at the priests in Leviticus who would go through such, such tasks and steps to make sure that they could enter into the Holy of Holies that Aaron shared about us and surely not die when they would be in the presence of God. Moses, when he was in the presence of God, removed his sandals and covered his face to protect him when he was in the Holy of Holies with God. Then we see visions that happen to see how the holiness moves in and through us as a holiness movement. When we look at Isaiah and a scene in Isaiah 6 comes in and touches a hot white coal to his lips and that and the whole coal turns 'em white with purity.

[6:02] Ezekiel has a vision of water flowing from a structure and down amongst the people, and then from the people themselves is this truly pure and living water utter becoming pure and being pure is transferring of what Jesus is as the Holy to ourselves. See, in the Old Testament, if he would've believed that the disease and the impurities, like they believe that to be washed away and gone, then nobody would touch because they're too afraid of spreading it. But see, for Jesus, He is so pure and He is so holy that when He, we experience Him as our Lord and Savior and He touches our lives, it pushes everything in us out that is not pure and holy because where He exists, nothing else can exist.

[7:00] So it is a full surrender when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior so that we can experience the fullness of what He has planned for us. It's not a ritual, it's not something that you kind of do on an exercise bike or something else. It's a way of life. It's a way of life that the living water that flows into us from Jesus and out of us impacts other people. John, in chapter 7, says, anyone who believes in me may come and drink, for the Scriptures declare, rivers of living water will flow from his heart. Remember the woman who touched the tassel of Jesus' robe and she was healed and she thought, and remember how it just immediately happened in Luke, it can be found, and Jesus says, who touched me?

[7:58] Jesus asked. Everyone denied it and Peter said, Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against You. But Jesus said, someone deliberately touched me, for I felt the power go from me. Jesus said, I felt it go out from me. When we experience the presence of Jesus in our lives, the purity and holiness and the power goes into us and pushes out, if we're in full surrender, everything that can't exist in His presence. It is about holiness and purity. Jesus filling us top to bottom in every aspect of our life and every channel, every path where there's no room for anything else.

[8:51] When we look at our biblical social justice, we look at the Wesleyan tradition that has always emphasized biblical social justice, recognizing that our faith is to lead us to care for others as we love Jesus and He loves us. In return, we are to care for others. Consider this in Psalm 82. Defend the weak and the fatherless. Uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. And in Isaiah, learn to do right, seek justice, defend the oppressed, take up the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widows. Throughout history, the Wesleyan Church and Wesleyans have been part of biblical social movement. For a long time, we were part of helping to abolish slavery as a church and as a movement, when Orange Scott, a Methodist Wesleyan pastor, who led us in that direction.

[9:47] But also there was a time when women weren't allowed in ministry, and the Wesleyan Church stood and said, "We believe that God can call and ordain women in ministry." And it was the courage of Luther Lee, who spoke for the first time at the ordination service of the first woman to ever be ordained, and that happened in New York. That is what the Wesleyan movement is about. That is what we are about when it comes to biblical social justice. Our question that we have to ask ourselves every time something arises, because the term social justice has gotten watered down to include so many things, that we believe in biblical social justice and we ask this question: Does this bring people closer to God, towards accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior?

[10:40] Our commitment to justice is not a separate calling from our holiness. It's a reflection of our holiness as we live out our life. During the civil rights movement in the US and other places, the church was pretty well absent. It didn't speak out that much when it was going on, and we should have, but we didn't. And Dr. King had a great saying. It says, "In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies, but we will remember the silence of our friends." The church will no longer be silent. We will stand up for biblical social justice in the ways that people need our help.

[11:30] We are Wesleyan, and our vision is evangelism and transformation and discipleship. Our vision statement for our church is simple. It's one, so that the Maritimes may believe, one so that Moncton may believe, one so that Shediac may believe, one that Miramichi may believe, one, fill it in. One is who we are. When the Pilgrim of Holiness and the Wesleyan Church merged in 1968, there was a banner hung there that said, "One, that the world may believe." We symbolize the unity and hope for the world.

