Bayside Baptist Church

Jason King: Welcome today. Today is Vision Sunday. What does that even mean? I'm glad you asked me about that because according to dictionary.com, vision is the act or power of seeing something with your eyes or seeing something in a dream or in your imagination or even the act or power of imagination. If you've heard the word vision before, maybe if you're in the marketplace, you've heard the boss man say, "The vision is what we're going to try to accomplish in the future." Or if you are a leader, maybe you own your own company or you're leading a team of people, you're told from the latest leadership book or leadership guru that vision is what you have to lead with to be successful.

I don't know about you, but if you think about it in the church, maybe you've experienced what I've experienced before. Maybe you've had the blessing before of someone coming up and telling you that God gave them a vision for you. Anybody had that before? You're not really sure what to do with that. It might make you think when I say the word Vision Sunday today, it might make you think about this church sign that I saw outside of Knoxville this weekend. Check this out: "Our church is like fudge: sweet with a few nuts." Sometimes when you think about what vision is, that's maybe what you think.

Honestly, that's how you may hear the words when I say it's Vision Sunday. Now, I have been hesitant to use these words and use the word vision because you might hear it in so many different ways. I told the staff this week, "I wish that we didn't have to call it Vision Sunday. Why can't we just say we really want you to be here because we want to talk about something important Sunday?" But the staff said that's not going to work, so we're calling today Vision Sunday.

When you hear the word vision, what do you think about? I've been asked many times since I've been here at Bayside, "Pastor, what is your vision for this church?" My answer has always been the same: I don't have a vision for this church. I don't have a vision for Bayside because it's not my church. I believe God has a vision for our church. I simply want us to point our eyes and our hearts and our lives to Jesus and lift up his name. When we do that, and you do that, and I'm doing that, he'll take care of the rest.

I want to talk to you today about what a biblical vision is because you may have a lot of ideas about what a vision is. Oftentimes it's just something that comes out of nowhere or it's a dream or a hope or something from your imagination. But the Bible gives us a very clear picture of vision, of what it looks like to have vision. It's simply a picture of a preferred future. It's not a fad from the latest leadership book or social media post. It's not some crazy idea that somebody's telling you that the Lord told them about your life. Vision is direction, guidance for your life and for mine, for our church, from God's word.

It's the living, active word of God applied to your life that begins to affect how we think, what we feel, what we believe, and ultimately what we do. When we take what God speaks and what he's revealed, what he's given to us in his word, and we begin to build our lives upon that, not just merely in thought or feeling but in action by the way that we live, God begins to bless your life. Vision in scripture is a picture that God paints of where he wants to take you if you will walk by faith, not by sight.

All throughout scripture, vision is there. Vision is simply the future that God has for you. It's what your life can be and what he desires that it would be and what he can make happen in and through your life. So when you hear the word vision, don't think some wacky thing that somebody dreamed up because they ate Taco Bell last night. Don't think some lofty goal that is in the business world. You need to think about the picture of where God wants to take you.

The apostle Paul said in Philippians chapter one, verse six, "And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." If you're in the faith, if you're in Christ, if you have given your life to Jesus Christ and received the forgiveness of your sin, you've been made right with God and been promised this eternity with God. He started a work in you and by his Holy Spirit, he is at work doing what he said he was going to do.

The vision for your life is he is going to continue his work until the day that Christ Jesus returns or he takes you home. That is his vision for your life. There is this picture I believe that God has for your life, for your future, and for our church. That's what I'm trying to help you see, what we're talking about every single week that we stand before you, that God has a picture of where he wants to take you and me in life and in faith. God's vision for your life is that you would align your life with his word and that you would live out what he's called you towards.

Not just on Sundays, not just with the spiritual stuff, but this vision, this word for your life and for mine, would affect everything about us. Everything you do, every pocket, every sphere, every arena, everything about your life would be built upon the picture of where God wants to take you. When you have vision, it changes everything. That's what I want to talk to you about today because I believe that vision changes everything. The first thing that vision changes is it changes everything about your life.

What vision are you following for your life? You might not even be realizing at this moment that you're following a vision for your life, a picture of the future that you're walking in. But God wants you to see what he's doing, how he's at work, and for you to join him in ways that he's already at work. I love how Proverbs 29:18 is paraphrased in The Message. It's plain and clear: "If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves." In other words, if people can't see what God wants, the guidance that God has given us, or the picture of where God is taking us, we're going to stumble all over ourselves.

