Acts Wrap-Up Week 1 | Josh Harrison

What's up everybody Nice to see you. We're gonna go. We're just gonna dive right in, we got a lot of stuff to talk about today. Before we get into the last two weeks of acts here, let you know where we're going, we are moving into a lead series. So lead starts on the 22nd of February, I believe it's Wednesday, we'll have an ash wednesday service details to come. But starting in lent the Sundays of lead the six Sundays, we're going to do a sermon series on Jesus. Right figure that sounds like somebody we should talk about. Like we don't the other days of the the other Sundays, but we're doing a sermon series on people and individual encounters with Jesus. So people who met with him kind of one on one, and what happens when you see Him as He is. So we'll be talking through that through lens, it's going to be amazing time together. In addition, Mike mentioned Wednesday, fasting and prayer, through lens, we're going to do something that we normally do monthly, we're going to do it weekly. So we have a night that we call seek first. Yeah, which is a monthly prayer and worship night we do we break our fast with tacos together, then we have a time of prayer and worship. And rather than doing this once a month, during Lent, we're going to do it every week. So for six weeks, six Wednesdays in a row, Laura and Tim volunteered their place, and Hank three here in the front row have volunteered their place. So it'll be at their place, the usual spots. So grateful for that. It's gonna be gonna be fantastic. We're gonna bite you into some specific rhythms of fasting and prayer on behalf of yourself, obviously, but also on behalf of the church. So more to come on that soon. With that, we're going to finish up the X series next two weeks. All right. So last week, and we talked about the last chapter and x x 28. Today, we're going to do what I'm calling application. So it's kind of the so what now we don't want to simply talk about x and then close the chapter and say it wasn't that fantastic. Wasn't that an amazing two years and then move on? We want to instead apply this to our lives in our community. So quick storytime. When I left my previous church, I was trying to figure out what what was next. My wife and I, Heather and I were praying about God, what do you have for us, you know, is thinking about getting a job in another church or trying to if anybody would have me, also just thinking about praying about planting a church and I ended up sitting down with Todd proctor many of you know, Todd, Todd's founder of canopy church along with some other families. And he was just saying, kind of what do you want to do with your life? And I said, you know, well, I want a pastor trying to figure out if it's planted church, if it's, you know, get a job at another church. And he said, you should definitely plant a church, which is amazing. And he said, here's the deal. When the time comes for you to plant the church, our church canopy will plant you. In other words, we will give you finances and we will give you people and it's going to be great. I came to find out later that he had neither finances nor people, but that's a different thing. The gesture was nice. But he asked me a question. He says, When you plant your church, what's it going to be all about? You know, essentially, he's asking what's the vision of the church and I spent the next 1015 minutes just rambling, you know, stuff that I felt really deeply, but I wasn't really sure kind of how to put it on on on the table in front of us. So I talked for a long time. And if you ever have been around Todd, you know that Todd is, he's a straight shooter. He's a truth teller. If you're an Enneagram person, he's an Enneagram, eight, right? So you always know where you stand with Todd. So I get to the end of my kind of my tirade, and he goes, You know, there's some really good stuff in there. But you got to figure out how to tell that better. If you want anybody to show up to church. And so he said, I've got an assignment for you, I want you to go away and write a one page elevator speech. What would you say your church is going to be about? What in one page? And so I said, All right, Todd, you're on. So I walk away. I spent the next few weeks praying about it. How do I do this? I was rest I had several one pages that got sort of crumpled up and thrown in the digital trash bin. And then I happened to be at a conference in Colorado, and I did what you do when you go to church conferences, you go to a couple sessions, and then you skip the rest of them. And just relax, right? That's what you do. No, don't worry. No, but none of nobody here was paying for it. Can't it be didn't exist at the time? Okay, this was on my dime. So hey, oh, can it be exists? I just wasn't part of it. Anyway, I am getting sidetracked. So I was sitting in the hotel room, reading through some of the stuff that I had written and none of it was none of it was any good. It was just all garbage. And I was like, how do you capture the vision of a church when there's so much that goes into what what a church is? And so I just thought, you know, what I should do is I should read x. And so I did, I sat down and for a couple hours, just read the thing cover to cover the whole book in one sitting and while I was writing, I was just jotting notes. And I didn't know what I was doing at first, but over time, I started writing down every time I came across, like what can what I considered a core belief of the early church, you know, something that we saw them do, but more than something we saw them do something that we saw them like believe at a fundamental foundational level about themselves. And I got to the end of it, and I had I had these like notes scrawled all over this book and I just started typing them up in some sort of format. And by the end of this, I had a seven page document. That was 16 points of things I consider to be core convictions of the early church. And these kind of fleshed out