Speaker 1: Hey, what up.
Speaker 1: It's Mark Carter.
Speaker 1: I'm the pastor of Fierce Church.
Speaker 1: Welcome to our podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today.
Speaker 1: I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message I'm going to talk today.
Speaker 1: I hope it's all right with you about being unselfish with your church.
Speaker 1: Unselfish with your church, and if you're watching online and you go to a different church, I just want to encourage you.
Speaker 1: You'll hear maybe some unique things that are specific to Fierce here, but whatever church you're a part of, you get to be unselfish with that church.
Speaker 1: God is calling every one of us to be unselfish with our church.
Speaker 1: Lucian of Samosata wrote this.
Speaker 1: He was a satirist in about 161 AD.
Speaker 1: He wrote speaking of Christians and speaking of the Christian church.
Speaker 1: The poor wretches have convinced themselves, first and foremost, that they're going to be immortal and live for all time, in consequence of which they despise death and willingly surrender themselves to it.
Speaker 1: Moreover, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they're all brothers of one another After they've transgressed once and for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshiping that crucified sophist himself and living according to his laws.
Speaker 1: Therefore, they despise all things indiscriminately and consider them common property.
Speaker 1: This is someone trying to ridicule Christians, but really he's really just.
Speaker 1: To us that sounds like bragging, like yeah, they were doing awesome.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that they were doing that.
Speaker 1: For the first three centuries, guys, the church of Jesus Christ was taking over the world.
Speaker 1: Nobody had ever seen anything like it, and it's not that nobody had any aspects of what was going on in Christianity, but no one was quite like it.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: So, christians, they were devoted.
Speaker 1: We're going to study that word today.
Speaker 1: They were devoted to one another in love.
Speaker 1: They were devoted to one another's mind and will and emotions.
Speaker 1: They were devoted to giving their stuff to one another.
Speaker 1: They were devoted to the spiritual health and growth of everyone around them.
Speaker 1: They devoted their time, they devoted their money.
Speaker 1: They devoted their hearts to one another in love, believing because their savior had devoted himself unto death.
Speaker 1: That's the only appropriate response is to devote themselves to one another, even if it was costly.
Speaker 1: A historian now writing in about 1953, but a very famous Christian historian writes this about Christianity.
Speaker 1: Trying to explain all this, he says Christianity gloried in its appeal to the Jew and Gentile, greek and barbarian, the Greek and Roman philosophies never really won the allegiance of the masses.
Speaker 1: They appealed primarily to the educated, the morally and socially cultured.
Speaker 1: Christianity drew the lowly and unlettered, yet also developed a philosophy which commanded the respect of many to be educated.
Speaker 1: Christianity, too, was for both sexes, whereas two of its main rivals were primarily for men, and the church welcomed both rich and poor.
Speaker 1: No other religion took in so many groups and strata of society.
Speaker 1: See, it was Christianity that showed up on the scene and said yeah, you don't need to just occasionally be nice to your enemies or treat the prisoners okay.
Speaker 1: You actually need to love your enemies indefinitely.
Speaker 1: You don't get to stop.
Speaker 1: You don't just occasionally forgive somebody.
Speaker 1: You're always supposed to forgive forever.
Speaker 1: You just keep on forgiving.
Speaker 1: Seven times seven, baby.
Speaker 1: Just keep on going.
Speaker 1: You Christians I don't know if you guys know this, but this is your heritage Christians were responsible for the first hospitals as we understand them.
Speaker 1: They were responsible for the first orphanages, as we understand them.
Speaker 1: They looked at the whole world and said I've got all this.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I have all this, but here it is to help everybody else.
Speaker 1: I'm going to empty myself of whatever that glory is, whatever earthly glory I have, whether it's wealth, whether it's gifts, whether it's opportunities, I'm going to say, just like my master, how about this?
Speaker 1: I'm just going to empty myself in your direction of this thing, the thing I would glory in.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give it to you so that you can benefit, so that you can move forward.
Speaker 1: And this is what we're reading about in Acts, chapter 2, which is the passage that we're studying today.
Speaker 1: Now, this is a moment in the book of Acts where Luke is kind of summarizing.
Speaker 1: He's saying this is what it was like on the inside of the church, this is what they were doing, this is the kinds of things that they would do.
Speaker 1: Let's read it together.
Speaker 1: And they were continually devoting themselves.
Speaker 1: There's that word.
Speaker 1: They were devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
Speaker 1: And fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles and all those who believed were together and they had all things in common.