But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed. To attend to what he reveals is not to merely memorize it or to give it lip service or to show up once a week to hear about it or to think about it every now and then. To attend to what he reveals means that you see the picture that God has revealed in his word and you are asking and depending on the Holy Spirit to build that future in you. The King James version says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." That doesn't mean that they necessarily die a physical death. It means they're separated from what God wants for their life.

If you can't see what God is doing, if I can't see what God is doing, we stumble. But when we attend to what God has revealed, when we take it in and we let it become a part of who we are and we begin to live this out, the scriptures say that we experience blessing. Jesus said it this way in the New Testament: that there are two competing visions for your life and you and I have to choose which one we're going to follow. In John 10:10, Jesus said, "The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and to destroy." That's Satan and all of his evil forces.

That's what he's up to. That's his plans for your life and for my life. That's what the thief wants to do. But Jesus said, "My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life." The thief is out to destroy; Jesus says, "I'm here to bless." He wants you to have life and have it abundantly. When he says rich, he's not talking about dollar bills. He's talking about a deep contentment and peace. He's talking about experiencing a purposeful life that's full of God's power and presence.

All throughout scripture, there's a very clear picture of what God wants to do with your life, of what can be for your life and what can be for our church. Vision is what happens when the truth of God's word intersects our lives and God goes to work in and through us. Today is not so much about a day, but it's really about discovering God's vision for your life and living in it. When you don't know God's way, when we don't believe that God's way is where we need to go, that's when we begin to stumble.

You stumble all over yourself. It means maybe you're walking in a life filled with anxiety and stress and insecurity. Maybe some of the symptoms are that your marriage is really in a rough spot when the front door is closed and nobody else can see you. Your parenting is on life support, or your career is really the focus of everything in your life and that's what you're living for. Maybe it's the pursuit of more money driving what you do. Then apathy begins to characterize your spiritual life.

When you don't see what God is doing, when you aren't aligning your life with what he's revealed, attending to that, you are following a different vision for your life. The result is that you're stumbling or, like Jesus said, you're on the track to having it stolen from you, from being destroyed and ultimately killed by the enemy. But when you let the Lord lead you and you let God begin to lead your path, the scriptures teach that you find blessing, fulfillment, and the life that God promises. So that is what today is about. We're praying that we would see what God is doing, that you would see what God wants to do in your life and through us, and that we would embrace his vision for our lives.

How do you find it? Where do you start? Jeremiah 33:3 is a passage in the Old Testament that just reminds us that this is still the deal. If you want God's vision for your life and you want to be able to experience the things that God has for you, here's where it starts: "Call to me and I will answer you." He isn't like some of you when somebody calls you and you're like, "I isn't answering that." He's not going to send you one of those auto-reply text messages that says, "I'm busy right now, I will call you later." That's not what God does.

God says, "You call to me, I'm going to answer you." Then he's not going to just answer you, but he's going to show you what you need to know. "I'm going to tell you marvelous and wonderful things that you could never figure out on your own." Just this week in the Life Journal, which is a tool that we have to help us learn how to hear God speak to us through the word, the book of Isaiah was part of our reading. It says that God's thoughts are not our thoughts and God's ways are not our ways. They're higher than ours and his picture for our lives, his plans for our lives, are so much greater than what we could ever dream of.

God is saying to you today, if that's where you're at, if you're feeling like you just don't know where you're headed, what God is saying to you is call on him today. You can find the purpose and the vision that God has for you because God's vision changes everything about your life. The second thing I want to show you today is that vision changes everything about today. I want us to fly up to about 30,000 feet for just a moment. Even if you're afraid of heights, just pretend.

I want you to think for just a minute about why God has placed all of us in the places that we are. Think about why God has placed you in the school that you're in, why he's placed you in the neighborhood that you are, the workplace where you are, in the groups where you're at, the gym you go to, the golf course, and all this stuff that you do. Why has God placed all of us gathered together right here, right now, in this moment? The scriptures teach that it's not about gaining more or achieving more.

It's not about feeling a certain way or finding or getting certain things. There's a greater purpose that God has for your life that influences how we see today. Here's how Jesus said it in Matthew chapter 28: "Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." That essentially means that your purpose and my purpose is to go as we're going. Literally, it says, "As you're going, you're making disciples of all nations."