paragraphs. It was like, if you've seen the movie, Jerry Maguire was one of those moments just like typing as fast as I possibly could like my manifesto for the church on a page. And I got done with the thing. And I thought, Man, that's it. Like, that's my heart. That's what I feel like God is putting in me, the church that I feel passionate about. And so I spent about 15 minutes trying to consolidate into a page because that was my assignment. And then I just said, forget it, and I hit send, put an email to Tada, hit send, I said, Sorry, you asked for a page, here's a sermon series. It's not gonna be an elevator speech, this is what we're doing. And he called me back within an hour what if you know, Todd is not normal, call me back within an hour and said, Hey, I think we need to talk when you get back in town. So I get back in town. And he said, How about instead of, we asked, planting us a church, how about you come and help me lead this one. And we entered into a series of conversations with, with the elder team that was in place at the time and a bunch of key leaders about what it would what it would look like to step into this community because he was saying, the stuff that you put on this page is exactly what we're going after. It's like what we care about most. And I tell you all that to say this was actually the the beginning of the X series two. So this is how I came to be a part of canopy how my family and I came to be part of the church and many of you as well, coming in as part of that, that early kind of community. I tell you that to say though, that was also my heart behind the X series was to take you on that journey, journey that I got to go on, and see what a church is, right? Because that's what we see here. In the in the book of Acts, we see the first model the paradigm as what it's supposed to look like to be a local community of Jesus followers, like worshiping Him and working for the good of the city, they find themselves and that's what we see. And that's what we want to be. And so over the course of the past almost two years together, we've been trying to figure out what is it? What does it mean to be a church and so the journey has been fun. It's been amazing. It's been challenging, and convicting and inspiring. And now I just want to spend the next two weeks walking you through what I consider to be the core convictions of the early church sound. Alright? We summarize that we have a shorthand way of saying that a canopy we say we are a family of Jesus followers learning to live free. That's kind of our shorthand way of saying that today. You're gonna get what I'm calling the the extended edition. Okay. seen Lord of the Rings, you got the three hour and then you got the five hour this is the five hour version, right? You had nowhere else to be today. There's nothing else going on today. Right? Solid, okay. Nothing better than this. Okay. So here we go. We're gonna just go eight convictions today eight convictions next week. You ready? Conviction number one. Yeah. Keon is ready. Thanks for the cheer. All right, conviction. Number one, the foundation of the whole thing. This is where everything in the Christian life flows out of Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord Peters Pentecost sermon, it's amazing sermon, he walks through the entire Old Testament unpacks, the story of God. And he concludes, it will kind of the climax of the whole thing is verse 36, where he says, Therefore, let all Israel be assured that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. That is the thesis statement of the entire Gospel. As a matter of fact, I would say that is the gospel in a nutshell, Jesus is Lord, when Jesus commanded his followers in Matthew 28, to go out into all the world and preach the gospel, the first thing he said to them was all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore go. And I used to think that that was just Jesus giving his credentials like, Hey, I'm in charge, therefore, you need to listen to me, I've come to understand that he was actually giving them the content of the message they were to take to the nations. The content is this all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. That's what you go and tell them. That is the gospel Are you? You may have heard me say this before. But the word gospel is not originally a Christian word. It's a just a normal secular word. It just means basic, good news. And there was a kind of good news that was common in the Roman Empire. Because you see, in the Roman Empire, sometimes there would be battles for the throne, between different generals that were vying for power. In fact, after Nero committed suicide, there was this period, which was in this period of time during the book of Acts. After Nero committed suicide, there was a period of time called the tetrarchy, where four generals were vying for power of Rome. And at the end of it a man named Vespasian, after a year of war, conquered his opponents and ascended to the throne of Rome and Caesar Augustus. When he took that place. He sent a message out to the entire Roman Empire. And the message said this, the war is over. It's safe again. This patient has ascended the throne there's a new king. And later on, historians referred to that letter that went out and was read by heralds around the Roman Empire as a gospel. You won't get early on. And this is the backdrop of the Gospel story. We have It's the same message but taken to a whole new level, not just that there's a new king of Rome. But when Jesus died on the cross and rose to new life, he sent his his followers out with a message that there is a new king of the world. And his kingdom is here and now. And it's breaking in, you can come out and not be afraid anymore. victory is assured. You can walk with Him, you can be with him, you can be citizens of his kingdom, Jesus is Lord is the message of the gospel. It's the whole thing. And I think, I worry, then the evangelical tradition that all of us probably have