Speaker 1: And they began selling their property and possessions and were dividing them up with all as anyone might have need and daily devoting themselves with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house.
Speaker 1: They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord was adding to their number daily, those who were being saved.
Speaker 1: They said I see them and they could use that.
Speaker 1: I have that.
Speaker 1: So because I have it now they have it because I see that they need it.
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering, I'm asking the question why do we even have so much?
Speaker 1: Why did God give me so much, if not to give away to others?
Speaker 1: When we devote something, what does that mean?
Speaker 1: That means we set it aside for someone else or something else.
Speaker 1: So if you're saving for something, you might set aside some money to get that thing.
Speaker 1: That's uniquely categoried money.
Speaker 1: It's going to only go to this.
Speaker 1: My wife has devoted a section of our backyard to chickens and baby, I just got to tell you there's no going back.
Speaker 1: Okay, like that plot of land I fear is ruined forever.
Speaker 1: Okay, by these chickens, god bless them.
Speaker 1: But because they had some land that was devoted to them, it's now not mine, it's their land, it's devoted.
Speaker 1: But that's what happens when we devote something, and this is what Jesus did in his high priestly prayer in John, chapter 17.
Speaker 1: He prays this talking about himself.
Speaker 1: He says and so, for their sake, talking to his heavenly father, and on their behalf, I sanctify or dedicate or consecrate.
Speaker 1: That can also be translated devote myself that they also may be sanctified and dedicated and consecrated and made holy.
Speaker 1: In the truth.
Speaker 1: See, jesus says I'm going to devote myself and all my stuff and all my goodness and all my riches.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna give it away.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna be crucified, I'm gonna let it all go so they can have it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna devote myself to that cause.
Speaker 1: So, heavenly Father, they can be devoted to you.
Speaker 1: Comic book movies are not always great illustrations, but occasionally they work.
Speaker 1: So here we go.
Speaker 1: Superman and Superman 2 devoted his powers.
Speaker 1: He set them aside.
Speaker 1: He set them away so that he got rid of them, so that he could have a normal life with Lois Lane.
Speaker 1: He took all that was cool and powerful about him.
Speaker 1: He says I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to set this aside.
Speaker 1: I'm going to devote it away so that I can be with Lois Lane and have a normal life.
Speaker 1: Captain America took the most memorable item about him, his shield, and he gives it away to Sam so that Sam could be the next Captain America.
Speaker 1: He just gives it away.
Speaker 1: He says I'm not going to use this anymore.
Speaker 1: I had all the glory.
Speaker 1: I'm giving you the glory.
Speaker 1: You go ahead and take it.
Speaker 1: He set it aside, he set it apart, he devoted it over to Sam.
Speaker 1: And that's what God is asking us to do, whatever we're doing for the next 15 years.
Speaker 1: He's saying I want to ask you you, god, people, I don't want to give you an exciting adventure, I don't want to give you just like a cool map.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you to devote yourselves to the things I've commanded you to do, to the examples that I've left for you.
Speaker 1: If you'll do that, whatever else you do, you'll be doing the right thing.
Speaker 1: When I was in fifth grade, my teacher gave a group of us I think I'm remembering this mostly correctly she gave us a group of us this assignment hey, you guys are together like in a group.
Speaker 1: You're going to write a little story, okay, like three pages.
Speaker 1: Write a little like creative story.
Speaker 1: I had a particularly creative group of people with me, and so we just start to dream in, and soon it's not just a paper, it's an entire production, it's a play, all right, and our minds are just racing and we're going off on this thing and we're so excited about it that we actually asked her out hey, would you come out into the hallway?
Speaker 1: We got to pitch our vision to you.
Speaker 1: We want to do this awesome play.
Speaker 1: Our story is so good that we want to do this awesome play for the whole class.
Speaker 1: And she looked at us and she's kind of blinked and she was like okay, how about you do the assignment?
Speaker 1: And then, if you do that, you can do the play.
Speaker 1: And I kind of felt stupid at that moment because I was like yeah, oh yeah, the assignment.
Speaker 1: What we're talking about is not the assignment.
Speaker 1: We're talking about doing something entirely different rather than what the instructor asked us to do.
Speaker 1: Now, to be fair, we ended up doing the play and I think it was pretty doggone awesome for fifth graders.
Speaker 1: But, all that said, it still wasn't the first thing we were commanded to do.
Speaker 1: We had to do the thing we were commanded to do first in order to be able to do that thing.
Speaker 1: And sometimes, my friends, we can do a whole bunch of stuff, but we got to ask the question was that the assignment?
