Vision

Vision: We believe that God has brought us together as this specific church in Los Angeles, with the purpose of sharing with the world who He is and living out our lives in intimate relationship with Him. Scripture serves as our authority and foundation, and inspires our vision for where we believe Jesus calls us. Our church is to be a place where people are growing in knowing God’s truth (as revealed in scripture), where healing takes place, and where people are transformed by God’s love and His power as demonstrated by the Holy Spirit. Our goal in all things is for the presence of God to be experienced in our midst! We are called to love boldly, to forgive abundantly, and to live out God’s word as He calls us to. We are to know who we are in Jesus and what we’ve been equipped to do in prayer, worship, and reaching out to all people in love! We bear witness that God’s miracles and God moving in resurrection power are happening today!

Our church is called to be a place where people become healthy in their faith. We are learning what it means to be a son or daughter of the Most High God through relationship with Jesus Christ! Most importantly, we are seeing our lives defined by God’s love, truth, and power! Our lives should be marked by “miraculous ambition.” If we embrace the identities God is calling us to and live our lives in the light of His love and power, we will experience an ambition that moves beyond ourselves and embraces the fullness of a relationship with God. As our own lives are restored by God’s love and power, we will impact the lives of our families, friends, and the communities we live in.

The value of prayer and intercession We believe that our lives, our families, our communities, our cities, our nation, and our world will be changed through prayer and intercession. One of our most important roles as followers of Christ is to be in constant communication with God, through prayer and worship. “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). A step further into living a life of prayer and worship is intercession. Intercessors remind God of promises not yet fulfilled, take up the cause of justice before God on behalf of another, build up spiritual walls of protection against the enemy, and stand in the gap between God’s righteous judgments and the people’s need for mercy.

• I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth. (Isaiah 62:6-7)
• Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene [“intercede” NASB]. (Isaiah 59:15-16)
• O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes among ruins. You have not gone up into the breaches [“breaks in the wall,” NIV], nor did you build the wall [“hedge,” KJV] around the house of Israel to stand in the battle on the day of the Lord. (Ezekiel 13:4-5)
• "I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD." (Ezekiel 22:30-31)

We are to be a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation 1 Peter 2:9 tells us: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” The God of the Universe desires relationship with each of us. If we walk in relationship with God, through Jesus, our identity is renewed, and we become the people God has called us to be: As followers of Christ, we are adopted as sons and daughters of the living God:

• Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8:17)
• For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will. (Ephesians 1:4-5)

We are God’s special possession Jesus gave His life to guarantee our future with God the Father.

• And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-15)

We have been called out of the darkness We are no longer citizens of this world, living in darkness:

• For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. (Colossians 1:3)
• But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. (1Thesselonians 5:4)

We are to live lives that walk in the light Our lives have been restored, and we walk in fellowship with Jesus:

• When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
• For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

We are to walk with the Holy Spirit

• Jesus replied… “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 14:26)
• “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.” (Acts 2:17-18)

It is a joy to bring glory to God!

• Peter 3:18 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”
• Acts 9:31 “Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.”
• Colossians 1:9-14 “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

We are a church that is passionately pursuing the presence of God and revival for our city! We want to see all people come to a radical encounter of the power, truth, and love of God! We know that, “with God all things are possible!” (Matthew 19:26)
--Written at Sherman Oaks Presbyterian Church by Reverend Zachary Kintner.