come out of, we have begun to think that the gospel is this that Jesus is your personal savior. And this is an important realization. It is it really is. Because Jesus is personal, and he does save us. But notice what happens when we start with personal savior, Jesus is we make it about us, I was in this desperate and dark situation. And Jesus came to me in my situation, and he saved me. And we say things like, and he would have done it if I were the only person in the world. And that's a nice sentiment. But it completely diminishes the fact that he wants to redeem the whole thing. Not just people, but all of creation, the entire cosmos, he wants to set it back to good. That's why he stepped into the story. Jesus is Lord of all of creation. And that is the starting point. That's like our fundamental truth. And out of that the personal Savior thing means something, right? Because Why can he save us in the ways that we need him to save us personally, because he's the king. And he's got the authority to do that he's got the authority to ransom people to Himself, to bring us out of whatever captivity we found ourselves in, because he's the king. But if we get the order wrong, we mess up the entire thing. See, the Bible is really clear on this, the hope of the world is found in a king who redeems people to Himself. See, the problem with the personal Savior Jesus Gospel is that then he saves me into the space of freedom, which for us means doing whatever we want. And that's why we grapple so much with like, Is it is it? Is it freedom? Or is it you know, is it grace? Or is it works? Which Which one is it you know, we have this, this tension, because we think Grace just means complete liberty to do whatever we want. And works means that we're enslaved to some sort of Pharisee ism. But that's not the truth. The truth is, that when the King comes and saves us, He saves us to Himself, not to our own selves, not into our own stories, but into his story into His kingdom. And so we are no longer slaves to the law of sin and death. But instead, we are servants of the king, Bond servants of Christ. That's how Paul refers to it. He saves us to himself and into his story. And this is our hope. This is the hope of the world it's found in a good king, who knows what he's doing. And we have a hard time with this as Americans, this is this is you have to understand in this country, fundamental to our DNA is the idea that we serve no king here. Right? That's our origin story. As a country, we celebrate it every year with big explosions. Kings are bad in our understanding, absolute power corrupts absolutely. The best we can hope for is everybody gets to do whatever they want without being told what they can do. That's just not the Bible story. The Bible story is there is such thing as a good king. And only in bowing to him, do you find freedom? Only in submitting your will daily your lives daily to him? Do you discover who you were meant to be? And that sounds scary until you start to get to know this king, which thus the Lent series right? Because when you start to get to know this king, you find He's different than all the rest. You find that this is a king who descends from his throne, and empties himself and making himself nothing. He's born into a lower middle class family, and then makes it his ambition throughout his life to descend below his station, below middle class, lower middle class, to the least and the last he comes to the broken the hurting, he hangs out with those who can give him nothing in return, who cannot further his career who cannot help him get to the throne because my friends he needs no help getting to the throne. This is a king who elevates the unseen and the forgotten who plays with little kids in a society that values little kids and Not at all. Who heals the broken and the destitute who comes he says for the sinners and the loss, not for those who are healthy and influential and powerful, but for those who can do nothing for him. He empowers women in a society that's chauvinistic and sexist. Where most rabbis make fun of women in the writings you can read in the Talmud, the writings of the rabbi's jokes about women, and Jesus never once made a joke about a woman. So matter of fact, in His ministry, every significant event happened first, with a woman, He empowered he elevated, he treated with dignity and honor. This is a king who conquers the world, not by killing, but by dying. who conquered the planet, took over the Roman empire without ever commanding an army, though he had armies at his disposal to command. This is a humble king. And that's why we can trust him. And only in trusting Him, and bowing to him, that we find who we are. And so a church is a community of people who together have bowed to King Jesus, not simply accepted him as personal Savior, but bowed to him first as Lord. And then this place, that's what we do. And that's why this morning, this this expression of worship, get on your knees if you're able, so powerful. Because that's the kind of community we want to be on our knees before our King doing whatever He tells us to do. Number one core conviction of the early church and this church now and always Jesus is Lord. Number two, the Church is the Body of Christ. I know this is simple, kind of cliche language. But let me be very clear on what this means in the book of Acts, chapter one, verse one, Luke says in my former book, The Office, I wrote about everything that Jesus began to do and teach. In other words, Luke wrote both the book of Luke in the book of Acts and he says, My previous book was about everything that Jesus began to do and teach. what's the implication there, that this book, the second book, in the volume is about everything that Jesus continues to do and teach. Why does that get complicated? Because Jesus, like lifted off in the clouds within the first few verses. So how can the book be about everything that Jesus continued to do and teach? As he did it through his church? He did