Hallelujah. Isn't God good?
Amen.
Give God some praise. Let hell know what you got this morning. Amen.
I believe that God is in this house and I believe that He is restoring
what has been broken, what has been lost, what has been stolen.
I believe that He has brought people to this place to receive healing in their physical bodies.
I believe He's brought people to this place to receive healing in their minds,
in their spirits, in their families, in the broken relationships.
Hebrews 11 says,
Without faith, it is impossible.
To please God.
It is impossible to please God.
And so many times we take things into our own hands, we feel disappointed,
we feel that God isn't in something in our lives.
And we turn to other things.
We turn to comforting ourselves, we turn to shopping, we turn to pornography,
we turn to drugs and alcohol.
But the Bible says that faith is a substance of things that we're hoping for.
How many of you believe that this morning?
Amen.
Amen.
And I believe that when our faith gets misplaced, we get ourselves in trouble.
We get a wrong understanding of who God is.
And our image of God that we hold in our mind is just wrong and it draws us away from Him and it draws us away from faith and away from believing that God is the answer to everything.
He is the answer to our loneliness, our disappointment, our shame, our grief, our feelings of loss.
He's the answer to everything.
And the end of the Bible says that He will wipe away the tears from their eyes and death will be no more.
There will be no more crying, no more weeping, no more suffering.
In the Bible, in Revelation 21, it calls those former things.
They are former things.
And if you are in Christ, those are former things.
And I encourage you, if you don't believe that God can do it, if you don't believe that He is faithful to heal and save and deliver and set free,
you should read your Bible and see the way that Jesus met people.
He met people in their pain and in their loneliness, in their disappointment and grief.
And He saw them right where they were.
And He just walked in and sat with them.
And the power of God would meet them.
And He's still doing that today.
He is still doing miracles.
He is still setting people free and healing.
How many of you know this for yourselves?
So, dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you that you are with us this morning.
We thank you that you see every hurt, every disappointment.
You see decades of just shame and disappointment and loss, Lord.
But you're faithful.
You're always faithful to us.
So, Lord, we invite you into those places where maybe you weren't Lord.
And we say, Father, forgive us.
Forgive us for those places that you weren't Lord.
Forgive us in this moment, Lord, where we've replaced you with substances and substitutes, Lord.
But we invite you in this morning.
We invite you in.
And, Lord, we just say, take the pain.
Take the loss.
Take the suffering.
Just take it all.
Because you paid for it on the cross.
So, Lord, help us to walk every day believing that.
Lord, we thank you that you are so faithful to us even when we are not.
We thank you for that.
We celebrate this this morning.
We celebrate your goodness this morning.
We celebrate your glory.
We celebrate your victory over sin and death.
That death could not hold you.
Lord, thank you for that.
And we thank you that we can look forward to a day where we will be with you face to face forever.
Emmanuel, God with us.
Hallelujah.
So, Lord, unleash your Holy Spirit on these people this morning.
Unleash your healing.
Unleash words of knowledge and wisdom and encouragement and deletion of shame and forgetting about sin and forgetting about the past.
Lord, unleash those things, Lord.
We invite you to work in this place this morning.
And all God's people said, amen.
God bless you.
You may be seated.
Hallelujah.
Well, I'd like to welcome you to Bridge Gospel this morning.
I'm glad you're here with us.
If this is your first time, I'd especially like to welcome you.
I know it can be awkward to visit a new church sometimes.
We try to make it less awkward or more awkward sometimes.
But we welcome you.
And we're glad that you came here to visit with us.
I'd also like to welcome everyone who's listening online or maybe you couldn't be here.
I believe that God will bless you right where you are this morning.
Amen.
So, I don't have any major announcements.
What day?
Okay.
May 17, we're having a little party at the church.
Sharon went to Cambodia.
She's back.
We want to celebrate that.
Right?
Six months in Cambodia is no joke.
No joke.
So, we want to celebrate that.
Give her a chance to share.
So, we're going to have a little barbecue for everyone on May 17.
It will be after service.
We always have record attendance when there's a barbecue, I've noticed.
So, bring your friends.
Bring your family.
It'll be a lot of fun.
We believe in missions.
We want to see Sharon go back.
So, we're going to continue to encourage her to go back and support her.
And we believe that God's going to continue to open the door in Cambodia and around the world.
So, I'll pray for the offering.
We're not going to pass a bucket or a plate or put anybody on the spot.
You can give online on the website.
You can scan the code.
You can write a check and put it in the box in the back.
You can make it out to Two Rivers Church.
They're the ones that so graciously helped us get this going.
I think that giving is a great opportunity to worship the Lord with what he has given us
and what he has trusted us with.
And it's amazing how it can leave your hands, but it doesn't leave your life.
Amen?
So, dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for every good and perfect gift you give us.
We thank you for the way that you provide for us so generously through wages, bonuses, gifts,
inheritances, and other forms of increase, Lord.
We seek to honor you through that, Lord.
So, we thank you for the opportunity to worship you through our tithes and our offerings
as we see the gospel advance in Apache Junction and Cambodia and around the world.
Amen.
Amen.
All right.
So, we have a special guest today.
