May 13, 2025 • 39 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
All right.
So a couple weeks ago wewrapped up the gospel according
to Matthew, and it ends withthis mission and purpose.
And actually it's our missionand the purpose, not only as
individuals, but collectively,as the church.
That's actually Jesus.
Followers, we see at the veryend, are multipliers, and this
is actually how the worldchanged.
(00:23):
We see this at the very end.
This is where Jesus is talking.
The last part of this, matthew,chapter 28, says therefore this
is what he's saying, thereforeis because he's saying all
authority in heaven and earth isme.
So he says therefore, go andmake disciples of all nations,
of everyone, all people, groups,baptizing them in the name of
the Father, the Son and the HolySpirit, and teaching them.
(00:43):
Teaching them to this wordright here obey.
That's a really important word.
Not believe, don't teach themto believe in something.
Everyone can believe insomething.
It's great.
It's different when it becomesa verb and you're doing it To
obey everything that I havecommanded you.
And surely this is the greatpromise he gives when you do
this.
Surely he says then I'm withyou always, to the very end of
(01:06):
the age.
That's what all in looks like,that's what we've been talking
about All in going and makingand baptizing, and teaching and
obeying, and this is what we'regoing to continue to talk about
just for a couple more weeks.
What does that look like as wego?
All in Another type of languagethat Jesus used to explain this
(01:27):
he called people and he askedthem to be fishers of men, to be
fishers of men to go out, andto what then?
So then you ask this questionwhat does fishermen do?
Well, they cast nets and then,when they're done casting nets,
they mend nets and they fix thenets and then they cast them
again, and then they mend themand they cast them.
And then for us, in our context, is we need to be mending nets
(01:49):
and then casting nets, and thenmending nets and then adding
nets, wider nets, and thencasting those nets, and then
Jesus ultimately fills the nets.
And for us, in our future, thatmeans a couple different things
.
The first thing that we want tobe able to focus on as we're
going all in is transformation.
That's why this space wascreated, that's why this campus
(02:11):
was created that we would haveexcellent environments for
people to experiencetransformation, like many, many,
many of you have.
That we would continue toexpand our opportunity for
transformation.
So, expansion Some of you guysneed to understand too.
Transformation happens, itcontinues to happen when there's
mending.
(02:32):
That happens, just like in yourhouse, and so there's some
mending of the nets that we haveto continually do as things get
old or they wear down.
There's some mending in thesespaces.
So we have these excellentenvironments, so we want to be
able to go all in and mend thosespaces.
As far as expansion goes,there's a couple different ideas
.
Many of you guys may not knowthis, but these walls in the
back of this room, those twowalls, actually are temporary
(02:53):
walls and they go down and thenthat goes up to.
This is how this building wasbuilt stadium seating to go
around so we can expand ourreach for transformation and
impact and the community eventswe're doing and the weekend
events that we're doing.
I explained to you guys some ofyou this was new news, some of
you it's not new news last week,but we actually, in the next
three to four years, we're goingto have new neighbors that we
(03:14):
want to be prepared for Righthere.
This is a picture of it.
So this is where we are on themap and this is literally you
looking this way.
Right.
Way over there is the freeway.
This is all that cow town spaceover there.
Here's the water treatmentplant.
For those of you who arefamiliar with Benicia, this is
Lake Herman Road, the lakes overhere.
This is thousands of peoplemoving into the neighborhood.
(03:35):
We believe that God ordainly putus in this spot to be prepared
for such a time as this andthere's some expansion as we go
all in that we should do, to beprepared as we get to invest in
the community, as the communityliterally moves into our
backyard, as we're such aregional church and a regional
reach and some of that's goingto change a little bit.
So we have to be innovative.
Innovation is that other word.
(03:57):
We need to be innovative in howwe're reaching this next
generation, how we're creatingspaces and places for
transformation.
There's big dreams in thisvision over the next couple
years to be ready for this, thatwe would, potentially on our
property, build like a gym orsome sort of facility that would
be like a YMCA or Boys andGirls Club-like facility that's
(04:17):
walkable and accessible, thatliterally becomes a bridge to
the community.
That this would be their firstexperience for transformation in
this faith community, that wemet a need in that space.
We interacted, we rubbedshoulders with that.
We're casting wider nets, beingfishers of men.
And here's the deal.
I want to reiterate this againand again and again Whoever wins
(04:40):
the kids, wins the future.
Whoever wins the kids wins thefuture.
And so how can we be innovativeto do that?
This is big vision that we havefor our next generations team,
our young adults, our children's, our students.
I mean, like Sammy, I love itright now.
He's focused, like detailed,focused on what does it look
(05:01):
like to get 500 unchurched oranti-churched or non-churched
experienced kids up on thiscampus so they can come to these
transformative spaces andexperience the love of Jesus
Christ?
And here's the deal with thisstuff.
It's kind of messy when youinvite all of that up here.
Right, it's not all churchy,which is great, but here's where
the challenge is for some of usthat we're like, oh my gosh,
(05:22):
what's going on?
We get to ask this question.
Challenges for some of us thatwe're like, oh my gosh, what's
going on?
We get to ask this question arewe fishers of men casting and
mending nets, or are we justkeepers of the aquarium?
That's the big challenges forus.
That is the huge challenge forus, and going all in looks like
being called to high levels ofsacrifice.
(05:42):
So we've launched thisinitiative to go all in and to
make this a reality for us.
This isn't a campaign, and whatI'm doing is I'm asking all of
you all of you who come inperson on a regular basis, all
of you who attend online, watchonline to engage in this
initiative of all in andleverage our collective
resources in order to maximizeour kingdom impact, and I want
(06:07):
us to put the foot our foot onthe gas and maximize our
potential.
But to do that, it's actuallygoing to require all of us Like
this.
We want 100% engagement intothis to maximize our personal
generosity and our resourcesourselves to this initiative.
So one of the things that I cantell you that I've loved I've
been here for 15 years, for thelast 15 years about our church
(06:31):
is the confidence that I have ofwhenever I invite anyone,
someone, to one of ourenvironments, whether it's
during the week, whether it'sfor an event, whether it's on a
Sunday service.
I would often say to them hey,I just want to warn you.
You know you're coming here.
You might not want to bringyour children right To which
they would be like what?
Like you don't have stuff forkids to do there and I'm like,
no, it's because they're so good.
(06:53):
Whether you want to come backand hear me preach or not, your
kids are going to want to comeback.
I guess the best part, they'regoing to want to come back and
see this.
So you may not want to bringthem the first time, because I'm
that proud of what our churchhas done for my own children.
I have four kids that arebecoming young adults and one of
the reasons I'm so passionateabout our church is because the
(07:14):
difference it's made in thelives of children and students
in this next generation.
And here's the deal, and this iswhy we're talking about this,
and for those of you who arewatching from home right now, we
have got to ensure thiscontinues to happen, that there
is this kind of church, thatthere's those kinds of
environments for this nextgeneration to experience.
We literally, to do that, weliterally need hundreds,
(07:36):
hundreds of you to step up thatare willing to be curious enough
to step into some strategicservice roles on Sunday mornings
.
To do this, we call them changemaker teams.
They're not just volunteerteams, because we're not simply
looking for volunteers.
We're looking for people whowant to do something strategic
for change.
Casting nets, mending nets.
(07:57):
It helps us accomplish ourmission of inspiring people and
equipping people to follow Jesus, inspiring a whole generation
of students and high schoolstudents and college students
and middle school students tostep up and to inspire them,
equip them to follow Jesus, notjust in this season of their
lives, but for the rest of theirlives.
(08:18):
So today, for the next fewminutes, I just want to use
whatever persuasive skills Ihave to persuade hundreds and
hundreds of you, with the HolySpirit, to ensure that our local
church continues to fire on allcylinders to do extraordinary
things in our communitiessurrounding us.
And that's not just that.
(08:38):
We need you.
The truth is and I don't knowhow to say this any more direct
than this you need you to dothis because you're part of a
body and you benefit from thatbody this local church and you
need this for you.
And when I go around and Ithank people for serving during
(09:00):
the week or on the weekendsoften it's so fun I get this
response no, no, no.