it through his church, and they took this very, very literally, they took this body of Christ thing like, actually, literally, it wasn't just a cute metaphor, wasn't just an idea. It's what they consider themselves to be. You listen to the writings, especially the apostle Paul, this becomes really, really clear. He says, In Galatians, I am crucified with Christ. Therefore I no longer live, but Jesus Christ lives in me, and the life I live, I now live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me to hear that crucified with Christ in the book of Colossians. He said, For you died, you died and your life is now hidden with God and Christ and when Christ who is your life appears, you also will appear with Him in glory. In Philippians, he says, Whatever was to my prophet, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What's more, I consider everything lost compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I've lost all things I consider them trash that I'm again Christ, and be found in him having a righteousness not in my own which comes through the law but that which comes through faith in Christ. Do you hear it the language is language of death, and loss like I have given up everything for him. What is baptism? It's a public burial we're buried in the water of baptism, and we rise to new life friends this is not what I have called over the years Carrie Underwood Christianity, okay, this is not Jesus take the wheel kind of stuff. This is Jesus the truck is yours. Where are we going? Do whatever you want. The truck is yours. The road is yours. The planet is yours. What do you want to do? And here's the thing, it sounds heavy and it sounds like daunting. But we learned that in this kingdom dying is living. That when we lay down ourselves daily, we empty ourselves we give him control increasingly more and more that we we live, our capacity expands. Our impact expands our hearts grow. So the question is, do you want to keep building sandcastles you want to build the kingdom? That's the that's the offer. And the early church says we're in for the Kingdom. We are your hands and feet. We are your body working in the world. Do whatever you want. Their lives no Longer their own, their story is no longer their own now, his story lived in my body. And in this body, this church, our ambition is to be the body of Christ at work in West Side, Costa Mesa, and wherever else he happens to put us. Number three, the Holy Spirit empowers the church to be the body of Christ. Okay, here's the crazy thing about it is when you give control to God, he shows up. When you bow to Jesus, He doesn't just leave you on your knees bowing and say, isn't that nice? No, he comes in, he takes control. And he gives new gifts. And he empowers he supercharges old gifts. And he increases vision and capacity. And he begins to work and it's almost like, I'm trying, I'm working on an analogy, that's not going to really work. But I'm gonna go with it anyway. It's almost like you come like out and you're, you're you're sort of in this, like, test demo mode. You know, Have you ever bought like a piece of electronics from the store, and it's in demo mode, and it can do all kinds of like interesting things. But then you like, unlock it, and all these new features and capacities open up. The dumb analogy, isn't it. But that's what we're talking about here. We are now unlocked by the Spirit of God, to be fully human, to be fully ourselves, the people he made us to be like Jesus was. Jesus was a real human being, like God's intent for human beings. And now through him when we surrender control of our lives, and he increasingly fills us with his spirits. Increasingly, as we give more and more, he feels more and more, we become more alive, more ourselves, more who were made to be our capacity grows. And we see it in the book of Acts. I mean, these were not normal people were they. I mean, the courage they had the generosity, they exhibited the poise under pressure, the willingness to sacrifice, the miracles, they experience, the way their prayer life just, like exploded out of them, like effortlessly like, this was not normal. This was supercharged by the Spirit, and nothing we see in the book of Acts happens without the Holy Spirit. Tradition has called this book the Acts of the Apostles. But it should more accurately be called the acts of the Holy Spirit, through his church. That's what happens here. And here's the deal. By the end of the book of Acts, 30 years later, they did what nobody should have been able to do. Jesus gave them an impossible task, be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Here's the deal, Jerusalem was not a happy place to be a Christian. Just a few days before Jesus said those words they had hung him on across and he was a lot more charismatic and interesting than they were. Judea, again, hostile territory, Samaria, Samaritans, and Jews didn't get along at all ends of the earth. I mean, you read on the story, see what happens, they should have never done what they did. But within 30 years, they had planted churches all the way to Rome. And the gospel was spreading across the Spain and into the British Isles, within a couple of centuries. I mean, they lit a fire, this little group of 120 believers that they should have never been able to get started, why the Holy Spirit was at work, and here's the deal. He is still at work. In this church. When you bow your knee to King Jesus and surrender control of your life, he takes it. He takes control and he fills you with himself and he unlocks you in lots of ways that you would have never imagined otherwise. He will empower you the same spirit will empower you and will empower us to things that we could have never imagined. He's still at work in his church. Question is, how much do we want to give? Because he only gives what we've he only feels what we give. This is why I say he increasingly fills us because as we increasingly open our hands and trust him more and more, we find