His name is Sam Snyder.
He is a missionary in Mexico.
He will tell you more about that, I'm sure.
But we just want to welcome him.
He's been a great source of encouragement in my life.
He's part of the Fellowship of Christian Assemblies that this church is associated with.
And that doesn't give us, like, ruling ownership or oversight, but it gives us fellowship.
And relationships.
And that's really valuable.
You're not, there's no I in church, right?
So, you need people that will come along and encourage you and say, hey, maybe you should,
maybe you should think about this.
And we need those people in our lives, right?
So, we don't do things alone.
So, I want to welcome Sam just to share the word with us this morning.
Well, it's a privilege to be here.
I'm really, really happy to be able to be with you guys.
We were praying for you before you began as a church.
Even our fellowship of pastors and leaders, when we were hearing about Pastor Tom telling
us about Tim and Jesse and this thing.
We hadn't even met yet.
And we were already gathering as a group of leaders, praying for what God would do here
in Apache Junction.
And so, for me, it's really cool to be here with you.
And after having heard the stories and having met and spent time together, we got even more
time together last night over dinner.
So, that was fun.
Thank you.
But to be here with you, with the church, with the bridge, the church in Apache Junction.
And interestingly enough, as I kept praying about what God would have me share with you
guys, I felt like I kept coming back to the church.
church and my church, our church, the church, the church of Jesus.
I grew up in the church.
And what does that even mean?
Some of you might have grown up in the church and you might be able to relate.
Some of you not.
And you're coming into church having had a bunch of different experiences.
But my church experience was a lot different than yours, I bet.
I grew up on the southwestern coast of Mexico.
And my church experience was, well, it was really hot.
There was no air conditioning.
Thank God for air conditioning.
But we were worshiping under a palm tree hut out in a little pueblito called Coacoyul.
And that was my church experience.
Dirt, dirt floors.
That's where I gave my life to Jesus, on a dirt floor.
My church experience was construction projects and outreach events into the villages.
That's what I understood to be the church.
And I love the church.
I grew up in the church.
I did all the different things that people do when they're in the church.
And it was Mexico.
So church was like every day.
There were so many church services.
And I was involved in all those different church services.
And they were long because, again, it was Mexico.
And so two or three-hour services was normal.
So now when I travel to Africa, four-hour services, it's just kind of like, yeah.
It's not that.
Dave and I were in Tanzania together.
And that was actually the record for me.
I've said that that was the longest church service I have ever been in.
We started, I think it was 930, 10 in the morning.
And we ended at 830 that night.
And it was just like the one service bled into the baptism service, which bled into the evening service.
So it was just like straight through.
I think we might have changed clothes in the middle because we were so sweaty.
But we had a good time.
And so it's great to see you, Dave, here with us too.
So I grew up in Mexico, went to New York to study when I was 18,
thinking that that's where I would just go to school and go back to Mexico, do missions work.
That's why I finally felt I had answered the call to missions when I was eight years old
and wrestled with that for several years in my teens.
And finally at 17, I surrendered and I said, okay, God, I'll go anywhere.
And he sent me to New York.
And that's not what I had in mind.
And so from New York, God redirected me in my following his call to Minnesota.
And I was like, God, this cannot be you.
And I was in Minnesota for almost seven years as a youth pastor.
And then God moved us to the Twin Cities to plant a church.
Here, I'll show you the Twin Cities.
They're right up there.
And in Minneapolis, we planted a church, pastored for 15 years,
and passed off the baton a couple years ago
because God was continuing to draw us from 2015 forward
into more and more international work.
And after years of doing all of those at the same time,
felt like God was saying it's time to hand off the baton of the church.
And in fact, I felt like God said the church won't be
what the church is called to be if you stay as the pastor.
There's a hard word to receive.
So that's part of why I want to talk to you about the church.
I'm here with four of our kids and my wife, Sarah.
We've been married for almost 22 years now.
We have five kids.
The one who's not with us is still down in Oaxaca.
She's studying at a music ministry school down there.
Our family moved to Mexico, really continuing in that call to the nations,
but without a specific destination.
I've been traveling out of the Twin Cities for a while now
and thought, okay, God, that's how the missions call is happening.
I'm just going to be taking trips with guys like Dave going to Tanzania.
When we were in Tanzania with this one translator asked,
how do you decide where you're going?
Like, we're connected to, I mean, we're not a huge fellowship here in the States.
It's somewhere between 75 and 100 churches,
depending on who decides to actually fill out the form
to update their information that year.
So it varies, but it's about 100, really,
that are connected to the fellowship here.
And we're connected to fellowships of churches
that our missionaries over the last 100 years
have started all over the world.
So there's a lot of different places to go,
but this gal in Tanzania, she's like,
how do you decide where to go?
I'm just, she's thinking we're like really strategic go-to,
the biggest ones, where's the biggest conference,
you can have the biggest impact.
And I'm like, I'm just trying to go where the Holy Spirit's leading.
She's like, hmm, what do you do with that?
So we thought that's what we're going to be doing out of the Twin Cities.
And God took us down to Oaxaca, Mexico this last year
when I was finally settled, handed off the baton of the church.