Speaker 1: Was that what God asked us to do.
Speaker 1: That's why we'll never be a golf church, because there's no golfing in the Bible.
Speaker 1: Dude, like you can golf, but the church isn't going to be a golf church.
Speaker 1: The church is going to be a Jesus church that does the things that Jesus said, based upon God's word.
Speaker 1: How about that?
Speaker 1: And so the first one that he gives us is teaching.
Speaker 1: They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 1: One of the very first things that Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is describing about the New Testament believers is they were a learning community.
Speaker 1: This was different man.
Speaker 1: Everybody could learn, didn't matter who you were, didn't matter what sex you were.
Speaker 1: You could come and you could learn.
Speaker 1: Learn the ways of God, learn specifically the ways of Jesus as he imparted them to the apostles.
Speaker 1: And we're to be a learning community, and whatever else we pitch to the world is to be learning about Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's beginning the truth of who Jesus is.
Speaker 1: God's word is supposed to be central, and so, whatever else we do I think this is already a little bit true about us.
Speaker 1: I feel like people talk about us this way we're gonna be an affectionate, christ-centered, high-challenge teaching kind of a church Affectionate.
Speaker 1: I mean it's gonna be nice, it's not gonna be mean, but the challenge is always gonna be a little higher, like we're just going to go straight to God's word and say, well, this is what he says and therefore we'll, you know, work through our emotions about it maybe, but we're also going to do it.
Speaker 1: That's what we're going to do.
Speaker 1: We're going to do what God said.
Speaker 1: That's going to be our, our deal.
Speaker 1: It's going to be high challenge, teaching and we're going to be devoted to it.
Speaker 1: I don't just mean I'm going to be devoted to it, I mean we're going to ask the Spirit of God to do a work among our church where we're devoted to God's Word.
Speaker 1: What that means, my friends, is see, when you're devoted, you'll give up what you want in order to set aside something for God or for the people, or for both.
Speaker 1: So that means, if I'm devoted, I'm going to be aware my flesh doesn't really feel like busting out God's Word.
Speaker 1: I don't really feel like seeking God.
Speaker 1: I don't really feel like busting out God's word.
Speaker 1: I don't really feel like seeking God.
Speaker 1: I don't really feel like doing this.
Speaker 1: You know that's all right.
Speaker 1: From time to time you know you're tired.
Speaker 1: You take a nap or whatever you got to do, but if that's consistently all it ever amounts to, well, guys, that's not devotion to God's word.
Speaker 1: Devotion is I don't care if I'm tired, I'm going to get up, I don't care, I'm devoted to this.
Speaker 1: I'm going to make it a priority.
Speaker 1: I don't particularly want to go to this Bible study because I feel like I already know all the things, which is a ridiculous thing to say anyway.
Speaker 1: But I'm devoted to those ones younger than me knowing God's word, so I'm going to devote myself to seeing it happen.
Speaker 1: See, my friends, this devotion thing, it totally runs cross-grain to the selfishness of a generation that thinks church is about them.
Speaker 1: It's super, not.
Speaker 1: What is it about?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 1: So it's not really just about knowing things.
Speaker 1: It's not about getting things like sometimes we feel like it is.
Speaker 1: It's really about personally knowing Jesus Christ and then responding in devotion and unselfishness to everybody in his name so they also can know intimacy and communion and joy and love in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: So that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 1: That's why, when you participate in the Bible Recap, like so many of you have, and if you haven't, you go to fiercechurch slash Bible Recap and you can sign up right there to hopefully get you on track to do all the things.
Speaker 1: But you do that.
Speaker 1: You stay in the Word because you know when you're in the Word regularly, here's what happens Some of you you've noticed this, you've seen this when you're in the Word and then somebody comes to, starts feeding you scripture, like for them.
Speaker 1: Give me your hand raised if you know that's true.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that happens.
Speaker 1: He just starts feeding it to you and when you're not, it's okay, like he still loves you, but he's like sorry, you didn't put nothing in, so you're on your own with this one.
Speaker 1: Good luck with that advice, and I'm sure you know you're smart and it's going to be good.
Speaker 1: But it's not going to be the same thing.
Speaker 1: It's not where Jesus himself is feeding you.
Speaker 1: This is true and this is true and this is true.
Speaker 1: So if we're devoted to one another, that means I've got to be devoted to God's word for you, not just for me.
Speaker 1: I've got to be devoted to God's word for my kids, not just for me.
Speaker 1: I've got to be devoted for the new person that's coming to a small group for the very first time tonight.