that there's more of the Spirit available to us. It's not that he's been withholding it's that we have. So how do we surrender more and more daily, to experience more and more of his power at work in us? Number four, Christian community is essential. Acts 242 to 47 is this famous snapshot of the early church where it says they gathered together in one another's homes daily, they met in the temple courts for worship and prayer, they broke bread together. They practice radical generosity, they prayed together. It's this community that really was one body, one fan I'm only in Christ. And why is this important? Why does it Why is Christian community so the word I chose here is essential. In other words, not optional mandatory, you cannot do this life with Jesus without a why? Three things. The first one is this, because this identity that Jesus is calling you to is not an easy one to live out in this world. If you're expecting the world, to help you become more like Jesus, you are sorely mistaken, you will not simply walk out your door in the morning and be swept along in the currents of King and kingdom. So matter of fact, before you even leave your door, you will be assaulted by a current that's running the opposite direction. That will sweep you away from King and kingdom if you're not careful. That will steal your identity. Because here's the deal. Jesus saves us He gives us a new name and a new purpose. But then what does he do? In his grace for the world, he puts us right back in the old place and says now be different in this place. What's the problem with that? Well, we still got all the old habits, and old relationships and old everything of the old place. And often he doesn't break them off of us just like that. Often, he says, My grace is sufficient for you. And we go into this old place as a new person, but fighting the old temptations. Fighting to live in a new kingdom and a new story for the sake of ourselves, and for the sake of those around us. And it's hard. And you can't do it alone. That's the point here. In His Grace, God has said, I know what's going to be hard for you. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to surround you with other people who are doing the same thing. And you guys can tell each other the story. When you forget what you're doing. That's what we're doing here on a Sunday morning. We're telling the story again. Because you go out there, you're going to hear a different story. But we're reminding you know, this is the story we're a part of, don't forget, it's like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Living in Babylon in exile. Right? You know, those weren't their original names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Those were names that were given by the Babylonians and each of them relates to a God of Babylon Shadrach to the sun god, Misha back to the moon god Abednego to some other god named Nico. I don't know who that is. But anyway, their original names were Hannah and I me shale and Azariah Han and I means God is gracious. Michelle means God hears as Ryan means God is my help. Their names were stolen from them in Babylon and replaced with the names of foreign gods. And I don't know that this happened, for sure. But the fact that they were so faithful in front of the fiery furnace leads me to believe that they were faithful in other settings. And I imagine what happened with something like this, they probably all shared an apartment together, you know. And I imagine one day Shadrach comes home and he just had a bad day. And he was just really struggling to live faithfully to God and Babylon. And then I imagined me check looks at him and says, And and I don't forget who you are. Not forget what you're doing here. If you don't have that, my friends, you're not going to make it. If you don't have that in this place, you will not make it. Christian community is not nice. It's essential. And it breaks my heart to hear so many Christians in this day and age say the one thing they have a hard time finding in their churches community. I think what are we doing then we doing? If we put on a great Sunday, but nobody knows each other, like really knows each other in a place where you can call out their true name. In this place, Christian community is essential. Because it's essential. Second reason it's essential as this it helps us to put the gospel of reconciliation into practice. But we're we're we're believing something pretty radical, which is that the way to change the world is not through is not through being right. But through sacrifice. In other words, we're believing this gospel of grace that says you've wronged me, but I forgive you. And we don't just receive that we're called to give it and the only way we can do that is to be in a community close enough where we're going to be wronged. That's what churches for churches for practicing getting irritated. It's for practicing being hurt in the way of Jesus. This conversation with my mentor recently I said, Man, you know, Bill, you some of you guys know Bill, you'll you'll if you haven't met him, you know, you'll meet him. Don't go to coffee with him. That's a painful experience. But I said, Bill, in all your years of leaving the church, did you ever like did you ever feel betrayed and he goes, Oh, yeah, of course. And I said it's just the worst and he said, Did you or did you not pray to be more like Jesus? This is why you don't go to coffee with Bill but it's in a place like this, that we practice the gospel. And not just the like the nice parts of it, you know. But the actual sacrifice like laying down my rights for somebody else my right to be right. My right to be offended. It's a place where we irritate each other deeply. And we love each other in spite of it. If you're at a church, this or any other church, you think this is the greatest church I've ever been a part of the people are so incredible. It's such a lovely community, you haven't gotten in close enough. Because we are a disaster. And