And then God spoke to my wife and then to our kids going,
it's time to take a year to learn Spanish
without really knowing what that led to next.
So I just said, I asked the FCA if I could continue doing
the international work and the USA-based work that I was doing from Mexico.
It's kind of strange to be the USA ministry coordinator living in Mexico,
but it was like, hey, it's just for a year, or so we thought.
And so we've been based out of Oaxaca while they've been doing language school.
They finished language school, and now we're discerning.
Now we're in the midst of discerning, okay, God, where to next?
What are you calling us to?
But whatever he's calling us to, we're certain that it involves the church,
that we're not out there doing something on our own.
We're not lone rangers.
In fact, in the fellowship, one of our values is that we're independent yet interdependent.
All of our values are in this tension, not one or the other.
And so we know that wherever we're going, it's going to be to work with the church.
And that was really a love for the church was what got us started
into church planting in the beginning.
But that love for the church flowed out of a love for Jesus.
Because Jesus loves his church.
You can't love Jesus without loving his church.
And so the more we love Jesus, and the more we got into that,
and he led us to start a church, a community of believers.
And as we started, we had to ask ourselves this question.
After growing up in this thing, and going to Bible school to study this thing,
and going and serving in existing churches,
we're starting a church, and we've got to go,
well, what is the church anyway?
And I don't know if you've ever stopped to ask that question.
It's a good question to ask.
What comes to your mind when you think of the church
is really important as to how we will do what we do the way we do it.
Some people think, maybe not people in this room,
but some people think that the church is a place.
You know, are you going to go to church?
It's a place that, where's your church?
People would ask us that question.
At one point when we were planting the church,
we had a building we were renting,
and it was a really good arrangement with this church
that was renting out their space.
And I had another pastor come up to me one time,
and they go, so like, when are you going to have a real church?
Because really, in their mind,
it was associated with having a permanent building.
But the church is not a building.
We know this.
So some people think it's a place.
Some people think it's a program.
Like, what time does church start?
And in some cases, the more important question,
what time does church end?
Yeah, we're like, when is this thing over?
And it's a program that happens between this time and that time,
and we might even say, man, church was good today.
And that we think of it as a program
that happens for specific times of day.
But it's not a program.
Unfortunately, some people, I know you guys don't,
think of it as pews.
You guys don't have pews here, so that's all right.
You can reconfigure the chairs.
But some people think of church as something that happens
in this format here where we're all facing forward.
That's the church.
Church happened.
Some people think of it as platforms,
but you guys don't think of it as that either,
so that's good too.
And others think of it as power and politics,
and that's what comes to their mind
when they think of the church.
And some people think of problems and pain.
They say, I don't want to have anything to do with that.
And there's a lot of people in Apache Junction
that might have that in their mind
when they think of church,
but that's not the church.
Some places in the world,
you're not the church,
you're not a church,
if you don't have a choir.
Many parts of Africa,
if you don't have a choir,
you're not a real church.
Sorry, guys.
There was no choir.
But what is the church?
Well, that's something that you guys probably know the answer to.
The ecclesia, the ecclesia,
the called out ones.
It comes from the word ek is out,
and kaleo, to call, to call out.
We are the called out ones.
That is the church.
But we got to look at the first mention of the church
to really get a good idea of what the church is.
Because if we believe the wrong things
about who we are called to be as the church,
we will not fulfill what we are called to do as the church,
which is the purposes of God.
So if we know what the church is,
or who the church is,
who we are called to be,
we'll be better able to do what we are called to do.
So we're going to go to the first place in Scripture
where church is mentioned.
And that's in Matthew 16, 13 through 20.
And so if you have your Bibles,
if you could go there with me.
We do this thing.
We started, our church was a international,
very multicultural church
called Cross-Culture Community Church in the Twin Cities.
And somewhere along the way,
in one of our international travels
and talking with the different leaders from all over,
we came to the place of going like,
man, I think we should stand every time we read the word.
Or at least to start our times together.
Because this was part of the showing of respect
from these different cultures.
And we're like, well, let's do that.
So that became a thing that was just how we would start.
Whenever we would first look at Scripture together,
we would always stand.
So I'm going to invite you,
just to make me feel comfortable,
no,
to honor God's Word together.
If you're able to stand with me,
just go ahead and stand.
And as we read this portion of Scripture,
we won't do it for all of it
because calisthenics is,
we'll do that later.
But Matthew 16, 13 through 20,
says that when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi,
he asked his disciples,
who do people say the Son of Man is?
They replied,
some say John the Baptist,
others say Elijah,
and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
But what about you, he asked.
Who do you say I am?
Simon Peter answered,
you are the Messiah,
the Son of the living God.
Jesus replied,
blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah,
for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood,
but by my Father in heaven.
And I tell you that you are Peter,
and on this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone
that he was the Messiah.
Let's pray.
God, thank you for your word.
Thank you that you still are speaking to us through your word.
Open our eyes, open our ears,
open our hearts to receive what you have for us today.
In Jesus' name, amen.
You may be seated.
Thank you.
So, here Jesus takes them out to Caesarea Philippi,
which I guess here in Arizona would be maybe like going out to Sedona.