Speaker 1: I've got to be devoted to God's word for them, because God cares about moving in their life, not just my life.
Speaker 1: Here's a kind of a level two way that you can do it and it provides a good little bit of pressure.
Speaker 1: But I find it fun and helpful with a lot of the accountability partners I've had in life and some other friends and staff members.
Speaker 1: It's this little question where you're with somebody and like I don't know what to talk about.
Speaker 1: How about this?
Speaker 1: What's God showing you in his word lately?
Speaker 1: And when you ask that question, yeah, there's a little bit of pressure.
Speaker 1: Like, hopefully he's showing them something and hopefully, if he's not, they're like ah, not enough.
Speaker 1: I guess I need to get more in God's word, I need to be in it more.
Speaker 1: So he is showing, so I can tell you yes, god is actively teaching me some things and it doesn't Tell me let's talk.
Speaker 1: Let's talk the good things of God.
Speaker 1: We're going up the mountain of the Lord together, right, so let's talk about it.
Speaker 1: What's he showing you?
Speaker 1: My friends, if that characterized and it's not pressuring, it's not, you know, it's not like thumping people with the Bible or who are brand new to the faith or something like that, but it is just a challenge of like.
Speaker 1: Aren't we people of the word?
Speaker 1: Right, that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1: So how about that?
Speaker 1: Years ago so when we started the torch side of the family that is fierce we started a leadership development group called Joshua's Army, or JA, and it was intense.
Speaker 1: Some of you know about that.
Speaker 1: Raise your hand if you know about JA.
Speaker 1: It was intense, man, it was.
Speaker 1: Every month we're going to meet for four hours and we had to read a book the month before and we're going to go deep.
Speaker 1: We're talking about God's word.
Speaker 1: We're talking about growing in skill, and it was a cost.
Speaker 1: It was a costly thing.
Speaker 1: It was a devoted thing.
Speaker 1: You had to devote some time in order to be able to amp up your walk with God.
Speaker 1: And many of those first folks you did it for about 10 years and many of those first folks, they ended up becoming the leaders of that church because they were so on the inside track of how God had wanted them to operate, because they just invested the time.
Speaker 1: They set it apart.
Speaker 1: I think we're going to do a little bit more of that and we'll talk about that in a second, but, as we did the survey, here's the number one identity that all y'all the people that took the survey think is true about Fierce.
Speaker 1: Everybody thinks Fierce is a church of spiritual formation.
Speaker 1: What that means is they're saying I think God made us strong for some reason in this area where we help people get on a track and move forward spiritually.
Speaker 1: That works in stuff like Connect Class.
Speaker 1: That works in stuff like the Grove.
Speaker 1: It works in stuff like just helping people put one foot in front of the other.
Speaker 1: Don't stay here, keep taking steps, Keep remaining active, don't get stagnant, keep growing toward Christ.
Speaker 1: All y'all said that was a strength.
Speaker 1: It's not that you just said it was a strength.
Speaker 1: You said it's the most strength.
Speaker 1: It's the thing that seems to you.
Speaker 1: Look a little swole in that area.
Speaker 1: You see that fierce pathway out in the hallway.
Speaker 1: You've seen that image before.
Speaker 1: Dude.
Speaker 1: All that is is a formation strategy.
Speaker 1: That's a formation.
Speaker 1: It just says keep doing the next thing, keep doing the next thing, just keep doing the next thing and you'll keep growing closer to Christ rather than just sitting there.
Speaker 1: So whatever else we do, guys, we're going to keep challenging people.
Speaker 1: Don't just sit there.
Speaker 1: That's not it.
Speaker 1: That's not what God asked you to do.
Speaker 1: Do not just sit there.
Speaker 1: That is not what we read.
Speaker 1: What we read was dynamic.
Speaker 1: What we read was interactive.
Speaker 1: It was costly.
Speaker 1: It's not that they didn't have anything to do, but they were stepping in to do it for Jesus.
Speaker 1: So that describes the people that not only maybe we are to a degree, but it's the people we could be, it's the people that we should be.
Speaker 1: And the thing that everybody said was the most like the thing, everyone's favorite thing that we should do.
Speaker 1: Everybody said this, every age group.
Speaker 1: Everybody was super excited, everyone was super confident.
Speaker 1: You guys should keep doing online ministry and you should expand that.
Speaker 1: If you need to get some kind of a broadcast studio, whatever you got to do, go into the future and disseminate God's word in every possible way to as many people as you possibly can.