What does that mean? That means that you're telling people about the hope and the life that you found in Jesus Christ. He continues in verse 20: "Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I've given to you. And be sure of this, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." You see, vision changes everything about today. If we're sitting at 30,000 feet looking at our lives and our circumstances right now, you're not here to climb the corporate ladder.

You're not here to achieve a certain retirement number when you can clock out. You're not here just for the stuff or to get to the new neighborhood or the new car or whatever. That's not why you're here. God has a greater purpose for your life that, when we embrace the word he's given to us and the vision that he has for our lives, it changes today. Did you know that Chattanooga is growing at double the national rate? A study came out at the end of 2025 that said Chattanooga was the 11th most moved-to place in the country. Some of you feel that explains some traffic around here.

People are moving here primarily from other places in the US. Neighborhoods are popping up and housing developments are all over the place. Bayside is positioned right here in the midst of the fastest-growing areas of the 11th fastest-growing city in the United States. That trend looks like it's going to continue. Every single day on Highway 58, right outside our doors, thousands of people drive by. Many of you were not here before 2020. You might not know that before we moved here in September, the church had been without a pastor for about two and a half years.

That's a really long time. Those of you who were here, many of you spent those two and a half years on your knees asking God to move in power. There was an urgency in that time, asking God if he would move in powerful ways through this house. I'll never forget when I was interviewing with the team and one of the team members said something to me that stuck with me to this day. They said, "Jason, we love our church, but our kids and our grandkids don't want to come to church here and we believe God wants to change that." That was powerful.

Now you fast forward to today and God is doing that and more. I believe it's on the shoulders of those people who were in that gap praying and begging God to move that we are seeing God answer those prayers today. Last year 55 people were baptized. 27 people have already been baptized this year. Lives are being changed and our attendance is continuing to grow. This year at Easter, we had 1,537 people attend a service at Bayside. Our average attendance has continued to climb.

We had several Sundays in the spring where we had over 800 people on campus. Even this summer, some of our services at 11 o'clock in particular have been the largest services that we have seen in the summer. We're watching the attendance trends and we do believe at some point in the not-so-distant future that we will need to start a third worship service to provide another growing environment for people to come and to worship. Our small group space is currently maxed out. If you came and asked us about starting a small group today, do you know where we would tell you that you could meet? In the parking lot.

There's nowhere to meet. All the small group spaces are full. Kids ministry is growing, student ministry is growing, more small groups are starting off-campus, and people are experiencing life change. For those of you that prayed during that time, many of your kids and your grandkids are coming back to church. We're reaching the next generation and God is moving. We believe the future of where God is taking us is captured in this vision statement: that we want to become a movement of God seeing lives changed in Chattanooga and beyond.

We believe God has called us to this. We're not called to be a slick church, have the best strategy, or the most programs. We want to see God move. When God is moving, he's changing people's lives and that's expanding in our city and beyond. For all that is taking place in our church right now, we believe that there's more. The data shows that somewhere between 40 to 50% of Hamilton County's population does not attend church on a Sunday. Almost half of Hamilton County's population does not go to church, doesn't know Jesus, and is far from God.

They don't know God's vision and blessing for their lives. Nearly one of every two cars that pass by on the highway out here represents someone who doesn't know Christ. Statistics show us there's about 394,000 people in Hamilton County right now. Let's say on the conservative end that 40% of those people don't go to church anywhere. That's 157,600 people in our county alone who need Jesus. That's not even taking into account so many of you who come from other surrounding counties. What if God decided to send just 1% of those people who don't know Christ to our church?

That's 1,576 people. What if God added that many people to our church over the next five years? What if he did it tomorrow? In the Book of Acts, whenever God moved, it was nothing for thousands of people to be added to the number of Christians at one time. Why couldn't he do that now? What if God sends us those people? I'm praying he will, and I'm praying he won't stop at 1%. When we see the opportunity that God has called us to take the message of Jesus and to impact the people around us, that vision changes everything about today.

I believe he's placed you and me right here, right now, for that purpose. Could we do this? Every time that you see somebody drive by the church, every time you have to wait to pull out on Highway 58, or every time you have to take your life in your own hands to get in that turn lane, instead of honking at them or blessing them out in Jesus' name, I wonder if instead you couldn't think that if there's two cars there, one of them represents somebody who doesn't know Jesus.