[12:16] We are part of the kingdom work that is happening, and hope is rising from Jesus' own prayer, as these words in John 17: that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in me and I am in You, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe in You, that You have sent me. Jesus is modeling this for us. Jesus is showing us the relationship and unity between Him and the Father. There's such a closeness between the two of them, the Father and the Son. They want us to desire that, and they desire it for us, not only for us to keep to ourselves, but for us to share with the world and the people that we come in contact with.

[13:09] We need to let the world know that they can experience the freedom that comes from Jesus, the Father, the Son, us, humanity, all one in unity. There is no closed church to seek Him. For us, all are invited. But we must remember something, that all of us are in different spots of our journey. Some of us are mature followers of Christ in our journey. Some of us are just beginning our journey. Some of us haven't even started and are considering or looking, are skeptic, are seeking, but want to know more about faith.

[13:56] Not everyone is in the same spot in their journey, but God is calling people to Himself, and we must partner with what He is doing as He calls them to Himself. For God so loved the world that He gave His own one and only Son, that whoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus is for everyone, and the vision He has given us is clear. It's for all, even in the book of Matthew. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are one. We are for each other, not against each other.

[14:45] Our mission statement, as Jordan shared earlier, is to go the distance to bring people closer to God. Inspired by John Wesley and his relentless pursuit for people to know the gospel, as he became an itinerant preacher and went from town to town on his horseback, breaking barriers, he was so dedicated. I've been at John Wesley's house, and he actually had a mechanism developed so in the wintertime he could still exercise as if he was riding a horse, so that he could be physically in shape for when he could ride. He was dedicated to be different, and as I said, he was not allowed in most pulpits and churches. He became outcast and controversial.

[15:34] Tidal Church will be different. Tidal Church will knock down barriers. Tidal Church will make sure the gospel of Jesus Christ is heard by all who have ears and are within the reach of our church and the communities surrounding us. Tidal Church will hold, though, to biblical truths. We will hold to what God has taught us and what the Scriptures teach us. We will help to build disciples who make disciples. We believe God has called us to a multi-site vision, and that is why we have Shediac and Miramichi and whatever will come, and we'll make commitments to persevere and to follow through on all that we're doing. Dedicated to whatever obstacles come in our way, that we will knock them out of our way and continue following the pursuit of God in all that He has called us to do.

[16:26] We will grow together in Christ. We will make sure that we celebrate together in Christ, but we will also have to sacrifice together in Christ in order for relationships to grow, and not just here in church. It has to start in your home. It has to start in your neighborhoods. It has to start in your workplace. It has to start in the communities. It takes everyone. It takes every woman and man, it takes every laity and clergy. It takes multi-ethnic, it takes multi-generational. It takes multi-socio-economic, people from everywhere who are willing to pursue the holiness that God is calling us to.

[17:13] We need to follow Jesus with the boldness and courage that has been displayed by those in our history with the unstoppable hope of the gospel. Because in people's lives there is a gap, and we need to fill that gap and let them know that hope is rising. If you want to know how big you should look when it comes to your influence of sharing, John Wesley says it best. "I look upon the whole world as my parish." He wasn't limited by one small place. How large is your world? Is it just you? Is it just you and a couple friends? Is it just you in your home?

[18:01] Is it just you and coming to church? Is it just you in your small group, or is it the entirety of your life and every interaction and relationship that you have that you want to experience a transforming life that can be had through Jesus Christ? Through faith, we believe, is transformation. And transformation starts in each one of our hearts and extends to everyone in the world around us. Transformation begins when we encounter Jesus. Romans 12: "Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve that God's will is His good, pleasing and perfect will."

[18:51] You thought the ladders were bad and you sat here. See, in our lives, we have to decide what we're gonna do, and Scripture tells us that we can be in the world but not of the world. And what's that exactly mean? Because if we're gonna live in a purity and holiness that God's calling us to, then we gotta stop letting the world peel things away from us to, I'll say, disclaimer for the kids in the room: This is not what you do with your peelings. You have to put 'em in the garbage at home. You don't let 'em take away what you've been created to be, 'cause God, from creation, decided what you were going to be and then you let the world slowly peel it away.