Giant rocks, also very known for paganism.
So, Jesus takes them to Caesarea Philippi,
which was the most concentrated square mile, you could say,
of pagan temples in that whole region.
It was the darkest place you could think of.
And as a good Jew, you wouldn't go there.
So, if I'm one of the disciples and I'm going with Jesus,
I'm like, where are we going?
You're taking us where?
And he takes them all the way to what would be the worst place of that,
the center.
Maybe it was a vortex.
I don't know.
But the center of Sedona, the cathedral.
And it was actually the mountain that the Jewish people believed
that the sons of God in Genesis 6 had come down to the daughters of men.
So, this was a portal for them, the worst place possible.
This high place was where things really started getting messed up on earth.
Jesus, why are you taking us to the darkest place?
And at that place, at the bottom of that mountain,
there was a cave with a stream that came out of the cave.
And there was a temple down there to the god Pan,
which is the god that was half goat,
which is maybe some of the places we get this weird idea
that Satan has horns from.
But there's an altar and a temple to the pagan god Pan
at the opening of this cave that is called the Gates of Hades.
It was the doorway to the underworld.
This is the place that Jesus takes his disciples
where no good Jew would ever go.
The darkest place, the most evil place, the most demonic place.
And that's where he reveals who he really is.
Because if we're going to understand who the church is,
we've got to understand who Jesus is.
Like, really, really, really get who Jesus is.
In the car, we were talking about one of our friends,
a pastor friend who was going to preach somewhere
at a really big church.
And they asked him,
what are you going to preach on?
And he said, Jesus.
And they said,
well, we're going to need more than Jesus.
And he was just left like, what?
How can you ever need more than Jesus?
But this is, so at the core of even talking about the church,
we've got to get Jesus.
And here he is, he's about to tell them,
you are the church.
But before that, he says,
who do people say that I am?
Because if we're even going to understand
who we are individually as humans,
we've got to understand who he is.
Because if we know who he is,
then we can know who we are in him.
And so he asked them,
and they've got some ideas,
and Peter has a revelation.
And he says, you are the Messiah,
the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And he says,
that was revealed to you by the Holy Spirit.
And Jesus is revealed to them to be
who we know him to be now,
but they were kind of,
they didn't really know in that moment.
And that revelation takes place
in the darkest place,
the least likely place.
And then he says,
I am going to build my church.
And the gates of hell
will not prevail against it.
And so whose church is it
when we talk about the church?
Jesus said,
I am going to build my church.
And sometimes we think of it as my church.
Especially pastors,
sometimes when we're planting things.
It's like, well, my church is here.
But if you talk to pastors,
and I would encourage you to do it,
they have a lot of wisdom,
and it's really good to do that.
Meet other pastors.
Your pastors are really cool.
But it's also good to meet other pastors.
And then you'll know how cool your pastors are.
But you might hear people say,
my church is here,
or my church is there,
or my church is that.
And sometimes pastors can get confused.
I've also been in the situation
where church people got confused.
And they thought it was their church,
like it belonged to them.
And they were fighting
and kicking pastors out.
And fighting and splitting churches
over the color of the carpet.
But it wasn't about the carpet.
It was about who got to decide
and who's in control
and who's church is this really.
And it's his church.
He says it's my church.
And I will build it.
And so sometimes we think,
I'm building my church.
That's a lot of pressure.
And sometimes we think,
God's building my church.
That's better, right?
But it's still my church.
And sometimes we think,
I'm building God's church.
But it's really,
he's building his church.
And if you can imagine him
as a mason,
a master builder,
taking the different bricks
or the different stones,
and he's fitting them together,
he's building his church.
In fact,
in 1 Peter 2, 5,
he says,
you also,
like living stones,
are being built together
into a spiritual house.
So he's building us together.
And there was some confusion,
I think,
in the middle of church history
where they started to go back
to this conversation
and start saying that
Peter was the stone
or the rock
upon which everything
was going to be built.
You guys are familiar with that?
And that's where they get
the whole line of
what must be the pope.
You got to descend
from this direct line from Peter.
There's a problem that,
because in the Greek,
it doesn't say that.
He says,
Simon,
so read,
you were like this before,
but you've had this revelation
of who Jesus is
and I've turned you from a reed
that sways into something solid.
You are Petros,
which is stone.
But on this Petra rock,
I'm going to build my church.
And so theologically,
people have debated,
is that the Petra,
the revelation of who Jesus is,
that's the rock?
Because we know it's not Peter
as the person.
The revelation of who Jesus is,
is the rock?
Or is Jesus himself the rock?
And I lean that way,
but why not both?
But throughout the Old Testament,
God was revealed as the rock,
the rock, the rock, the rock.
And I'm not talking about
Dwayne the rock.
Johnson.
You just say it over and over again,
it kind of seems like I'm saying that.
Jesus is the rock.
And I think that's how Peter understood it
because in 1 Peter 2, 5,
he says,
you are all living stones
using Petros again.
So your stones,
like me, Peter,
we're all stones
and we're being built together
to become a spiritual house.
And who's the chief cornerstone?
The rock that's on the foundation?
Jesus.