I will irritate you to know and ask my wife, you don't have to Amen, so hardly over there. She I'm just gonna I'm just kidding. Internally, I can see it. Finally, the reason that communities essential is because it's how we show the world that Jesus is. So Jesus said, right, Father, may they love one another as I have, as you have loved me. May I be in them, and you and me, so that the world will know you sent me this is John 17. And we'll know that you've loved them and you love me. You hear that? Why unity in the church, so that the world will see Jesus and know that Jesus loves them. Simple as that. The way we love each other in this radical sort of community as we forgive as we are undefendable, as we lay ourselves down for each other is a powerful testimony to the world. As a matter of fact, in the book of Acts, they didn't sit around strategizing how to get last people to the church. They didn't have these think tanks meeting saying how do we reach the culture, they just love each other so well, that everybody around said I want to be a part of that. Christian community is essential. Number five, we got to get truck in here. All right, Jesus redefines family. Jesus redefines family this is related to the previous one. And what that means is simply this. And x 50. And there's this thing called the Jerusalem Council where they got together and discuss whether or not Gentiles would be allowed in and how they would be allowed in. And this was a major issue for the entire book of Acts. From from Acts chapter nine onward, this was what they were wrestling with the whole time is we're at this like Jewish thing. And now suddenly, these outsiders are coming in, and they're very different than us. And how much like us do they have to be in order to follow this? Jesus, they're wrestling with this constantly. And that made their community compelling. Their community wasn't what it was supposed to be when it was just a Jewish sect. Because here's the deal. Jesus is worthy. In every tribe, he is Lord of the entire. And if all we do is get together with people who look like us and act like us and think like us, what does that say about the worth of Jesus? Honestly, like if this Jesus thing, were just a phenomenon for like, white middle class people, how fascinating would that be to the rest of the world. But the fact of the matter is, we just got back with it from with a team from Tanzania, South Africa, Jesus is alive in the Global South, my friends, and there are people who don't look like us, or think like us, or act like us, who are worshipping the same king, in different languages. And this is happening all over the world today. Around the globe, in almost every nation on earth, people are bowing their need to King Jesus and singing songs like these in every language. And when this happens, the world pays attention in a new way, because they say these people can't agree on anything. They can't agree on clothing, on language, on food, tastes on culture, on music, they can't agree on anything, but they agree on him. There must be something to him. He is worthy in every language, which is the picture that we get in Revelation, isn't it and I looked in there before me I saw people from every tribe, and nation and language and tongue bowing before him singing this song of worth and value. And that is family. Now. It's not to say that our old bonds of family don't mean anything. But Jesus redefines family no longer on the basis of DNA, but on the basis of the waters of baptism. You guys have heard the saying Blood is thicker than water. In the kingdom of God. It's simply not true. The waters of baptism are thicker than anything. In fact, I don't know if this is true, but I like it. So I'm going to say it is okay. I heard somebody wants say that we've got that saying wrong. Blood is thicker than water, that is actually a shortened version of a longer thing, which is this the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water that will hear that the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. And that makes this thing that we're doing here. Not just community, not just a nice social events, but family in the most intimate and real ways. And like I said before family with some really obnoxious people that we would have never chosen to be family with otherwise, with some people who don't look like us or act like us or think like us, thus requiring sacrifice that's requiring ourselves to be undefendable, thus, empowering the gospel witness as we live it out, see how that works. In other words, this Jesus redefines family thing is all about diversity. I am more and more convinced that we cannot experience the full weight of the gospel. If we're just around people who are like us all the time. We have to actively pursue diversity in every possible way. cultural, ethnic, socio economic age across the board. We can't be a church that's just for one type of people. Because Jesus has redefined family. Many of you are newer to the church, you don't know that we used to gather once a month with an African American church from up the road called place for worship, they would come here to this place. They haven't for a while because they got their own place. And they felt like they needed to be settled. But I just got to meet with Pastor Sheridan last week. And he assures me that we're going to get back to it soon. And for us, yeah, if you've, if you haven't been a part of our place for worship Sundays, you have a treat in store, they're my favorite Sunday of the month, hands down, they will be coming back very soon to worship with us. And it is an experience of the Body of Christ. I remember the first time they showed up here, I thought my first thought, as I watched them worship, as I listened to share it and preach was, wow, Jesus, you're bigger than I thought you are. Here I thought we were this body of Christ, the canopy is the body of Christ, you know? And I learned watching them that Oh, no, we're just like a little finger. And