Thank you for giving me thisopportunity to do this, because
something's actually happened intheir heart as a result of
stepping in to be a part of oneof our Changemaker teams.
Many of you are part of thosethings.
It's one of the bestinvestments of your time apart
from your personal family thatyou'll ever make.
You know.
It's an opportunity to meetsome other busy people, to meet
(09:23):
some other successful people, tomeet some people who didn't
have the time to do this.
But they made the time to dothis and we're so glad that they
did.
But before I give you the pitch,I just want to tell you just
what I feel like is one of themost epic stories of faith in
the New Testament.
It serves as the backdrop towhy we're here and really the
(09:44):
backstory to our local churchhere.
So let me just take you back intime real quick 2000 years.
This is amazing, and if you'renot a church person or a
Christian person and you comefrom like a different faith and
you're here today, you've got tolove this story because it
explains so much about why thechurch is the way that it is and
the church should be the waythe church should be in our
(10:06):
modern world.
You with me, yes, thank you.
You're like man, okay, okay.
So right after Jesus rose fromthe dead, he sees his apostles,
and a few weeks go by and hisapostles, they're in the city of
Jerusalem, where Jesus had justbeen arrested, tried, crucified
, and they go out into thestreets, the very same city
(10:26):
where he literally dragged hiscross.
And they go into the streets ofJerusalem and they begin
talking about the fact thattheir rabbi has risen from the
dead, which is crazy talk Inthat particular segment of time.
Even talking like that couldget you arrested and killed as
well.
I mean, if you look at this, ifthey took the head of the
movement down, certainly they'regoing to take the followers of
(10:46):
the movement as well.
And yet these apostles we seePeter and Andrew, james, john
and Bartholomew.
They go into the streets ofJerusalem and they go onto the
temple steps and they beginproclaiming that God's Messiah
has arrived, he's been crucified, rose from the dead, and dozens
of people gather, and thenhundreds of people gather and
(11:09):
next thing, you know, the wholecity is talking about this
resurrected Nazarene fromGalilee.
And so there's all this stuffthat's going on and it's kind of
amazing and people arebelieving and it's growing.
And the reason they'rebelieving is not because they're
superstitious.
They didn't believe that peoplerose from the dead.
They're believing because thesemen and women who saw the
resurrected Jesus were soemphatic that they were willing
(11:33):
to risk their lives to talkabout it.
And the church in Jerusalem itjust explodes Like it just takes
off.
But the people who had Jesusarrested and crucified, they're
shocked about this In theirminds.
They have put to bed, they'veput to rest this Nazarene cult
(11:53):
that they thought this was, andnow it's back and there is more
and more people involved thanever and they're thinking gosh,
like we killed him.
Now it's like he's truly comeback alive.
And the text tells us that Luke,who wrote this, who knew all of
these people, got this and hegot this story for us.
It tells us that the highpriest and all of his associates
(12:16):
of this big group of people whoare the members of this party,
the Sadducees, they're filledwith jealousy and so they're
angry.
And then there's another kindof revolution that's now taking
place and going on.
So they're jealous becausethey're supposed to be the ones
at the epicenter and the focusof attention when it comes to
all things religion, not thisMessiah that's being talked
(12:40):
about.
And now there's a group ofpeople saying that the Messiah
that we've been waiting for he'scome, and they're like we don't
think that he is the Messiahand nobody is really paying
attention to us anymore.
And so they're jealous, and sothey do what they've done to
Jesus.
They arrested the apostles andthen they put them in public
(13:00):
jail.
Now, a little detail here thatI think that we overlook,
because when we think jail, wethink like our kind of jails.
Public jail was literally inmost cases just a hole in the
ground, not a hole in the groundwith drainage, just a hole in
the ground in a building.
And so they take these apostles, these men who've been with
Jesus, and they put them in thishole in the ground.
(13:21):
And it's late in the afternoon,and so they're going to have to
wait to bring them in the nextday to question them and to talk
to them and to threaten them.
But then, as you continue toread, god springs them from this
hole in the ground and they'refree that night.
And so what do they do?
Well, they do exactly what Iwould have not done right,
because what I would have donehad been like you know, I did my
deal Like I preached the sermonon the street.
(13:41):
I got arrested.
I think I'm going to take myball and go home or I'm going to
move on to the next place, likethis place is dangerous.
But no, the next morning thesemen are in the same streets
preaching the same message,knowing they're probably going
to get arrested again.
But they can't keep their mouthshut.
And if you had seen your rabbicrucified, buried, and then saw
him resurrected, you probablywouldn't be able to keep your
(14:03):
mouth shut neither.
This is how the church actuallybegan and they preach, and they
preach, and they preach.
Well, this happens, and thenext morning the men who had
arrested them are like what,where did they go?
Like they're out.
And not only are they out, theydidn't run away, they're
preaching in the same spot.
So this makes it easy for them.
So they go and have themarrested again and they bring
(14:25):
them in to question them.
And again it's the very samemen who arrested and tried Jesus
.
And of course, the apostles arethinking like we're next, like
they're going to arrest us,they're going to try us and
they're maybe going to have uscrucified as well.
It is open season on thefollowers of the Nazarene rabbi.
And so they say to Peter andAndrew and James and John and
(14:47):
the rest of them they bring themin to question them.
Look, they say look, we gaveyou strict instructions, not in
orders, not to teach in his name, the name of Jesus, yet you
have filled the whole city.
So not only have you spoken inthe name, you filled the whole
city with his teachings and youare determined Get this.
(15:10):
You are determined to make usguilty of this man's blood.
You're like, determined to dothis.
And Peter by the way, this isthe first Pope, if you're
following that stuff just stepsup and decides to give this
defense.
He actually gives like a littlesermon, if you will, and the
(15:30):
theme of this sermon could havebeen yes, in fact, you are
guilty of his blood.
That was the point he wastrying to make.
He says you killed.
He actually uses this reallylike.
He said you killed the authorof life, but God raised him.
Here's the four points of thesermon that he gave.
He said you killed the authorof life, but God raised him.
Here's the four points of thesermon that he gave.
(15:51):
He said point number one youkilled him.
Basically, yeah, you're guilty.
Point number two God raised him.
Don't you wish these sermonswere this fast and easy, right?
Point number three we've seenthem, like we actually saw them.
And then point number four sayyou're sorry, you need to repent
.
This isn't good.
You need to acknowledge thatyou crucified the son of God,
(16:13):
god's Messiah, and guess what?
God's actually willing toforgive you, and that makes it
good news.
In fact, to quote Peter, hesays we were witnesses to all of
these things.
And then the text says again, aswe read and we just go right by
it, the text says that thesereligious leaders, that these
leaders had these men, all ofthem, this group of men, flogged
(16:34):
, with like no details aboutthis.
Same with the crucifixion, bythe way, when it talks about
Jesus being crucified.
There's like not details inthis.
Same with the crucifixion, bythe way, when it talks about
Jesus being crucified.
There's like not details inthis.
Why?
Why is there no details aboutwhat flogging is or crucifixion?
Well, it's because everybody inthe first century had seen this
.
They were experiencing this ona regular basis.
Just about everybody in thefirst century that lived in
(16:55):
Galilee and Judea had seen acrucifixion.
They'd also seen the aftermathof someone who had been had seen
a crucifixion.
They'd also seen the aftermathof someone who had been flogged.
They knew what that meant.
It took a long time.
It takes a long time to flogmany men and you hear the skin
ripping off the back of yourbrother and you just know you're
next and there's no detailsgiven because there's none
necessary.
They understood this and thedepth of this.
(17:16):
And these men are flogged andthen they're ordered not to
speak the name of Jesus Clearly,you're not allowed to do this
and then they let them go toheal their wounds.
And Luke, who knows these men,who knows them?
Who records this for us?
He writes the following Listento this.
The apostles left the Sanhedrinrejoicing because they had been
(17:38):
counted worthy of sufferingdisgrace in his name.
That is something I think wemiss For the rest of their lives
.
When they pulled their shirtsoff, they would be viewed as
criminals who had been arrestedand found guilty of something,
because they bore the marks ofthat flogging on their back and
(18:01):
those scars they would wear forthe rest of their lives.