So I think that's how he understood it,
but either way,
it wasn't Peter.
It was Jesus is at the,
he's the cornerstone
that all of this is built on,
but somehow,
he's also the one building it.
So Peter mixed metaphors,
and I don't know if you do that,
but sometimes when I'm speaking,
I do that.
I'll mix up metaphors
and it can get confusing.
But Peter was saying,
y'all are stones
and you are also,
he goes on,
he says,
you're a chosen people.
Okay.
So like when God chose
the people of Israel
out of Egypt,
he takes them out.
But you're also a royal priesthood,
not just priests,
but royalty.
Both of the lines,
the Levitical line
and the line of Judah,
together,
you're a royal priesthood.
A holy nation,
a nation that is set apart
from the rest.
God's special possession.
So there's a bunch
of different things
he's saying about
what the church is here.
That you may declare
the praises of him
who called you out
of darkness
into his wonderful light.
And remember that
the church is
the called out ones.
So he's saying
the one who called you out,
him who made you
part of the church.
Like when we're picking
sports teams,
we're saying,
you're on my team,
you're on my team.
Jesus called you out
to be part of the team
so that you can declare
the praises of him
who called you out.
That's what we're here for.
Once you were not a people,
now you are the people of God.
Once you had not received mercy,
now you have received mercy.
You have been called out,
so this is the church,
to be chosen people,
royal priesthood,
holy nation,
God's special possession.
So that you may declare
the praises of the one
who called you
out of darkness
and into light.
You have been called.
I don't know if you've ever felt
like you weren't called.
I remember playing sports
and they called out
the other people,
especially for soccer,
football.
They called out
the other people
and I was like the big guy.
He was like,
oh, I guess we need a goalie.
I guess you can be that.
I always wanted to be the striker.
I got to be the goalie.
And I like picked last.
And sometimes we can think
like in life and ministry,
God's picked other people.
Oh, they've got a calling.
They've got,
oh man,
that person's got
a really big calling.
You've got a calling.
If you're part of the church,
if you said,
here I am,
Jesus,
I want to be part of this family,
then you have a calling
to declare the praises
of him who called you
out of darkness
into his wonderful light.
You are the church.
Not a program.
You are the church.
Or better,
more correctly,
y'all are the church.
Because it was plural.
So I by myself,
I'm not the church.
But us together,
we are the church.
Y'all are the church.
And so there's a lot
of metaphors in scripture.
I want to just kind of
plow through these
and see if we can get
to the landing place
here together.
There's a timer in the back
that says the time,
but it didn't start,
so I have no idea
where we're at.
A lot of metaphors,
let me just give you
some of them.
So you can see how
in scripture
they were mixed together
to give us a better
understanding of
what is the church.
So there's this field.
It's a very organic picture.
Then there's a flock.
Also,
very alive
and a little bit
uncontrollable.
They kind of wander around
and they do their thing.
Messy as well.
A vineyard.
Vines on the branches.
And then there's the bride.
Then there's the children of God
or the family of God.
Whoa, skipped it.
Sometimes family
can look like that though.
And then there's
the army of God.
Also a metaphor
in scripture.
The body of Christ.
The temple
of the Holy Spirit.
Salt.
And light.
City on a hill.
Light of the world.
So when we're thinking about
what is the church
and who are we
as the church,
we've got to remember
all of these pictures.
God wants us
to know this.
And wouldn't it be nice
if somewhere in scripture
there was a place
where we could see
the church functioning
like this.
Fully embodying this.
Well, there is.
That's good news
I have for you today.
I'll resolve that tension.
Acts 2.42-47
we have this glimpse,
this moment
in the church's history
where they were doing
these things.
This was after
the resurrection,
the ascension,
and the coming
of the Holy Spirit
at Pentecost.
We get this picture
of what it means
to be the church
and do what
the church should do.
And we see this
really having to get
worked out
throughout the book
of Acts.
But it's a really
good picture
of what Jesus
intended for his church
to be and do.
And so Acts 2.42-47
says that they devoted
themselves to the apostles'
teaching and to fellowship,
to the breaking of bread
and to prayer.
Everyone was filled
with awe at the many wonders
and signs performed
by the apostles.
All the believers
were together
and had everything
in common.
They sold property
and possessions
to give to anyone
who had need.
Every day they continued
to meet together
in the temple courts.
They broke bread
in their homes
and ate together
with glad and sincere hearts,
praising God
and enjoying the favor
of all the people.
And the Lord added
to their number daily
those who were being saved.
So I really just want
to cruise through this
and give you some points
about what it looks like
when we embody
this call
to be the called out ones,
to be the church.
It didn't have to do
with numbers.
It really had to do
with DNA,
with identity.
Because you can be
the church
and be ten people.
In fact,
Jesus said
where two or three
are gathered together.
But there's something
almost like concentric circles
of the church
and that's the beauty
I appreciate
in the fellowship
is that our church
doesn't have to have
all of what's necessary.
All of the pieces
because your church
over there
is also part of the church
and that church over there
is part of the church
and when we connect together
we can strengthen each other.
So we can be independent
and interdependent
without,
we don't need to be
dependent on each other
but we're interdependent
and we're all serving each other.