That represents somebody who's far from God right now. Could you recognize that God has placed you and me right here? Every time we have to turn out into that traffic or sit in that traffic backed up, it's just a reminder that God wants to use us to help people find faith in Christ. When you see things like God sees things, it changes today. That's why we have to constantly seek his vision in the present because he's the only one who knows what the future holds and he's the only one that can lead us to where he's already at work.

Our vision changes the present. It changes today. The last thing I want you to see is that God's vision changes everything for the future. Not only does it change our lives and today, it changes everything for the future. The future that we're believing God has for us as individuals and as a church is bright. The ways we see God at work, the stories of life change, the growth, and the excitement that so many of you are living in right now shape our future.

We're facing some challenges currently and we believe that God is giving us guidance and vision for the future. We're calling this next season in the life of our church "Go Beyond." Go Beyond is about next steps of faith. It's about you and I embracing God's vision for our life and choosing to go beyond wherever we are right now in our faith journey, to take a step of faith to go closer to God and to be used by God right now. Go Beyond is about responding in faith as a church to the opportunities that God is giving us.

One of the biggest areas that we believe God is calling us to walk by faith and guiding us into the future is with our facility. As we look around, it doesn't take long to see that we need to bring our facility forward and update it for the ministry that we're doing now, especially as we prepare for the future. This moment is so much bigger than just buildings and stuff because we believe that when we choose to go beyond, God will use us to reach even more people for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I want to share with you some of the goals of this next season. We're going to talk a lot about what that looks like in the weeks and months ahead. I just want to share some of the goals for when we think about our facility in particular that enable us to reach these people that are driving by every single day. Our goals are, first and foremost, to provide a safe and secure environment for B Kids and Bayside students to better reach the next generation and their families.

If you go over to our kids' or student ministry areas right now, there are major passageways and thoroughfares for our church. We believe safety and security is of the utmost importance for providing an environment for the next generation. I know that some of you as parents come and visit the church first without your kids just to see if they're going to be safe. We want to provide a safe and secure environment to better reach and minister to the next generation and their families.

We also are going to update indoor flooring, wall coverings, paint, and furniture throughout the entire building and just update everything to where it looks like it's all fitting together. Inside the Worship Center, we need additional double doors to help control temperatures. It is so hard to control the temperature in here. We need lighting, easier stage access, new carpet and chairs, and an update on the inside to raise the level of what a guest will experience when they walk in this space. We also want to move forward on the outside to create a unified appearance on the exterior of our building.

That means a new roof, updated entrances, and landscaping, unifying the outside of the building and bringing it up to where this is what God wants to use us to reach the next generation. Finally, we'll update outdoor signage and help guests navigate our campus. All of these are a part of Go Beyond. It's an exciting season for our church, something we've been prayerfully considering for several years now, just waiting on the moment when God opened the door for us to step into this.

Do you want to see what can be? You want to see some pictures of what we believe the future looks like that God is leading us towards? These are not final and they're subject to change, but here's a picture of what can be if we go beyond in this moment. On the outside of the church, there is landscaping, a unified appearance on the exterior, and a clear entrance to the church. I know a lot of you have come to this building for the first time and weren't sure how to go into the church. There's another picture of the entire outside of the church with cleaned landscaping and an inviting atmosphere.

Even inside the church, this is an area where there's a coffee bar and an area to hang out. These are what the hallways will look like throughout the church. The feel of the entire inside would be updated. This is the kids' area between the gym and the back section of our church. This will become a secure area where kids can be dropped off and taken to places with their parents. This is a picture of what it would look like inside the kids' ministry. Finally, an updated picture of what the Worship Center will look like with new chairs, carpet, and fixtures.

I'm just so excited about this because of the opportunity that we have as a church to put ourselves in a place where God will continue to use us even more. Some of you are thinking that sure looks like it's going to cost a lot of money. It is. The estimates we have as we're in the process of getting the final bid information from contractors are that it's going to cost somewhere between three to three and a half million dollars to do everything that our architects have put together for this.