But what did they do?
They wore them as a badge ofhonor that we have been found
guilty, by proclaiming the goodnews for all people, for all
time, that God has sent hisfinal king into the world.
And then they leave, and thenthey surely go somewhere to let
(18:21):
their wounds heal.
And then what do they do?
What would you do?
This is you.
What would I do?
Well, what they did next isliterally why we're here.
These are our people.
These are the people who camebefore us.
These are the people who hadthe stewardship the fragile
stewardship of the gospel.
(18:42):
They were the ones there withJesus.
They were the only group whoknew what Jesus taught, because
they were there with him day inand day out.
It was so fragile.
This could have ended righthere, like, literally, this
could have been the end of thismovement.
And Luke says I've talked tothem and I've talked to the
people who know them well, and,after they attended to their
(19:05):
wounds, says this then, in thetemple courts, at the epicenter
of ancient Judaism, from houseto house, they never stopped
teaching and proclaiming thegood news, casting nets Jesus is
the Messiah, he is God's finalking.
And I'm just going to tell youright here that good news piece
(19:27):
that is so important.
If the version of Christianitythat you have been raised on, if
the version of Christianitythat you're currently a part of,
if the version of Christianitythat you've walked away from was
not and did not strike you asgood news.
It wasn't the right version,because people don't do what
(19:47):
this group of people did unlessit was really really good news,
news worth suffering and dyingfor.
And those are our people.
And then here's where the storybegins to actually intersect
with ours.
As a result of their courageand their boldness, and the
(20:07):
church, like at this point, justlike super explodes, super
explodes.
There was this festival goingon at the time.
This is why they waited tillthis particular time to go out
into the streets, and so therewas Jews from all around, not
just from Galilee and Judea, butfrom all of the surrounding
areas.
They'd come into Jerusalem forthis festival, to celebrate the
harvest and to celebrate whenGod gave Moses the Torah.
(20:31):
And it's this big celebration,and so the city is packed full
of people and many of theseoutsiders have now embraced
Jesus as their risen King andMessiah and they're becoming
part of the church and theydon't want to leave, like
they're all making this bigcommunity.
It's like a revival has brokenout, because, day after day, the
apostles are teaching andteaching the teachings of Jesus,
(20:53):
and Luke tells us, in thosedays when the number of
disciples was actuallyincreasing, that it just got
bigger and bigger and bigger andbegan to create some problems.
And that's because when you getthousands of people all in one
area of the city that hadn'tbeen there before, food can be
scarce and you can't preservefood.
This is why it was a bit of acrisis that they had this good
(21:16):
news.
It was creating a little bit ofa problem.
They just didn't have muchorganization at this point and
they had this explosive growththat created challenge
specifically and here's thechallenge that kind of sets up
this next part of the story.
The challenge was this thatthese families from outside of
the area brought their entirefamilies with them.
(21:36):
It wasn't just a few people andthen they brought their widows
and you have the Jews fromGalilee, and you have the Jews
from different areas that speakAramaic, and then you're there
in Jerusalem and you havetheseHelenzinzik I can spit this
out, I'm not even going to tryso they speak Greek.
(21:57):
They've been cultured to GreekWith a little bit of Greek.
They're Jews and they've beenrisen in that area of the
culture and so they've come likefrom the Turkey area, from
Greek.
They've traveled over into thisspace and so they're all there
and they're mixing together and,as it turns out, the church
decides to do food distributions.
(22:18):
Right.
We do that stuff especially tothose who weren't able to feed
themselves, and the group thatwas most vulnerable at that time
was actually the widows.
So they bring daily meals tothe widows and this group is
responsible for food service andPeter and Andrew and James and
John and all the apostles.
They're saying we're not toogood to do this work, like we're
(22:40):
going to go and we're going tofeed widows too, and
consequently, as a result ofthis, what happened was is these
women that came from outside ofthe region weren't getting the
same type of attention as thosewho spoke the same language.
There was this language barrierhere and, as the apostles
weren't from that area, and soit wasn't like a discrimination
(23:01):
problem.
It was a distribution problem,because they had no systems in
place, but they had thousands ofpeople and hundreds of widows
that they were trying to feed ona daily basis.
So growth overwhelmed thesystem and the apostles are
trying to handle this themselves, which was admirable, but it
was slowing things down and theywere beginning to break down
(23:22):
and there was conflict inside ofthis brand new, embryonic thing
called the church or theecclesia of Jesus, and so they
did what churches do whenthere's a problem.
They had a meeting, right.
I think this was the firstchurch meeting that we know
about.
It says in verse 2, acts,chapter 6,.
So the 12 gathered all thedisciples together and said it
(23:44):
would not be right for us toneglect the ministry of the Word
of God in order to wait ontables.
Here's the implication we'renot too good to wait on tables,
but we have a unique opportunityand we have unique giftings,
where these men who sat at thefeet of Jesus for three years
said our responsibility is tomake sure that we're able to
teach these thousands of people,and they were uniquely gifted
(24:05):
to do that.
And they said so we need tofind some people to help us take
care of food distribution,because this is important.
We want to take care of thewidows, and this is such a
picture of the local church andthe teaching and the preaching
and the caring for the needs ofthose who are vulnerable.
And so they said we're going todo both, because both are
(24:27):
essential.
So, brothers and sisters, thisis how the story went.
Brothers and sisters, chooseseven men from among you who you
know to be full of the spiritand wisdom, and we will turn
this responsibility over to them, because we want to make sure
that the widows are being takencare of and in the meantime,
we'll give our attention toprayer and the ministry of the
word.
And then this miracle takesplace.
(24:50):
It says this the proposalpleased the whole group.
This has never happened in achurch business meeting before
group.
This has never happened in achurch business meeting before,
like the entire church saidabsolutely yes, it's a miracle.
I'm telling you and friends,miracles can still happen.
(25:10):
We're having our church meetingon June 1st FYI.
All right, so don't think hesays we don't think we don't
think you guys are too good toserve food.
Yeah, yeah, we want to makesure that the vulnerable get
taken care of and we want tomake sure that the vulnerable
get taken care of and we want tomake sure that the word is
preached.
And so this pleased the wholegroup.
They're like yes, this is whatwe got to do, let's get
organized.
Now.
The text goes on to say this andLuke got all the details.
(25:31):
This is so cool.
They chose people to serve andto care for people.
It shows people who embrace themission, what they were trying
to do, who were willing to dowhat needed to be done.
And then what happened?
What was the result of this?
Well, one of the results wasthat the widows from outside
that part of the world werebetter taken care of and their
(25:52):
needs were met.
But Luke doesn't mention that.
Here's what he does say was aresult of that decision.
Here's what he does say was aresult of that decision.
So the word of God spread.
The number of disciples inJerusalem increased rapidly
they're casting wider nets and alarge number of priests became
obedient to the faith.
Now, here's why this is crazy.
(26:13):
There were thousands of prieststhat lived in Jerusalem, that
were on the inside, that, like,saw this whole thing play out
right in front of them, and theyrecognized get this.
This is why it's wild.
They recognized that they werewrong, that they actually had
been a part of the scheme tocrucify the author of life, and
(26:35):
repented and then placed theirfaith in Jesus, and they too
then became Jesus followers.
It's amazing.
It's actually why we're here.
It's how we're here.
One thing leads to another.
They chose people that could dowhat needed to be done in the
moment, and then they fueled themovement a movement that we're
(26:59):
a part of today which actuallybrings us to us, and this is why
I'm not shy about saying weneed hundreds of you, not just
seven.
They picked seven.
We need many more than seven.
We need hundreds of you.
We need hundreds of you to stepup and do what needs to be done
now to ensure that we cancontinue to do what we do in our
communities and influence ourcommunities and influence
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through the church.
And I just want to say somethinghonestly to those, whichever
camera, that is, those of youwho are watching online I love
you and those of you who used tocome here on a regular basis.
We've made it so easy for youand I get that.
I look good this way.
Just so you know, camera takesaway 20 pounds.
It's awesome, but here's thedeal.
(27:44):
We need some of you to comeback and it's going to be less
convenient, but it's going to bemore strategic, because we need
you to be a strategic part ofnot just listening to content.