So your pastors,
you may not know this,
but your pastors
were serving the rest
of the fellowship
by helping to put together
the website
for this convention
that's happening this week
and putting together
the registration
and working in the background
making videos
and helping promote it
so that other pastors
come and receive ministry.
that's interdependent
and connecting
with each other.
We see this body picture
but in the New Testament
here in Acts
they were all in.
They devoted themselves
completely to being the church.
It says that they devoted themselves
to the truth,
to the apostles' teaching,
to the fellowship
which the word koinonia,
my definition for it
is sharing life on every level.
So it's not just
having a time of fellowship
with gummy bears
and coffee afterwards.
It's sharing life.
Not just two hours
or oh,
we're going to have
a time of fellowship
an hour once a week
or once a month.
Oh,
we have men's fellowship,
women's fellowship.
Fellowship meant sharing life.
A shared life together,
not just a shared hour
or shared snacks.
But it did involve snacks.
Breaking bread.
eating together
is spiritual.
Like it's a really
important thing.
So I heard you say
that barbecue Sundays
are the best attended Sundays.
Maybe,
maybe you should do
barbecue Sunday
every Sunday.
Don't give them any ideas.
Hot dog machine.
But eating together
really is a spiritual thing
but they didn't just do it
when they gathered all together.
They were meeting in homes
and you can't fit,
especially in homes
of those days.
You're not going to fit
60 people.
in one house.
So they were meeting
in smaller groups
eating together organically
and then they were also meeting
to eat together
at other times.
There was the breaking of bread.
There was prayer together.
Prayer was an important thing.
It was,
it was built in already
to their daily schedules
with being Jewish.
At the very beginning
they were all Jewish.
So prayer was built in
and Peter and John
are on their way to the temple
at the hour of prayer.
They were built in rhythms.
So finding those
where they shared prayer together
but because they were
filled with the Holy Spirit
like that,
there was awe and wonder.
Like people were going,
whoa, what's going on
with these people?
What is happening over there?
Not just when they were
speaking in tongues.
And there were signs
that pointed to Jesus.
They were pointing
to that this message is true.
And they were meeting
in the temple
and from house to house.
And throughout history,
we've gravitated
towards one or the other.
Like in this point
in history,
we're really leaning strong
towards the temple's
type of gathering,
the big corporate gatherings.
In fact,
almost the bigger
the better the gathering.
Kind of a mindset.
Right?
The bigger it is,
the better it is.
Is that kind of
where we're at
in the pendulum swing.
But it really has been
or should be thought of
as kind of like a bird
with two wings,
temple and house to house.
So a bird that's
flapping one wing
more than the other
just kind of goes in circles.
And I feel like
for 1700 years,
we've kind of been
going in circles.
So for the first
300 years of the church,
it didn't function
like we think of church today.
They didn't have,
they weren't sanctioned
and they didn't have
the ability to meet publicly
in many cases.
So they were meeting
house to house
in very small fellowships.
But then they'd be meeting
at wherever they could.
And sometimes it was
down by the river.
Everyone got together
down by the river
under the mango tree.
I don't know if it was
a mango tree,
but that's what it would be
where we're at.
And sometimes they were
meeting in the courtyard
of somebody who had
a house big enough
to have a courtyard space
where everyone could gather.
But there were gatherings
in homes
and house to house
and there was one church
in the city.
Even though they were
spread out,
when they would gather,
they would gather as one
and there were leaders
spread out throughout that.
The temple
and house to house.
Because the church
is God's people
filled with God's presence
living for God's purposes
for all people.
And we began to see that
in the Acts 2 42 through 47
because they started out
as Jewish believers
and there was a small group
of them.
There's the 12
and then inside of those
there's 120
or really it's 12,
70,
120,
500
and then thousands
were added.
But you're not seeing
like this one,
oh,
that's the goal
is to have thousands.
The goal is,
Jesus said,
make disciples.
Who make disciples?
Who make disciples?
Like that's,
do discipleship,
live out this DNA
and multiply
what I've given you.
So embody this lifestyle
to be God's people
as God's sons and daughters
filled with his presence
living for his purposes.
So one way
that we've laid this out
to think about it
is that the church
is called to be
not just a really
spiritual place
or a spiritual community
that's fire.
How many of us
have been that,
right?
Fire.
And then the teaching
just not there.
I don't know
if you've ever been
in those places
but we've got to be
true to the word
and alive in the spirit.
We can't have one
or the other.
We need both
because I don't know
if you've heard the saying
that says
with just the word
you dry up
and with just the spirit
you blow up.
And that happens.
So we need both.
We have to be intentional
in equipping
and discipling,
engaging people
from every culture,
from every generation.
We've got to be intentional
in what we do
but also relational.
We've got to be
God's people together
and spiritual.
We need that
but if we're just relational
but we don't have the spirit
it just becomes a club
and we'll miss
the outward focus
and if
so we've got to be missional
we've got to be living
for God's purposes
in our community
and in the nations
and it goes kind of
from the inside out.
One picture
that we use for this
is like a cross.
Right?
So cross has down
and up
in
in this case
because we've got those arrows
pointing in
and out
and we can't say
oh we are
we are a
Holy Spirit church.