[19:43] If we don't pursue Him in everything we do and it just peels away and it peels away and we get tired and we don't think we have hope anymore. And then all of a sudden one day we look up and we don't even look like what we started with. And we think of the Scripture that says, again, be in the world but not of the world. And then we venture in not having us covering how He created us, and we go into the world and we just sink because we took the covering off that He created that made us the way that we are, which is the pursuit of Him every day and to honor Him every day. And when we have His covering and He's with us, we walk through and we make sure that the pushing of Jesus and His holiness in our life is pushing through and the purity's pushing through and we're covered.

[20:35] And when we go into the world and not be of the world, it's different because we're protected and we don't sink around everything. The world has peeled away from us into what we are. He makes sure that we can be in the world and not of the world because of His protection. We can be protected through it. That's what He wants for our lives. Renewing our minds leads to a reflection of Jesus's character out to everybody that is watching. Transformation is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing refining and molding of His image in our lives. When we live transformed lives, it is an inward working that Jesus is doing that begins to show in outward behavior that improves.

[21:27] We become living stories, living testimonies of His goodness in our lives that gets shared with others so that they may know there is nothing stronger than somebody's story. What does transformation look like? It looks like sacrifice and selflessness for others. We prioritize God's call on our life over any worldly pursuits. Transformed people live with a purpose in every aspect of our life. Our lives are meant to glorify God and to draw others to Him, not to ourselves.

[22:13] Hope is rising. We think about discipleship, holiness, and transformation naturally leads to discipleship. And Jesus' final commands to His followers were this: go, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I surely am with you always, to the very end of the age. Discipleship is not optional. In Hebrews it says, "And let us consider how we may spur one another towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching." We are called to be disciples, a multiplying ministry through the mass of people who are called and recognize Him as Lord and Savior.

[23:05] It doesn't take you long to figure out multiplying. If we multiply and we encourage and we meet and we do this together and pursue God and let Him pour His holiness and purity into us, we will see multiplication. And that happens in a grander way than addition. Even math. It gives you more. We grow in our knowledge of God. Sometimes we think that's intellectually, but that's not enough. Discipleship is not a program. It's a way of life. When you walk side by side with somebody else as they navigate their journey and you're investing in their spiritual life and growth and helping to equip them along the way, the ripple effect of one person discipling another has exponential impact.

[24:00] And then the two disciple two others. It's God's design for His church, and we are His church, a community committed to grow in faith, in purity and in holiness together. It's simple. Maybe you came in here today and you're a strong follower of Christ, and I would encourage you to keep seeking Him and have Him to check each little spot of your life. Does it have His full? Does it have your full surrender to Him? If you came in today and you've never made a decision to follow Jesus, never made a decision of faith, but now you're thinking about it.

[24:52] Maybe God's been talking to you as you're sitting here, or maybe you haven't kept your commitment that you made and you've wandered away and it's time to come back and claim what is yours that God has for you. This complete and full life that can be filled with purity and holiness and hope because hope is rising. No matter what we experience or say in the world, hope is rising. If you are here today and you want to make that decision or you wanna reclaim, maybe what you've walked away, it's simple. It's old school, but it's simple. It's the A, B, C first.

[25:37] You have to admit that you need God and that there's no way that you can save yourself. That is the starting point of the journey for every believer. You cannot experience His grace by you doing it through your own human ways. You gotta believe, you gotta believe and trust that Jesus is the Son of God and that He is who He says He is. And that He will hold, that are promises that He says in the Scriptures for you. You have to believe. And number three is you need to confess and change. You need to confess to sins and the wrongdoings that you have done in your life and ask Jesus to transform you through the Holy Spirit's work so that the outwardness matches the inward.

[26:30] And it can't just be a one time, you have to completely surrender your entire life. It will be a process of surrender and a process of sacrifice, but I'll guarantee you it'll be an incredible renewal that you will experience in your life. So many of us have different paths that we travel on, have different ladders that we climb. We talk about the corporate ladder, climbing the corporate ladder and we and we just decide that faith can't fit in our corporate life. So we decide that we're gonna climb the corporate ladder and we're just gonna keep going up that ladder. And we don't know where faith fits in with all that. And we can see it, but we don't let it. We say, well, this is the track I'm on, this is the ladder I'm on.