You can get content 24-7.
You can hear me talk.
You can hear anybody talk.
It's not special.
Ask my kids.
(28:04):
It's not special at all.
The power of what we do is notwhat we do with people sitting
in rows.
The power is what we do interms of representing Jesus to
the community, and we want youto be a strategic part of that.
If you're with us online and Iknow I'm kind of twisting the
(28:25):
knife right now a bit, don'tturn me off, just hang on, I'll
get off of this in just a second.
Maybe it's time for you toinconvenience yourself for the
sake of something greater thanyourself, and here's the promise
I can make this You're notgoing to regret it.
You're not going to regret it.
And a year from now, a yearfrom now, when you add up all of
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the things that you didn't getto do because you served in the
local church, it will equalnothing, because you don't even
know what you gave up, becauseyou're not giving up a
particular thing, but you'redoing some particular thing
that's extraordinary andactually has the potential to
make an extraordinary difference, not just in the lives of other
people and in our community,but what the church represents
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collectively.
I'm telling you, I'm tellingyou will accomplish a great deal
more, will accomplish a greatdeal more.
Now, 34 years ago, this was amuch smaller group and a similar
appeal was made.
We had no money, we had noresources, we had no building,
we had no membership.
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All that there was was thisidea of what we thought our city
and our city surrounding usneeded and what the church in
general needed, and then cast avision towards that.
All we had was vision.
And you know what happenedSuccessful people who didn't
have time made time.
It's their money, and theirtime is why we're here and
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that's why you're here and whyI'm here.
That's why we have what we haveand that's why we have these
fabulous environments in whichto come and participate in and
to have our kids go in andexperience grief, share in the
middle of the weekend, and justso much more that's going on in
recovery.
And now, friends, it's your turn, it's my turn, it's your money,
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and if everybody will do alittle, we can continue to
actually do a lot, not just herein our city or our cities and
not just even here in our state.
I mean, this is crazy.
We can do this all over theworld.
Through what you're doing here,you actually have a broad reach
.
And here's the reality.
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This is the part that you don'tthink about, unless it was part
of your story, but I thinkabout it all the time because I
hear the stories.
Next Sunday, at this campus andat churches all over the country
, not just in our church, awoman is going to show up with
her kids in tow and she isdesperately going to want them
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to enjoy the experience.
Because she needs a partner asa parent, because she is
desperate to have an anchor inthe hearts of her children a
love for God and a love for herword.
And she is going to hope likecrazy that when she gets here,
when she arrives at our church,there's going to be something
(31:23):
fabulous for her children andwhen she picks them up after
service, they're going to saymom, mom, can we come back next
week?
And that I'm telling you,friends, is wind for her and
it's wind for us.
Next week, at our church, awoman is gonna show up with her
children and her husband in towand he's gonna give it one shot
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and she's gonna hope that herchildren love the people they
meet, wanna return, and she'sgonna hope like crazy that what
happens in the big room, in thisroom, is that with her husband,
who he sees at the door and whohe encounters in the lobby,
what he is experiencingexperiencing checking in their
children is so different, soengaging, whether he believes
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everything that we believe ornot, he's gonna walk away and
say that was worth it.
We can go back again.
This happens every week.
A dad is gonna show up on aTuesday night or a Wednesday
night with a sixth grader or a10th grader and they're just
struggling and they're gonnabring them to altered or rally
and they're going to show up andthe kid's going to have a bad
(32:26):
attitude and she's going to havea bad attitude and you're going
to see their attitude justbefore they walk into the
building, you know, with theirhood on, like we see it every
week, and mom and dad they'repraying like crazy.
Are they going to like it?
Are they going to connect withsomeone?
Is someone else going toconnect with them?
And what we do in those earlymoments and what happens with
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their small group coulddetermine and I'm not making
this up could determine thetrajectory of their entire life
who they meet, who they marry,how they think, how they manage
themselves, how they approachfriendship and sexuality and
their relationships with peopleand their neighborhood, and then
when they go off and go tocollege I mean the implications
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could go on and on and on.
And what happens in small groupwith middle school and high
school students is solife-shaping and life-changing.
And the way that we do smallgroups, ministry and children's
and high school students, middleschool students is different
than most churches.
It's actually harder than mostchurches, which requires more
leadership than most churches,because it makes a bigger
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difference than most churches,because we don't want to give up
on that.
But in order to do that, weneed some of you.
Because if we, if it was, thinkof it this way if it was your
sister bringing her kids andshe's going to give church one
more shot, going to give it onemore chance, if it was your
(33:53):
daughter, if it was yourgranddaughter, if it was your
daughter-in-law bringing yourson back, you couldn't get him
back into church, but somehowshe's talked him into coming one
more time.
You know what you would wantthem to experience and we're
going to continue to createthose experiences for them, like
somebody probably did for you.
(34:16):
And if you've ever thought, youknow, I wish I could have been
in a church like this when I wasgrowing up, let's make sure
that there's a church like thisfor the kids who are growing up,
if you've ever thought, hey, ifthere had been a church like
this, I think my life, my adultlife, would be different.
And this is your opportunity toensure that this generation has
(34:39):
a church like that.
And I know you don't have thetime.
I know you don't have the time,I know you don't have the money
, and again you're gonna have todecide, like the people who
came before you made time, mademoney, and the reason we're
pushing so hard to go all in isbecause my heart is actually
still broken over the loss ofinfluence of the church and we
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can be, and continue to be, partof changing that.
But more than that and relatedto that, my heart is still
broken for a generation that'sdeconstructing their faith,
because they were handed a faiththat required deconstructing,
because they're leaving thechurch.
And you know why they'releaving the church.
They're leaving because they'reconvinced that the church has
(35:23):
left Jesus.
They don't have a problem withJesus.
What they have a problem withis how Jesus is represented in
the local church.
And, as I said earlier, it'sreally good news and great joy
for all people.
And if it's not good news forall people, it's not the right
news.
(35:43):
We need to prepare to open upthese doors wider, to say, hey,
everybody needs a Savior,everybody needs forgiveness and
you can come and start yourjourney with us.
Amen.
And as much as I'm excited aboutdoing that with adults hello
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people, my age, empty nesters,30-year-olds the more I'm
telling you I am more passionatethan ever that we continue to
do that with our children andmiddle school and high school
students, young adults, becausewhat's happening in our culture,
the messages they're receiving,I wholeheartedly believe that
in Jesus, that in Jesus, in thechurch, in the church and in the
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New Testament, through the NewTestament, as we do this, that
they will actually find a way oflife, they will find an ethic,
they will find a morality, theywill find guardrails that will
guide them through this seasonof life.
And here's the deal, and we areresponsible for them and we
need all of us this is an allskate, that old school thing
(36:50):
right All of us to step up andmake sure we continue to do a
great job at this.
This is why we're going all inand doing this generosity
initiative that we, just as wetalked about last week, we are
just managers and stewards, thateverything is His.
And who are we, who are youthat we've been invited to
(37:15):
participate this way?
This isn't just about me.
This way.
This isn't just about me, it'sabout we, it's about us.
This is about Jesus and obeying, not just believing.
And for those of you I just wantto end this way For those of
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you who show up early, for thoseof you who give consistently,
for those of you who sit oncarpet circles with kids while
they do their fireside chats andcome during the weekday
services.
For those of you who didn'thave time, but you made time.
For those of you who don't haveany extra money, but you make
sure that a percentage of yourincome goes to what God is doing
(37:57):
through the local church.
Thank you.
For those of you who have aplan for how you will support
this local church financially,thank you.
And those of you who and I'm sograteful for and I love you but
you've grown content with justconsuming it's time to change
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that.
It's time to engage, or maybeit's time to re-engage with your
local church, to go all in.
The church changed the worldand there is still a great deal
in our world that needs changing.
And I am absolutely convinced,because Jesus taught us that the
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church is the catalyst forchange personally, corporately,
nationally and globally.
And, by God's grace, togetherwe will continue to be a part of
this change in our communities,in our neighborhoods, in our
families and in the world.
Are you with me?
Would you stand as we respondin worship?
All right.