We're just worship
and prayer
and prophecy
and that's really it.
We also need the word.
We need to be grounded
in truth.
We can't just stop there
but we also need
fellowship
and relationship
with each other
and then we've got to do that
for all people
so not just us four
and no more.
Man we got a great Bible study.
We've been together
for 20 years.
It's the four of us.
Awesome.
But make disciples.
Multiply.
Like make more groups of four.
Share the love
with others.
One of the most powerful
metaphors though
just to circle back to that
is the body of Christ metaphor.
Like think about
the significance
that God chooses
to describe us
from every tribe
from every nation
from every language
from every culture
from every age
from the youngest
to the oldest
as his body
on the earth.
That's a lot of responsibility
when you think about it.
His body
here on earth
and Ephesians 4
11 through 16
gives us this picture
and I'll close
with this scripture.
It says that
Christ himself
gave the apostles
the prophets
the evangelists
the pastors
and the teachers
to equip his people
for works of service
so that the body
of Christ
may be built up
until we all
reach unity
in the faith
and in the knowledge
of the Son of God
and become mature
attaining to the whole measure
of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer
be infants
tossed back and forth
by the waves
and blown here
and there
by every wind
of teaching
and by the cunning
and craftiness
of people
and their deceitful scheming.
Instead,
speaking the truth
in love
we will grow
to become
in every respect
the mature body
of him
who is the head
that is Christ.
From him
the whole body
joined and held together
by every supporting ligament
grows and builds
itself up in love
as each part
does its work.
as each part
does its work.
The body
of Christ
is growing
so we're still
in the process
of maturing
the body
of Christ
globally
but the body
of Christ
and its representation
here
in Apache Junction
is meant
to grow
and build
itself up
in love
not to stay
stagnant.
You know,
if we're not changing
we're dying
I guess not
that's not true
even when things
die
they keep changing
because they're
decomposing
but if we're
not changing
we're not growing
and we got to
keep with that
kind of growing
and maturing
mindset
and how do we
go there
it says
as each part
does its work
so like
I need to know
who Jesus is
and truly
truly know
who he is
so that I can
know who I am
in him
and when I know
who I am
in him
who he has
made me to be
what he has
gifted me to do
my shape
in ministry
my spiritual
gifts
my heart
and passion
that he gave me
the personality
that he gave me
the experiences
he even allowed
me to go through
and I've got
that understanding
then he says
I want you to
use that
for what?
To build each
other up
to be the church
and it says
that the job
of the apostles
prophets
evangelists
pastors
and teachers
is not
to do
the work
of the ministry
but to equip
the body
of Christ
for the work
of ministry
so
I'm not sure
which of the
five fold
gifting
your pastors
carry
we call them
pastor
which is one
of the five
but
whatever it is
that they carry
God gave them
that specific
gift
to equip
and then
within the church
God raises up
others
because
let's say
they were
pastor
and
prophet
pastor
and teacher
let's say
they're still
missing some
of it
of the
equipers
in the body
so that's why
God brings in
other leaders
in this
same body
to step up
and there might
be seasons
where you also
need leaders
from other bodies
that function
in that way
into the life
of this church
in order to equip
not to do the work
but to teach others
how to do it
and release others
into their calling
and man
it's so fun
it's so exciting
to do what
God's created you
to do
you hit this moment
you're doing the thing
and you're like
man I was made
for this
and I know
that's their heart
desires to see
everyone
who's here
living in that
like man
I was made
for this
I was made
to work
with kids
I was made
to get this
even better
than for two
hours on Sunday
I was made
to have the job
that I work at
I'm in the right
job
you can do ministry
all week long
this is my favorite
stuff
you're out there
your regular life
but we're
how was I designed
God why did you
put me at this job
why did you put me
in this neighborhood
why did you put
my kids at this school
I was made
for this
and then as we
each do our
function
in those places
the church is
growing up
so as you're
out there
serving in the
local school
as you're out there
volunteering at this
place or that place
as you're out there
talking to your
neighbors
the body of Christ
is being built up
new missing pieces
of the body
are coming into
the body
and the body
is being strengthened
and we grow up
and we mature
and we attain
to the whole measure
of the fullness
of Christ
as we have
that unity
in the faith
and the knowledge
of God
from him
the whole body
is joined together
held together
by every supporting
ligament
grows and builds
itself up in love
as each part
does its work
so that's my
encouragement for you
today
as you think about
what is the church
who is the church
who are we called
to be as the church
who am I called
to be as part
of the church
to know that
you have a part
to play
and it's an important
part to play
and that we're
growing up
as the church
even the fact
that this church
exists here
in Apache Junction
it means that
the whole church
is growing up
there are new
leadership roles
open because
this church exists
which means people
that maybe once
were attending
are now beginning
to lead
because there's
a need
and then we
continue creating
those spaces
as a church
and more and more
people rise up
and your leaders
begin to pray
and listen
and invite people
into that
and so we got
to see that happen
in Minneapolis