[27:16] This is the one I'm climbing right now. But then something happens, maybe it's even just Sunday comes around and all of a sudden you say, oh, now it's time for me to get on the faith ladder. And I get on the faith ladder. Now I'm climbing up the faith ladder and it's okay, it's Sunday. Now I'm talking to people about God. I'm going to a small group. I'm, we're having great time in the atrium. This is my faith ladder I'm on now and my work one that was Monday to Friday or it was Monday to Thursday or whatever it is. And we're on these different ladders and maybe even for some of us it's just, there's other ladders in our life. There's tons of ladders in our life that we're climbing and we're not expressing the holiness and purity that God has for us. And we say, well, I kind of like recreation. I like sports.

[28:05] I like going out on my quad. I like doing fishing. It doesn't matter what it is. None of that's wrong. But does the reflection of the purity and holiness that Jesus has for you reflect in those moments? 'Cause there's only one ladder. Then there's even some that have given up. They don't think there's any hope. There are days result in just being home, just staying by themselves, not a reflection of what Jesus is calling us to. There's even people that will say, well, you know what?

[28:51] I can put a couple ladders together and climb them and you can do that. I'm gonna turn these around, guys. You can do that. But there's absolutely a cost to it. You can climb both. We keep going. It gets a little rocky. You're gonna get so far, you're gonna sacrifice one for the other. And this one even says, this is not a step, but many of us have stood on that top step and risked it all to continue on the two. There's sometimes we will even say, we split it and we'll go like this.

[29:41] I'm keeping, I'm following my faith and we keep this one over here. Maybe nobody sees it. The bottom line is, at some point in time in your life, you have to pick one way and everything else fits in this one ladder. And one way, there's not two ways. There's one life that God has called you to be filled with purity and holiness, to be discipled and to help make other disciples. It's not enough to put it all on different ladders. There's one way if you wanna understand the truth, you put everything in one way and that's through Jesus.

[30:40] I'm gonna ask everyone if you'd stand right now, if everyone would close their eyes for a second, I'm gonna invite the prayer team that they would come down. Now as we prepare to sing this song, if you are one of those people, someone who is searching, someone who today, God has said to you, today is the day, today is the day that I want you to follow Me. And you're willing to surrender it all to follow Him.

[31:28] And today's your day. Or maybe you've wandered away and maybe you've not thought about the complete surrender that He can give you. You've sacrificed and followed other ladders and journeyed other ways, but today you can feel Him and sense Him calling you back with all eyes closed. If that is you today, I just want you to do a simple thing and just before I pray, just raise your hand if God is calling you. I see your hands, hands all through the room. I see hands. One thing I want to ask you now, you don't have to, but this incredible team down here are ready to pray for you.

[32:14] And they've got some resources for you to help. You can navigate that and there's tell a friend, at least someone that you can trust that you know is following Christ and can help you strengthen your stride in that. Right? I encourage you to come down to any of my friends down here. I'll be down here also and let me pray for you. That God would push out all that is impure and unholy and fill it with purity and holiness in your life. And as this song plays, you can just come forward. Some of you maybe don't know, but I haven't been a pastor my whole life, so I've sat where you're sitting and you can think of 10, 20, 30 different reasons not to come forward, especially if you're in the balcony.

[33:07] It seems so far away. But that's why we built the stairs on the side. Don't miss an opportunity. If God is calling you, come and know that He can be your Savior. Father, we thank You for Your love. We thank You for all that You give us and all that You want for us. And Father, may we just be obedient to the call that You're placing on our hearts right now to come and surrender all to You, to sacrifice and to live life in one lane. One ladder that honors You as we navigate through life to share our story and our journey with others.

[33:54] Father, those that raise their hands, may they know that by admitting that You are God and they need You and saying that I believe Jesus's promises and He is who He says He is. And as they confess their sins to You, Father, may they find that renewal and transformation in their life. For we give You all the glory. It is Your church. We are Your people and we honor You with our lives. It's in Jesus' name we pray and ask this. Amen.