So a couple weeks ago wewrapped up the gospel according
to Matthew, and it ends withthis mission and purpose.
And actually it's our missionand the purpose, not only as
individuals, but collectively,as the church.
That's actually Jesus.
Followers, we see at the veryend, are multipliers, and this
is actually how the worldchanged.
(00:23):
We see this at the very end.
This is where Jesus is talking.
The last part of this, matthew,chapter 28, says therefore this
is what he's saying, thereforeis because he's saying all
authority in heaven and earth isme.
So he says therefore, go andmake disciples of all nations,
of everyone, all people, groups,baptizing them in the name of
the Father, the Son and the HolySpirit, and teaching them.
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Teaching them to this wordright here obey.
That's a really important word.
Not believe, don't teach themto believe in something.
Everyone can believe insomething.
It's great.
It's different when it becomesa verb and you're doing it To
obey everything that I havecommanded you.
And surely this is the greatpromise he gives when you do
this.
Surely he says then I'm withyou always, to the very end of
(01:06):
the age.
That's what all in looks like,that's what we've been talking
about All in going and makingand baptizing, and teaching and
obeying, and this is what we'regoing to continue to talk about
just for a couple more weeks.
What does that look like as wego?
All in Another type of languagethat Jesus used to explain this
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he called people and he askedthem to be fishers of men, to be
fishers of men to go out, andto what then?
So then you ask this questionwhat does fishermen do?
Well, they cast nets and then,when they're done casting nets,
they mend nets and they fix thenets and then they cast them
again, and then they mend themand they cast them.
And then for us, in our context, is we need to be mending nets
(01:49):
and then casting nets, and thenmending nets and then adding
nets, wider nets, and thencasting those nets, and then
Jesus ultimately fills the nets.
And for us, in our future, thatmeans a couple different things
.
The first thing that we want tobe able to focus on as we're
going all in is transformation.
That's why this space wascreated, that's why this campus
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was created that we would haveexcellent environments for
people to experiencetransformation, like many, many,
many of you have.
That we would continue toexpand our opportunity for
transformation.
So, expansion Some of you guysneed to understand too.
Transformation happens, itcontinues to happen when there's
mending.
(02:32):
That happens, just like in yourhouse, and so there's some
mending of the nets that we haveto continually do as things get
old or they wear down.
There's some mending in thesespaces.
So we have these excellentenvironments, so we want to be
able to go all in and mend thosespaces.
As far as expansion goes,there's a couple different ideas
.
Many of you guys may not knowthis, but these walls in the
back of this room, those twowalls, actually are temporary
(02:53):
walls and they go down and thenthat goes up to.
This is how this building wasbuilt stadium seating to go
around so we can expand ourreach for transformation and
impact and the community eventswe're doing and the weekend
events that we're doing.
I explained to you guys some ofyou this was new news, some of
you it's not new news last week,but we actually, in the next
three to four years, we're goingto have new neighbors that we
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want to be prepared for Righthere.
This is a picture of it.
So this is where we are on themap and this is literally you
looking this way.
Right.
Way over there is the freeway.
This is all that cow town spaceover there.
Here's the water treatmentplant.
For those of you who arefamiliar with Benicia, this is
Lake Herman Road, the lakes overhere.
This is thousands of peoplemoving into the neighborhood.
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We believe that God ordainly putus in this spot to be prepared
for such a time as this andthere's some expansion as we go
all in that we should do, to beprepared as we get to invest in
the community, as the communityliterally moves into our
backyard, as we're such aregional church and a regional
reach and some of that's goingto change a little bit.
So we have to be innovative.
Innovation is that other word.
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We need to be innovative in howwe're reaching this next
generation, how we're creatingspaces and places for
transformation.
There's big dreams in thisvision over the next couple
years to be ready for this, thatwe would, potentially on our
property, build like a gym orsome sort of facility that would
be like a YMCA or Boys andGirls Club-like facility that's
(04:17):
walkable and accessible, thatliterally becomes a bridge to
the community.
That this would be their firstexperience for transformation in
this faith community, that wemet a need in that space.
We interacted, we rubbedshoulders with that.
We're casting wider nets, beingfishers of men.
And here's the deal.
I want to reiterate this againand again and again Whoever wins
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the kids, wins the future.
Whoever wins the kids wins thefuture.
And so how can we be innovativeto do that?
This is big vision that we havefor our next generations team,
our young adults, our children's, our students.
I mean, like Sammy, I love itright now.
He's focused, like detailed,focused on what does it look
(05:01):
like to get 500 unchurched oranti-churched or non-churched
experienced kids up on thiscampus so they can come to these
transformative spaces andexperience the love of Jesus
Christ?
And here's the deal with thisstuff.
It's kind of messy when youinvite all of that up here.
Right, it's not all churchy,which is great, but here's where
the challenge is for some of usthat we're like, oh my gosh,
(05:22):
what's going on?
We get to ask this question.
Challenges for some of us thatwe're like, oh my gosh, what's
going on?
We get to ask this question arewe fishers of men casting and
mending nets, or are we justkeepers of the aquarium?
That's the big challenges forus.
That is the huge challenge forus, and going all in looks like
being called to high levels ofsacrifice.
(05:42):
So we've launched thisinitiative to go all in and to
make this a reality for us.
This isn't a campaign, and whatI'm doing is I'm asking all of
you all of you who come inperson on a regular basis, all
of you who attend online, watchonline to engage in this
initiative of all in andleverage our collective
resources in order to maximizeour kingdom impact, and I want
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us to put the foot our foot onthe gas and maximize our
potential.
But to do that, it's actuallygoing to require all of us Like
this.
We want 100% engagement intothis to maximize our personal
generosity and our resourcesourselves to this initiative.
So one of the things that I cantell you that I've loved I've
been here for 15 years, for thelast 15 years about our church
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is the confidence that I have ofwhenever I invite anyone,
someone, to one of ourenvironments, whether it's
during the week, whether it'sfor an event, whether it's on a
Sunday service.
I would often say to them hey,I just want to warn you.
You know you're coming here.
You might not want to bringyour children right To which
they would be like what?
Like you don't have stuff forkids to do there and I'm like,
no, it's because they're so good.
(06:53):
Whether you want to come backand hear me preach or not, your
kids are going to want to comeback.
I guess the best part, they'regoing to want to come back and
see this.
So you may not want to bringthem the first time, because I'm
that proud of what our churchhas done for my own children.
I have four kids that arebecoming young adults and one of
the reasons I'm so passionateabout our church is because the
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difference it's made in thelives of children and students
in this next generation.
And here's the deal, and this iswhy we're talking about this,
and for those of you who arewatching from home right now, we
have got to ensure thiscontinues to happen, that there
is this kind of church, thatthere's those kinds of
environments for this nextgeneration to experience.
We literally, to do that, weliterally need hundreds,
(07:36):
hundreds of you to step up thatare willing to be curious enough
to step into some strategicservice roles on Sunday mornings
.
To do this, we call them changemaker teams.
They're not just volunteerteams, because we're not simply
looking for volunteers.
We're looking for people whowant to do something strategic
for change.
Casting nets, mending nets.
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It helps us accomplish ourmission of inspiring people and
equipping people to follow Jesus, inspiring a whole generation
of students and high schoolstudents and college students
and middle school students tostep up and to inspire them,
equip them to follow Jesus, notjust in this season of their
lives, but for the rest of theirlives.
(08:18):
So today, for the next fewminutes, I just want to use
whatever persuasive skills Ihave to persuade hundreds and
hundreds of you, with the HolySpirit, to ensure that our local
church continues to fire on allcylinders to do extraordinary
things in our communitiessurrounding us.
And that's not just that.
(08:38):
We need you.
The truth is and I don't knowhow to say this any more direct
than this you need you to dothis because you're part of a
body and you benefit from thatbody this local church and you
need this for you.
And when I go around and Ithank people for serving during
(09:00):
the week or on the weekendsoften it's so fun I get this
response no, no, no.
Thank you for giving me thisopportunity to do this, because
something's actually happened intheir heart as a result of
stepping in to be a part of oneof our Changemaker teams.
Many of you are part of thosethings.