begin to call
people out
to say step up
rise up
and the temptation
is to think that
well who are we
we're a group
of 50
of 60
of 70
depends if there
was potluck
or not
we love potluck
you know why
I like potluck
potluck is awesome
because then
everybody has to
cook
everybody brings
something
and then we're
all part of this
together
so we did potlucks
in homes
every week
we had different
house church type
things we called
them community
groups
that were not
a church service
like a Sunday
in a neighborhood
but they were
really in
like an outreach
community
into their
neighborhood
a place
kind of that
first space
for people
who would say
well the church
is just problems
and pain
and I don't want
that
will come
into this
Christian community
and they got
to taste
and see
that God
is good
and they got
to taste
and see
Christian community
and the people
who came in
that way
they wanted
Sunday
does that make
sense
like they wanted
more of that
the people
who came in
through our
Sundays
and people
came in
through our
Sundays
we had to
convince them
that that other
stuff was worth
it
that it was
part of living
the life
of being
the church
but when you're
out there
and you come in
and you taste
and see that
and you're like
oh this is
really good
I want more
and they'd come
on Sunday
and so we saw
the church grow
we saw God
raise up
people from
within the church
that we were
like pouring
into
training them
as leaders
all right
all right
this is how
it's gonna
happen
we're gonna
and then
we're gonna
do this
and then
the church
is gonna
grow this
way
and then
they heard
God's call
and he said
I want you
to go to
Mexico
and so we
sent out
missionary to
Mexico
then the other
one all right
our worship
leader
she's amazing
she's like
really great
we're filling
up with all
these young
adults who
are coming
because worship
is so powerful
and then God
calls her
to Hawaii
I think it was
God for sure
but
so she and her
husband went
out and
served in a
church in Hawaii
for like six
years and then
they came back
and were sent
out to be
missionaries
in Tanzania
and we had
this young guy
who was in
the church
and he was
serving
and he's
going through
Bible school
and we're
like all right
this guy's it
and we're pouring
our lives
into him
and he's living
in our home
for parts
of that
this is
awesome
we love
this guy
and we've
loved all
of them
cried when
all of them
left
but this young
guy's in
I'm like man
this could be
a youth
pastor
this maybe
he's an
associate
pastor
I feel
called
and he's
in Turkey
now
and right
now
things have
changed at
the church
we handed
off the
baton
and one
of our
elders
and former
pastors
who were
there
now they're
leading at
a different
church
they're
the
international
pastors
at a different
church
they're
leading an
international
service
and our
other youth
pastor who
had been
with us
and had
walked with
us and even
adopted two
of the kids
that we had
in foster care
they're in a
different town
and they're the
associate youth
pastors down
there
so God can
use you no
matter what
the size
if you carry
the DNA
to multiply
and send
out
and now God
has continued
to send out
one
I guess if you
count our
family right now
in Mexico
and we don't
know where
we're going
to end up
but right
now counting
them
six
seven
eight
nine
ten
people out
of that
church
into Mexico
for the
sake of
raising up
leaders to
reach the
nations
so you
don't know
what God's
going to do
but I know
that if you
just lean in
and say we're
going to be
the church
that God has
called us to
be and we
don't have to
look like any
other church
we're going
to do the
stuff that
scripture says
the church
does
and the
fruit
will come
as each
part does
its work
let's pray
God thank you
for your
church
thank you that
you are the
one who
builds your
church
thank you
that this
is your
church
and you
are pleased
with what
is happening
here
God thank
you for
the work
that each
part of
this church
is doing
thank you
that you
see each
person
and their
story
and their
gifting
and how you
are growing
them individually
and how as
such you're
growing the
whole church
Lord we pray
that you would
continue to
grow this
church down
and being
rooted in
the word
and grow
them up
to be filled
with the
spirit
we pray for
the release
of the
prophetic
even more
for more
in the
flow of
worship
and free
worship
intercession
outward focus
to the
nations
beginning to
even see
with eyes
with spiritual
eyes to see
the community
how you see
the community
from their
Jerusalem
to their
Judea
to their
Samaria
to the
ends of
the earth
God that
that intercession
would begin
to lead
to prayer
walking
and going
out
and praying
over the
streets
and that
that would
lead to
divine
appointments
that would
bring them
into contact
with entire
people groups
that they
had not
been connected
to
God that
you would
give them
people of
peace
that they're
connecting
to
you would
open doors
that no one
else could
have opened
that had
to be
you
and that
they would
grow out
even as
they grow
in and
deeper and
deeper
fellowship
and deeper
connection
and deeper
relationships
they would
continue
expanding
out
that your
kingdom
would come
and that
your will
would be
done here
in Apache
Junction
here in
the Phoenix
metro area
God here
in Arizona
and in the
nations
in Jesus
name
amen
thank you
Sam
thank you
very much
for coming
and visiting
with us
we're just
honored that
you're here
we just pray
that your
ministry continues
to progress
if anyone
would like
prayer after
service
we'll be up
here for
prayer
if you want
to meet
God for the
first time
if you want
to receive
the Holy
Spirit
if you need
prayer for
healing
for anything
in your
life
we'd be
glad to
just stand
in agreement
with you
in prayer
if not
you are
dismissed
and have
a wonderful
Sunday
God bless
you guys