there are other parts that we need to connect with. Because Jesus is huge. And he's amazing. And he's bigger than can be contained in any one church. I look forward to having them back. I can't wait for you to meet them. I'm hoping I'm hoping the end of end of March. So stay tuned. Number six, the church is a kingdom of priests going along the lines of this church language. I said a second ago that these were not ordinary people. The fact of the matter is they were ordinary people. That's what it says right? X 413. When Peter and John stood in front of the Sanhedrin, it said they took note that these were ordinary, unschooled men who had been with Jesus. Every person in the book of Acts, regardless of how miraculous they are, like the stuff that they do, they're just normal people. They're just normal people, following Jesus filled by a spirit. I mean, we see this over and over and over again, Peter and John were fishermen. I mean, I guess Paul was technically educated for the task at hand. But what we see is just people filled with the Spirit of God doing extraordinary things. And that's just the case. That's how this whole thing works, is every believer, every follower of Jesus, who bows their name to King Jesus, and is filled with His Spirit, is now capable of extraordinary stuff. By His Spirit, there is no such thing as an ordinary Christian. Okay. And that means that every Christian in this place, gets to play. It's a kingdom of priests. It's not one or two priests who lead and everybody else who follows instead of church is a group of people working together offering their spirit supercharged gifts for the work that God is doing in this community. Now, it's, I believe, wholeheartedly as I am one of these that God uses church leadership to help guide and shepherd the church. But at the end of the day, the apostle Paul is clear on what the job of a church leader is, it's to equip the saints, for works of service, equip the saints for works of service, not entertain the saints with works of service. Everybody plays in fact, everybody must play in the church vision, as much as I told you the story of these 16 core convictions. I'm offering this to you not to say this is the way it's going to be come and follow me. I'm offering it to say like, how can we do this? Because I don't fully know. I've seen some of these things. I've been a part of some of these things. But I have never been a part of a church like this in every way. And I desperately want to be I just don't know how but some of you do. The diversity thing I just talked about, it's it's complicated. And I don't fully know how to get there. And some of you do. As we talk next week about some of the practices, the core convictions that are practiced in the early church, there's going to be stuff that I've never seen actualized but some of you do. Envision in the church doesn't come from a stage down. It comes from the seats up. Church should look like that people call it home. It should look like you and here's the thing. It's not Just everybody gets to play it's everybody must play because if you don't, our church is weaker. Church is the Body of Christ. The church is a kingdom of priests where every person filled with the Spirit of God becomes a powerful connection point between heaven and earth. And you have to play your part. Two more. The gospel of the kingdom is good news for the real world. Not just the spiritual world, not just Sundays, but every day of the week in every sphere of creation. I'm gonna get this quote very wrong. But there's a theologian named I believe Abraham Kuyper who said, there is no corner of creation over which the reason Jesus doesn't look and say this is mine. In other words, every corner of creation belongs to him. Every corner of society, every corner of our lives, remember, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And that means that Jesus enters into every space of our lives. We don't compartmentalize him off to just one bit to this private part. Our faith was never supposed to be private, it's supposed to be very public, very obvious that we're followers of Jesus. Do we go to school, as followers of Jesus? Do we do our jobs as followers of Jesus? Or we husbands wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, kids, parents as followers of Jesus? Do we go to Starbucks as a follower of Jesus? Do we, God forbid, vote? As followers of Jesus? Does he make an impact not just an impact, but does he transform every part of our being? The gospel of the kingdom is good news for the real world. And Jesus has left us in this place and not sucked us up straight up into heaven so that we can be a part of seeing the kingdom of God break out into the kingdoms of this world. So we can see hope and restoration breakout so that we can be people of peace, that word peace, Shalom in Hebrew doesn't mean just a lack of war, it means wholeness. And the job of a Christian filled with the Spirit of God is to be a person who increases the net amount of shalom in the world. wholeness, everywhere we go. gospels, good news for the real world. In every situation in every setting, what does it look like to be people of hope? You know, I'm getting ready next week to go with these two here to the Holy Land, and Martin, my daughter to the Holy Land, on a trip to a place where I've been told the world is locked in what's called an intractable conflict. In other words, a conflict that cannot be resolved between Israelis and Palestinians. It's been going on for nearly 100 years now. And I have heard a Christian after Christians say something along the lines of and it will continue to be that way until Jesus comes back. And I say, No, no, I can't just sit on the sidelines and accept that answer. If I'm a person of peace, I might not be able to solve it. But if I am filled with the Spirit of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, then I can bring what I can to the table. Because I am told by my king that the area around me if I am