It's one of the bestinvestments of your time apart
from your personal family thatyou'll ever make.
You know.
It's an opportunity to meetsome other busy people, to meet
(09:23):
some other successful people, tomeet some people who didn't
have the time to do this.
But they made the time to dothis and we're so glad that they
did.
But before I give you the pitch,I just want to tell you just
what I feel like is one of themost epic stories of faith in
the New Testament.
It serves as the backdrop towhy we're here and really the
(09:44):
backstory to our local churchhere.
So let me just take you back intime real quick 2000 years.
This is amazing, and if you'renot a church person or a
Christian person and you comefrom like a different faith and
you're here today, you've got tolove this story because it
explains so much about why thechurch is the way that it is and
the church should be the waythe church should be in our
(10:06):
modern world.
You with me, yes, thank you.
You're like man, okay, okay.
So right after Jesus rose fromthe dead, he sees his apostles,
and a few weeks go by and hisapostles, they're in the city of
Jerusalem, where Jesus had justbeen arrested, tried, crucified
, and they go out into thestreets, the very same city
(10:26):
where he literally dragged hiscross.
And they go into the streets ofJerusalem and they begin
talking about the fact thattheir rabbi has risen from the
dead, which is crazy talk Inthat particular segment of time.
Even talking like that couldget you arrested and killed as
well.
I mean, if you look at this, ifthey took the head of the
movement down, certainly they'regoing to take the followers of
(10:46):
the movement as well.
And yet these apostles we seePeter and Andrew, james, john
and Bartholomew.
They go into the streets ofJerusalem and they go onto the
temple steps and they beginproclaiming that God's Messiah
has arrived, he's been crucified, rose from the dead, and dozens
of people gather, and thenhundreds of people gather and
(11:09):
next thing, you know, the wholecity is talking about this
resurrected Nazarene fromGalilee.
And so there's all this stuffthat's going on and it's kind of
amazing and people arebelieving and it's growing.
And the reason they'rebelieving is not because they're
superstitious.
They didn't believe that peoplerose from the dead.
They're believing because thesemen and women who saw the
resurrected Jesus were soemphatic that they were willing
(11:33):
to risk their lives to talkabout it.
And the church in Jerusalem itjust explodes Like it just takes
off.
But the people who had Jesusarrested and crucified, they're
shocked about this In theirminds.
They have put to bed, they'veput to rest this Nazarene cult
(11:53):
that they thought this was, andnow it's back and there is more
and more people involved thanever and they're thinking gosh,
like we killed him.
Now it's like he's truly comeback alive.
And the text tells us that Luke,who wrote this, who knew all of
these people, got this and hegot this story for us.
It tells us that the highpriest and all of his associates
(12:16):
of this big group of people whoare the members of this party,
the Sadducees, they're filledwith jealousy and so they're
angry.
And then there's another kindof revolution that's now taking
place and going on.
So they're jealous becausethey're supposed to be the ones
at the epicenter and the focusof attention when it comes to
all things religion, not thisMessiah that's being talked
(12:40):
about.
And now there's a group ofpeople saying that the Messiah
that we've been waiting for he'scome, and they're like we don't
think that he is the Messiahand nobody is really paying
attention to us anymore.
And so they're jealous, and sothey do what they've done to
Jesus.
They arrested the apostles andthen they put them in public
(13:00):
jail.
Now, a little detail here thatI think that we overlook,
because when we think jail, wethink like our kind of jails.
Public jail was literally inmost cases just a hole in the
ground, not a hole in the groundwith drainage, just a hole in
the ground in a building.
And so they take these apostles, these men who've been with
Jesus, and they put them in thishole in the ground.
(13:21):
And it's late in the afternoon,and so they're going to have to
wait to bring them in the nextday to question them and to talk
to them and to threaten them.
But then, as you continue toread, god springs them from this
hole in the ground and they'refree that night.
And so what do they do?
Well, they do exactly what Iwould have not done right,
because what I would have donehad been like you know, I did my
deal Like I preached the sermonon the street.
(13:41):
I got arrested.
I think I'm going to take myball and go home or I'm going to
move on to the next place, likethis place is dangerous.
But no, the next morning thesemen are in the same streets
preaching the same message,knowing they're probably going
to get arrested again.
But they can't keep their mouthshut.
And if you had seen your rabbicrucified, buried, and then saw
him resurrected, you probablywouldn't be able to keep your
(14:03):
mouth shut neither.
This is how the church actuallybegan and they preach, and they
preach, and they preach.
Well, this happens, and thenext morning the men who had
arrested them are like what,where did they go?
Like they're out.
And not only are they out, theydidn't run away, they're
preaching in the same spot.
So this makes it easy for them.
So they go and have themarrested again and they bring
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them in to question them.
And again it's the very samemen who arrested and tried Jesus
.
And of course, the apostles arethinking like we're next, like
they're going to arrest us,they're going to try us and
they're maybe going to have uscrucified as well.
It is open season on thefollowers of the Nazarene rabbi.
And so they say to Peter andAndrew and James and John and
(14:47):
the rest of them they bring themin to question them.
Look, they say look, we gaveyou strict instructions, not in
orders, not to teach in his name, the name of Jesus, yet you
have filled the whole city.
So not only have you spoken inthe name, you filled the whole
city with his teachings and youare determined Get this.
(15:10):
You are determined to make usguilty of this man's blood.
You're like, determined to dothis.
And Peter by the way, this isthe first Pope, if you're
following that stuff just stepsup and decides to give this
defense.
He actually gives like a littlesermon, if you will, and the
(15:30):
theme of this sermon could havebeen yes, in fact, you are
guilty of his blood.
That was the point he wastrying to make.
He says you killed.
He actually uses this reallylike.
He said you killed the authorof life, but God raised him.
Here's the four points of thesermon that he gave.
He said you killed the authorof life, but God raised him.
Here's the four points of thesermon that he gave.
(15:51):
He said point number one youkilled him.
Basically, yeah, you're guilty.
Point number two God raised him.
Don't you wish these sermonswere this fast and easy, right?
Point number three we've seenthem, like we actually saw them.
And then point number four sayyou're sorry, you need to repent
.
This isn't good.
You need to acknowledge thatyou crucified the son of God,
(16:13):
god's Messiah, and guess what?
God's actually willing toforgive you, and that makes it
good news.
In fact, to quote Peter, hesays we were witnesses to all of
these things.
And then the text says again, aswe read and we just go right by
it, the text says that thesereligious leaders, that these
leaders had these men, all ofthem, this group of men, flogged
(16:34):
, with like no details aboutthis.
Same with the crucifixion, bythe way, when it talks about
Jesus being crucified.
There's like not details inthis.
Same with the crucifixion, bythe way, when it talks about
Jesus being crucified.
There's like not details inthis.
Why?
Why is there no details aboutwhat flogging is or crucifixion?
Well, it's because everybody inthe first century had seen this
.
They were experiencing this ona regular basis.
Just about everybody in thefirst century that lived in
(16:55):
Galilee and Judea had seen acrucifixion.
They'd also seen the aftermathof someone who had been had seen
a crucifixion.
They'd also seen the aftermathof someone who had been flogged.
They knew what that meant.
It took a long time.
It takes a long time to flogmany men and you hear the skin
ripping off the back of yourbrother and you just know you're
next and there's no detailsgiven because there's none
necessary.
They understood this and thedepth of this.
(17:16):
And these men are flogged andthen they're ordered not to
speak the name of Jesus Clearly,you're not allowed to do this
and then they let them go toheal their wounds.
And Luke, who knows these men,who knows them?
Who records this for us?
He writes the following Listento this.
The apostles left the Sanhedrinrejoicing because they had been
(17:38):
counted worthy of sufferingdisgrace in his name.
That is something I think wemiss For the rest of their lives
.
When they pulled their shirtsoff, they would be viewed as
criminals who had been arrestedand found guilty of something,
because they bore the marks ofthat flogging on their back and
(18:01):
those scars they would wear forthe rest of their lives.
But what did they do?
They wore them as a badge ofhonor that we have been found
guilty, by proclaiming the goodnews for all people, for all
time, that God has sent hisfinal king into the world.