Speaker 1: That was the resounding heck, yes, from the church.
Speaker 1: That's not from me, that's from y'all.
Speaker 1: That's what you think and that's why I asked, because I want to God put it in them what you want us to do.
Speaker 1: Don't just make it dependent on me and the elders.
Speaker 1: And that's what everybody said.
Speaker 1: And that makes a lot of sense to me, because when it talks about day by day, god added to their number those who were saved.
Speaker 1: You know there's only so much we can do within these walls, but, dude, if we get it out there, it goes and goes and goes and goes and goes and it keeps being shared.
Speaker 1: And it can be shared down decades later after us, after we're all gone.
Speaker 1: It can be shared down indefinitely as long as God might want to use it.
Speaker 1: But if we're going to do that, if we're going to do that, some of you are already like discounting yourself, cause, like I get into that stuff.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe, by the way, yes, the 18 through 34-year-olds, everybody was way pro it, but you guys were way, way pro it.
Speaker 1: You were like, let's do it, but maybe you don't have those gifts.
Speaker 1: So here's some things that you could do.
Speaker 1: Number one you could pray for it.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that at the end.
Speaker 1: But also, dude, you can just cooperate, and this is scary, I don't put you out of your comfort zone, but then again, devoted, right, it's scary, but when someone says, hey, you just went through this thing, can I interview you really quick for the video, you're not like, oh, you say Jesus.
Speaker 1: This might sound dumb, but here we go, because I'm devoted to the teaching of the apostles, I'm devoted to that getting out wherever you want it to go, let's do it.
Speaker 1: For some of you, it might be I need to learn I don't know yet, but I'm really smart.
Speaker 1: Anyway, I could learn how to like run the blog posting, so I'm just going to do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got I have to watch like three YouTube videos.
Speaker 1: Dude, for real.
Speaker 1: Like it's probably three.
Speaker 1: Like you don't have to do very much, like there's training for all this stuff.
Speaker 1: Do you know, like most folks are very smart and it doesn't take long to figure it out?
Speaker 1: So that means when we request, hey, let's do this, we're asking for people to get involved.
Speaker 1: That means for some of you it's just like I don't know, but I'm devoted, so here we go.
Speaker 1: For some it will take road trips because we'll have to go see other churches do this, we'll have to visit their broadcast studios and you're gonna be part of that team that goes and says, okay, we need to understand all the other ways that we could be doing this.
Speaker 1: So that was a strength and that was the initiative that y'all said we should do.
Speaker 1: But close following it was a life and leadership academy, I think, because y'all have seen some of the spiritual pathways that we've done, the formation strategies and some of you remember Joshua's army and that kind of thing, and you seem to be very gung-ho of like, yes, let's do an actual school, like a school of developing spirituality that includes life stuff.
Speaker 1: So, yes, there's spiritual skills, but then there's also there's parenting skills, there's marriage skills, there is ministry skills.
Speaker 1: Then there's like, maybe church leadership skills, there's all kinds of tracks.
Speaker 1: It becomes a little like we don't just go to church, like there's school things that we're all doing to become more devoted to the teaching of Jesus and then spreading that and taking all those tools and giving them to whoever wants them.
Speaker 1: That was very strong, strongly encouraged.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing I'd like to buy Easter.
Speaker 1: It might be three more months beyond Easter.
Speaker 1: The curriculums are mostly already written for all that.
Speaker 1: We just need to pick two Saturdays and start doing it Instead of doing four hours on a Sunday night.
Speaker 1: Over 10 years that took it out of you.
Speaker 1: So we're going to reduce that time and it's going to be much more condensed, but we're going to start that in the coming months.
Speaker 1: Here's what I got to challenge everybody to do.
Speaker 1: I know you know this, but just think it through, because I need you to get it more crystal clear.
Speaker 1: It was obvious in some of the survey results.
Speaker 1: I don't know that everyone is aware that how you react to stuff influences what the church does, like the degree to which you demonstrate not only like buy-in, like that's a good idea, somebody should do that, but you actually go to it.
Speaker 1: That causes us to either put more power behind it or take power from it, because there's a lot to do and we can't do everything.
Speaker 1: So, as an example, we got a worship night coming up next weekend.
Speaker 1: A lot of people think, yes, do a worship night, do it.
Speaker 1: Yes, hate the devil, do it.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that you think it should happen.
Speaker 1: But if eight people come and then eight people come again, what you're communicating is I'm not part of it, enough for me to go, but I just think people should worship God, which is great.