That's the estimate we have currently, but we'll be able to share that exact number as we finalize those bid details. Go Beyond is a two-year financial initiative whereas a faith family, we're going to commit for two years together to see this become reality. I know many of you are new to Bayside and this may be your first Sunday here. We're all on this journey together. God is at work and we're responding to how God is at work and we're following what we believe is God's direction for us.

I do believe that as we walk through this, God has even greater plans in the future. I know that every extraordinary move of God is accompanied by an extraordinary sacrifice of God's people. The only way that it happens is if together we choose to sacrifice. Not equal gifts, but equal sacrifice. Many of you have never been through a financial initiative like this before. This is simply another step in the path of faith that God is laying before us. We'll set aside two years to commit to give over and above your current tithes and offerings.

We aren't asking you to rob Peter to pay Paul. We'll talk more about that, but we want you to pray about how God will lead you to go beyond what you're currently doing right now. I want to challenge you, wherever that is with your generosity. Later on, we'll have a lot more information for you to think through and pray through. I'm not asking for any of that today. Nobody is standing at the back door with KFC buckets asking for anything.

What I'm asking you to do today is I'm asking you to pray what Christie and I have been praying, what our leaders and our staff have been praying: "God, what do you want me to do?" It's not about equal gifts. It is about us as a faith family seeing the vision that God has for us and choosing to sacrifice to make this happen together. It's not just about our building. Yes, we're renovating and updating our building, but I do believe that wherever our finances go, that's where our heart goes.

I'm believing that in the midst of this season called Go Beyond, God has incredible things that he wants to do in your life that have nothing to do with a building. I believe it can be a defining moment in the story of our church where we see God bless our church in ways that we could never imagine. For the history of this church, there has been one verse that the church has stood upon time and time again: Second Corinthians 5:7, "We walk by faith, not by sight."

Whether it's large or small, it's going to take all of us to be a part. I get it, some of this may make you uncomfortable. You may be skeptical or not sure how all this works. I'm not asking you for anything today but just to pray and ask God what he is saying to you. Don't just think about the stuff. It isn't for us; it's for the people that aren't yet here. What I do want you to do, as you pray, is to picture your son or your daughter or your grandkid walking into this for the very first time. Picture a classmate, a good friend, or a coworker meeting Jesus Christ as a result. Watch the screen and hear Kylie's story.

Kylie McClure: My name is Kylie McClure. I am 18 years old and I just graduated from Ooltewah High School. Growing up, I was very active in sports but didn't really have a faith. My parents are split, so I grew up in a split household and didn't really have an idea of faith. At the same time, my grandfather on my mom's side was diagnosed with brain cancer. On my dad's side, my sister was diagnosed with pulmonary vein stenosis. I was told to pray and they would get better, which is what steered me away because I did pray that they would get better and they both had fatal diseases.

When they passed away, I blamed God for all of that and never thought that he could do good if he did that to me. I was very quiet and angry all the time. I first heard about Bayside from a girl I was on the cheer team with, Olivia Ralston. She invited me to church and I was very iffy at first because I had never gone to church before and never had any sort of ministry that I was a part of. Then she kept pursuing me and eventually I did come a few Wednesdays.

I started going there in youth, and then I slowly but surely started going to Sundays. I also went to FCA camp because she invited me that year. That first day at camp was the turning point for me, where I completely dedicated my life to Christ and understood what it meant to have faith and who God really was. I'm just grateful that he gives us community in times we're not looking for it. It showed me that you can open up about things that I had buried down for years and years. I was able to talk about them and feel like I was cared about.

Being a part of Bayside prepared me to be a leader at my school through FCA by giving me a community to lean on because I didn't have that growing up. Having people to talk to really gave me a place to go and tell kids about this and where you can find it in the Bible. It gave me the confidence to talk to people about God that I didn't know. It really gave me community, confidence, and courage throughout that whole process.

Jason King: I love that story because a student invited another student and she found Jesus. It reminds us that one out of every two people who drive by this church every single day are exactly where Kylie was and they need the same hope and life that Jesus offers. If you're where Kylie was and maybe you're mad at God or frustrated, would you hear the offer of God today? He offers you a fresh start. He offers you what you're looking for if you will embrace his vision for your life. All you have to do is receive it.

That could be your step today. For the rest of us here, if you're already in Christ, God is calling us to look beyond ourselves, to go beyond where we are in this moment, and to walk by faith, not by sight. Let's pray together.