And then they leave, and thenthey surely go somewhere to let
(18:21):
their wounds heal.
And then what do they do?
What would you do?
This is you.
What would I do?
Well, what they did next isliterally why we're here.
These are our people.
These are the people who camebefore us.
These are the people who hadthe stewardship the fragile
stewardship of the gospel.
(18:42):
They were the ones there withJesus.
They were the only group whoknew what Jesus taught, because
they were there with him day inand day out.
It was so fragile.
This could have ended righthere, like, literally, this
could have been the end of thismovement.
And Luke says I've talked tothem and I've talked to the
people who know them well, and,after they attended to their
(19:05):
wounds, says this then, in thetemple courts, at the epicenter
of ancient Judaism, from houseto house, they never stopped
teaching and proclaiming thegood news, casting nets Jesus is
the Messiah, he is God's finalking.
And I'm just going to tell youright here that good news piece
(19:27):
that is so important.
If the version of Christianitythat you have been raised on, if
the version of Christianitythat you're currently a part of,
if the version of Christianitythat you've walked away from was
not and did not strike you asgood news.
It wasn't the right version,because people don't do what
(19:47):
this group of people did unlessit was really really good news,
news worth suffering and dyingfor.
And those are our people.
And then here's where the storybegins to actually intersect
with ours.
As a result of their courageand their boldness, and the
(20:07):
church, like at this point, justlike super explodes, super
explodes.
There was this festival goingon at the time.
This is why they waited tillthis particular time to go out
into the streets, and so therewas Jews from all around, not
just from Galilee and Judea, butfrom all of the surrounding
areas.
They'd come into Jerusalem forthis festival, to celebrate the
harvest and to celebrate whenGod gave Moses the Torah.
(20:31):
And it's this big celebration,and so the city is packed full
of people and many of theseoutsiders have now embraced
Jesus as their risen King andMessiah and they're becoming
part of the church and theydon't want to leave, like
they're all making this bigcommunity.
It's like a revival has brokenout, because, day after day, the
apostles are teaching andteaching the teachings of Jesus,
(20:53):
and Luke tells us, in thosedays when the number of
disciples was actuallyincreasing, that it just got
bigger and bigger and bigger andbegan to create some problems.
And that's because when you getthousands of people all in one
area of the city that hadn'tbeen there before, food can be
scarce and you can't preservefood.
This is why it was a bit of acrisis that they had this good
(21:16):
news.
It was creating a little bit ofa problem.
They just didn't have muchorganization at this point and
they had this explosive growththat created challenge
specifically and here's thechallenge that kind of sets up
this next part of the story.
The challenge was this thatthese families from outside of
the area brought their entirefamilies with them.
(21:36):
It wasn't just a few people andthen they brought their widows
and you have the Jews fromGalilee, and you have the Jews
from different areas that speakAramaic, and then you're there
in Jerusalem and you havetheseHelenzinzik I can spit this
out, I'm not even going to tryso they speak Greek.
(21:57):
They've been cultured to GreekWith a little bit of Greek.
They're Jews and they've beenrisen in that area of the
culture and so they've come likefrom the Turkey area, from
Greek.
They've traveled over into thisspace and so they're all there
and they're mixing together and,as it turns out, the church
decides to do food distributions.
(22:18):
Right.
We do that stuff especially tothose who weren't able to feed
themselves, and the group thatwas most vulnerable at that time
was actually the widows.
So they bring daily meals tothe widows and this group is
responsible for food service andPeter and Andrew and James and
John and all the apostles.
They're saying we're not toogood to do this work, like we're
(22:40):
going to go and we're going tofeed widows too, and
consequently, as a result ofthis, what happened was is these
women that came from outside ofthe region weren't getting the
same type of attention as thosewho spoke the same language.
There was this language barrierhere and, as the apostles
weren't from that area, and soit wasn't like a discrimination
(23:01):
problem.
It was a distribution problem,because they had no systems in
place, but they had thousands ofpeople and hundreds of widows
that they were trying to feed ona daily basis.
So growth overwhelmed thesystem and the apostles are
trying to handle this themselves, which was admirable, but it
was slowing things down and theywere beginning to break down
(23:22):
and there was conflict inside ofthis brand new, embryonic thing
called the church or theecclesia of Jesus, and so they
did what churches do whenthere's a problem.
They had a meeting, right.
I think this was the firstchurch meeting that we know
about.
It says in verse 2, acts,chapter 6,.
So the 12 gathered all thedisciples together and said it
(23:44):
would not be right for us toneglect the ministry of the Word
of God in order to wait ontables.
Here's the implication we'renot too good to wait on tables,
but we have a unique opportunityand we have unique giftings,
where these men who sat at thefeet of Jesus for three years
said our responsibility is tomake sure that we're able to
teach these thousands of people,and they were uniquely gifted
(24:05):
to do that.
And they said so we need tofind some people to help us take
care of food distribution,because this is important.
We want to take care of thewidows, and this is such a
picture of the local church andthe teaching and the preaching
and the caring for the needs ofthose who are vulnerable.
And so they said we're going todo both, because both are
(24:27):
essential.
So, brothers and sisters, thisis how the story went.
Brothers and sisters, chooseseven men from among you who you
know to be full of the spiritand wisdom, and we will turn
this responsibility over to them, because we want to make sure
that the widows are being takencare of and in the meantime,
we'll give our attention toprayer and the ministry of the
word.
And then this miracle takesplace.
(24:50):
It says this the proposalpleased the whole group.
This has never happened in achurch business meeting before
group.
This has never happened in achurch business meeting before,
like the entire church saidabsolutely yes, it's a miracle.
I'm telling you and friends,miracles can still happen.
(25:10):
We're having our church meetingon June 1st FYI.
All right, so don't think hesays we don't think we don't
think you guys are too good toserve food.
Yeah, yeah, we want to makesure that the vulnerable get
taken care of and we want tomake sure that the vulnerable
get taken care of and we want tomake sure that the word is
preached.
And so this pleased the wholegroup.
They're like yes, this is whatwe got to do, let's get
organized.
Now.
The text goes on to say this andLuke got all the details.
(25:31):
This is so cool.
They chose people to serve andto care for people.
It shows people who embrace themission, what they were trying
to do, who were willing to dowhat needed to be done.
And then what happened?
What was the result of this?
Well, one of the results wasthat the widows from outside
that part of the world werebetter taken care of and their
(25:52):
needs were met.
But Luke doesn't mention that.
Here's what he does say was aresult of that decision.
Here's what he does say was aresult of that decision.
So the word of God spread.
The number of disciples inJerusalem increased rapidly
they're casting wider nets and alarge number of priests became
obedient to the faith.
Now, here's why this is crazy.
(26:13):
There were thousands of prieststhat lived in Jerusalem, that
were on the inside, that, like,saw this whole thing play out
right in front of them, and theyrecognized get this.
This is why it's wild.
They recognized that they werewrong, that they actually had
been a part of the scheme tocrucify the author of life, and
(26:35):
repented and then placed theirfaith in Jesus, and they too
then became Jesus followers.
It's amazing.
It's actually why we're here.
It's how we're here.
One thing leads to another.
They chose people that could dowhat needed to be done in the
moment, and then they fueled themovement a movement that we're
(26:59):
a part of today which actuallybrings us to us, and this is why
I'm not shy about saying weneed hundreds of you, not just
seven.
They picked seven.
We need many more than seven.
We need hundreds of you.
We need hundreds of you to stepup and do what needs to be done
now to ensure that we cancontinue to do what we do in our
communities and influence ourcommunities and influence
(27:22):
through the church.
And I just want to say somethinghonestly to those, whichever
camera, that is, those of youwho are watching online I love
you and those of you who used tocome here on a regular basis.
We've made it so easy for youand I get that.
I look good this way.
Just so you know, camera takesaway 20 pounds.
It's awesome, but here's thedeal.
(27:44):
We need some of you to comeback and it's going to be less
convenient, but it's going to bemore strategic, because we need
you to be a strategic part ofnot just listening to content.
You can get content 24-7.
You can hear me talk.
You can hear anybody talk.
It's not special.
Ask my kids.
(28:04):
It's not special at all.