sold out to him, is the kingdom of God. And where I go, his spirit goes and where you go, his spirit goes. And so as followers of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, step into the intractable conflicts of this world, we can bring shalom, maybe not perfectly until he comes back. But does that mean we sit on the sidelines and just say, let it burn? God forbid. God forbid followers of Jesus have changed the world in the most fundamental of ways. Throughout the centuries. followers of Jesus initiated orphan care. They built the first schools, they founded the first hospitals, there's a reason there's a cross on hospitals. They ended violence in the Coliseum. They ended slavery. You see, because they didn't sit back and say, oh, man, that's a big social problem. Just gonna hang out in church and sing some songs. Nothing wrong with that. But they took those songs into the streets and they sang them in the streets, because that's what happened in the book of Acts. Right. Acts to private prayer gathering. And in the streets. That's how this is supposed to work. stuff we do in here, makes its way out there. And out there has changed. Last The Gospel of the Kingdom has good news not just for the real world, but for all nations. In other words, we push the boundaries. Jesus said in Acts one eight will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And my friends, we need to be ends of the earth kind of people. In this place, we are looking for dreamers who have like this, this heart for adventure, this heart for beyond the edge of the map, you know, I've used this quote a lot lately, because it was so inspiring to me from Lord of the Rings. When when Gandalf says we are over the edge of the wild, here, there are no roads. We need people with that kind of a heart, I met a man like this in a place called Bhutan, his name is Benjamin. And he felt like God called him to take the gospel of the kingdom to all of the tribes in his in his country. And so he literally would just take the taxi until the road ended. And then he would get out and hike the high Himalayas until he came to a village and he preached the gospel there. And sometimes he didn't speak the language and the Holy Spirit would give him the language ended up in prison. And he figured I was preaching the gospel here and up leading the entire all of the guards in the prison that Jesus baptized them in the sink. Because he just figured, I'm just gonna go wherever he tells me to go pushing the boundaries. And we need people who are boundary pushers, we need people who are like, inspired by not intimidated by the idea of marching into the enemy camp. And planting a flag and saying, no, no, no, you don't understand. You might have had your say here for a while. But this is my Father's world. My king rules in this place. And this for us is both figurative mean, we're talking not just about boundaries of the world, but we're also talking about boundaries in this place, places of hopelessness and despair. I mean, it's why we, it's why we throw this dinner party in the parking lot. It's what it is. It's in this neighborhood, despair and hopelessness rule the day. And so we decided in God's name to throw a party where joy was the story. And every month, people show up and they lift their heads some for the first time. And they celebrate. We do it with reunion youth, you heard about our youth group. It's mostly kids from our neighborhood. There's nothing for them here. Their danger of being recruited by gangs, is that's all that's going on in the neighborhood right now. So we figured, instead of building a youth group, just for our church, let's build one for the neighborhood with some other churches and see what happens. And it's become a safe place that they show up to. And there's hope and there's life and there's joy and safety. We need people who have a vision, through this church and through what's happening in reading HQ are nonprofit, to push into enemy territory and plant flags. And not just here, not just sort of figuratively But literally, the nations are out there. Came into 2023. And God just reading like really lit this like burning heart for the nations in me and in our church. And we got to go to Tanzania with Kelly ungraceful Warrior Project. And he's doing some amazing things there. And our partnership with graceful warrior project you're going to hear a ton more about the nations are out there. We're looking for people who have a desire, like Paul says, To preach the gospel where it's never been preached to live the gospel where it's never been seen. Okay, there we go. Are we in? Alright, let's do it. Next week, we're gonna talk about the other eight. I've talked more than I should you guys wanna come on up and take it away? Can I get everybody to stand? I know this is going to be an abrupt and abrupt change of direction. But here's how this whole thing lands. It lands where we started, which is Jesus is King. And all of this makes sense because he's king. And it only makes sense because he's king and it only works because he's king. And so we land with that. We simply want to worship our King. Give him the adoration of our grateful hearts that he so richly deserves. And not just our songs, not just our words, but our lives in this moment. Just bow that he's got something he's asking you to give. Just lay it down. I promise you, it'll feel like dying, but it's actually living. Whatever you have to do in this, whatever bowing your needs to King Jesus in this place looks like let's do it together. Now. If that's actually getting on your knees, if that's falling on your face that's appropriate in the presence of a king. I know it seems weird. We can be weird, right? If it's praying with somebody, if it's making a phone call you need to make to somebody. If it's offering something you've been holding on tightly to whatever it is, this whole life flows out of his kingship and are surrendered to Him. So let's Let this worship now be an act of surrender.