The power of what we do is notwhat we do with people sitting
in rows.
The power is what we do interms of representing Jesus to
the community, and we want youto be a strategic part of that.
If you're with us online and Iknow I'm kind of twisting the
(28:25):
knife right now a bit, don'tturn me off, just hang on, I'll
get off of this in just a second.
Maybe it's time for you toinconvenience yourself for the
sake of something greater thanyourself, and here's the promise
I can make this You're notgoing to regret it.
You're not going to regret it.
And a year from now, a yearfrom now, when you add up all of
(28:48):
the things that you didn't getto do because you served in the
local church, it will equalnothing, because you don't even
know what you gave up, becauseyou're not giving up a
particular thing, but you'redoing some particular thing
that's extraordinary andactually has the potential to
make an extraordinary difference, not just in the lives of other
people and in our community,but what the church represents
(29:13):
collectively.
I'm telling you, I'm tellingyou will accomplish a great deal
more, will accomplish a greatdeal more.
Now, 34 years ago, this was amuch smaller group and a similar
appeal was made.
We had no money, we had noresources, we had no building,
we had no membership.
(29:33):
All that there was was thisidea of what we thought our city
and our city surrounding usneeded and what the church in
general needed, and then cast avision towards that.
All we had was vision.
And you know what happenedSuccessful people who didn't
have time made time.
It's their money, and theirtime is why we're here and
(29:55):
that's why you're here and whyI'm here.
That's why we have what we haveand that's why we have these
fabulous environments in whichto come and participate in and
to have our kids go in andexperience grief, share in the
middle of the weekend, and justso much more that's going on in
recovery.
And now, friends, it's your turn, it's my turn, it's your money,
(30:18):
and if everybody will do alittle, we can continue to
actually do a lot, not just herein our city or our cities and
not just even here in our state.
I mean, this is crazy.
We can do this all over theworld.
Through what you're doing here,you actually have a broad reach
.
And here's the reality.
(30:38):
This is the part that you don'tthink about, unless it was part
of your story, but I thinkabout it all the time because I
hear the stories.
Next Sunday, at this campus andat churches all over the country
, not just in our church, awoman is going to show up with
her kids in tow and she isdesperately going to want them
(31:00):
to enjoy the experience.
Because she needs a partner asa parent, because she is
desperate to have an anchor inthe hearts of her children a
love for God and a love for herword.
And she is going to hope likecrazy that when she gets here,
when she arrives at our church,there's going to be something
(31:23):
fabulous for her children andwhen she picks them up after
service, they're going to saymom, mom, can we come back next
week?
And that I'm telling you,friends, is wind for her and
it's wind for us.
Next week, at our church, awoman is gonna show up with her
children and her husband in towand he's gonna give it one shot
(31:45):
and she's gonna hope that herchildren love the people they
meet, wanna return, and she'sgonna hope like crazy that what
happens in the big room, in thisroom, is that with her husband,
who he sees at the door and whohe encounters in the lobby,
what he is experiencingexperiencing checking in their
children is so different, soengaging, whether he believes
(32:05):
everything that we believe ornot, he's gonna walk away and
say that was worth it.
We can go back again.
This happens every week.
A dad is gonna show up on aTuesday night or a Wednesday
night with a sixth grader or a10th grader and they're just
struggling and they're gonnabring them to altered or rally
and they're going to show up andthe kid's going to have a bad
(32:26):
attitude and she's going to havea bad attitude and you're going
to see their attitude justbefore they walk into the
building, you know, with theirhood on, like we see it every
week, and mom and dad they'repraying like crazy.
Are they going to like it?
Are they going to connect withsomeone?
Is someone else going toconnect with them?
And what we do in those earlymoments and what happens with
(32:50):
their small group coulddetermine and I'm not making
this up could determine thetrajectory of their entire life
who they meet, who they marry,how they think, how they manage
themselves, how they approachfriendship and sexuality and
their relationships with peopleand their neighborhood, and then
when they go off and go tocollege I mean the implications
(33:11):
could go on and on and on.
And what happens in small groupwith middle school and high
school students is solife-shaping and life-changing.
And the way that we do smallgroups, ministry and children's
and high school students, middleschool students is different
than most churches.
It's actually harder than mostchurches, which requires more
leadership than most churches,because it makes a bigger
(33:33):
difference than most churches,because we don't want to give up
on that.
But in order to do that, weneed some of you.
Because if we, if it was, thinkof it this way if it was your
sister bringing her kids andshe's going to give church one
more shot, going to give it onemore chance, if it was your
(33:53):
daughter, if it was yourgranddaughter, if it was your
daughter-in-law bringing yourson back, you couldn't get him
back into church, but somehowshe's talked him into coming one
more time.
You know what you would wantthem to experience and we're
going to continue to createthose experiences for them, like
somebody probably did for you.
(34:16):
And if you've ever thought, youknow, I wish I could have been
in a church like this when I wasgrowing up, let's make sure
that there's a church like thisfor the kids who are growing up,
if you've ever thought, hey, ifthere had been a church like
this, I think my life, my adultlife, would be different.
And this is your opportunity toensure that this generation has
(34:39):
a church like that.
And I know you don't have thetime.
I know you don't have the time,I know you don't have the money
, and again you're gonna have todecide, like the people who
came before you made time, mademoney, and the reason we're
pushing so hard to go all in isbecause my heart is actually
still broken over the loss ofinfluence of the church and we
(35:02):
can be, and continue to be, partof changing that.
But more than that and relatedto that, my heart is still
broken for a generation that'sdeconstructing their faith,
because they were handed a faiththat required deconstructing,
because they're leaving thechurch.
And you know why they'releaving the church.
They're leaving because they'reconvinced that the church has
(35:23):
left Jesus.
They don't have a problem withJesus.
What they have a problem withis how Jesus is represented in
the local church.
And, as I said earlier, it'sreally good news and great joy
for all people.
And if it's not good news forall people, it's not the right
news.
(35:43):
We need to prepare to open upthese doors wider, to say, hey,
everybody needs a Savior,everybody needs forgiveness and
you can come and start yourjourney with us.
Amen.
And as much as I'm excited aboutdoing that with adults hello
(36:03):
people, my age, empty nesters,30-year-olds the more I'm
telling you I am more passionatethan ever that we continue to
do that with our children andmiddle school and high school
students, young adults, becausewhat's happening in our culture,
the messages they're receiving,I wholeheartedly believe that
in Jesus, that in Jesus, in thechurch, in the church and in the
(36:27):
New Testament, through the NewTestament, as we do this, that
they will actually find a way oflife, they will find an ethic,
they will find a morality, theywill find guardrails that will
guide them through this seasonof life.
And here's the deal, and we areresponsible for them and we
need all of us this is an allskate, that old school thing
(36:50):
right All of us to step up andmake sure we continue to do a
great job at this.
This is why we're going all inand doing this generosity
initiative that we, just as wetalked about last week, we are
just managers and stewards, thateverything is His.
And who are we, who are youthat we've been invited to
(37:15):
participate this way?
This isn't just about me.
This way.
This isn't just about me, it'sabout we, it's about us.
This is about Jesus and obeying, not just believing.
And for those of you I just wantto end this way For those of
(37:35):
you who show up early, for thoseof you who give consistently,
for those of you who sit oncarpet circles with kids while
they do their fireside chats andcome during the weekday
services.
For those of you who didn'thave time, but you made time.
For those of you who don't haveany extra money, but you make
sure that a percentage of yourincome goes to what God is doing
(37:57):
through the local church.
Thank you.
For those of you who have aplan for how you will support
this local church financially,thank you.
And those of you who and I'm sograteful for and I love you but
you've grown content with justconsuming it's time to change
(38:18):
that.
It's time to engage, or maybeit's time to re-engage with your
local church, to go all in.
The church changed the worldand there is still a great deal
in our world that needs changing.
And I am absolutely convinced,because Jesus taught us that the
(38:41):
church is the catalyst forchange personally, corporately,
nationally and globally.
And, by God's grace, togetherwe will continue to be a part of
this change in our communities,in our neighborhoods, in our
families and in the world.
Are you with me?
Would you stand as we respondin worship?
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