Speaker 1: But if you are devoted to people worshiping God, then I want to ask you you got to go to stuff, dude, like the things?
Speaker 1: Want to ask you you got to go to stuff, dude, like the things you believe in?
Speaker 1: If you don't go to it, you're saying I don't want this.
Speaker 1: It's kind of the opposite of like an unsubscribe button.
Speaker 1: You know you're getting emails in and unless you push unsubscribe, you're going to get that doggone thing forever.
Speaker 1: When you push unsubscribe now, oh, I don't have to worry about it anymore.
Speaker 1: This is the opposite of that.
Speaker 1: Every time we do something if not every time, but mostly every time we do something if you think that's like a God thing, you got to push subscribe, you got to be like I'm going to that, I'm supporting that, I'm praying for that.
Speaker 1: I'm talking to people about that.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because because you're like well, I don't got time, yeah, but remember, it's not about you.
Speaker 1: It's not about you.
Speaker 1: You're not even just going for you.
Speaker 1: You're going because you're devoted to the fellowship of the believers, you're devoted to what God might do through you.
Speaker 1: At that thing, you're just open.
Speaker 1: You don't know what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, that's costly, that hurts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, whoa.
Speaker 1: That little thing you're feeling right there, that's and I mean this sweetly, guys, I got it too.
Speaker 1: That's called selfishness.
Speaker 1: I don't mean the things where you have self-identity.
Speaker 1: You got to do that.
Speaker 1: I mean that little thing that cradles our flesh and says there, there, there, there.
Speaker 1: Everything is about you, just relax.
Speaker 1: You don't got to do anything you don't want to do.
Speaker 1: You just make it about you.
Speaker 1: This is your day.
Speaker 1: Treat yourself every day.
Speaker 1: That thing, that's selfishness.
Speaker 1: Jesus wants to kill that.
Speaker 1: By the way I don't know if you know that about him he's dead set on that thing dying, that's what he's about.
Speaker 1: What's important to God?
Speaker 1: Well, teaching is and fellowship is.
Speaker 1: And daily they devoted themselves with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house.
Speaker 1: Ah, some translations say it like this they were like family.
Speaker 1: That's what God wants for us guys.
Speaker 1: You can't do that once a week only.
Speaker 1: If that's your only strategy, that's going to be a very distant family.
Speaker 1: They were at it daily.
Speaker 1: They didn't just do it once a week, they did it daily.
Speaker 1: They were in one another's houses, they were celebrating the good things of God, and I know this church must believe in it, because the number two identity that y'all said about us was authentic community.
Speaker 1: Like you believe, this is a thing here, something about the way like y'all love each other.
Speaker 1: That seems like that's an important thing and that's a valuable thing and that's a thing that's everyone's like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thumbs up, let's do more of that.
Speaker 1: If we're going to do that, that just the thing they'll remember.
Speaker 1: That takes you that's just not some people off doing it somewhere.
Speaker 1: That takes you going to the things where that community is going to take place.
Speaker 1: It takes folks saying I'm going to have a friendly, authentic come on in culture even when I'm an introvert.
Speaker 1: I'm going to have a friendly, authentic come on in culture even when I'm an introvert.
Speaker 1: Now, a lot of folks have done this really great.
Speaker 1: Some of you are especially gifted at it.
Speaker 1: One couple that I especially love to brag on is Andy and Brooklyn Schmeck Guys.
Speaker 1: They're so good at hosting folks in their house Like it's almost like it's someone else's stuff.
Speaker 1: It's like it's someone else's house.
Speaker 1: They don't care what happens to it because it's somebody else's, but that's just how they sit because it's God.
Speaker 1: So they open up to all these kids that run around.
Speaker 1: They let anybody come on in and just sit for hours and hours and hours and they're so nice I don't even tell them to leave.
Speaker 1: I would tell them to leave.
Speaker 1: I'd be like you got to go to Andy and Brooklyn's.
Speaker 1: At the end of this we're all going to meet up there to eat pizza because we want you to see what authentic community feels like, and it feels different in a living room than it feels at church.
Speaker 1: Church is still too blend business Like it's.
Speaker 1: Still there's too much formalism at just the church.
Speaker 1: You need to get in the life, you need to get in the home, you need to get in a place where people are going to be friendly and authentic and they're saying come on in.
Speaker 1: Come on in To the degree that you're ready.
Speaker 1: To whatever degrees, you're good with that, come on in and let's be an authentic community together.
Speaker 1: So next time you see Brooklyn or Andy, you ought to give them seven high fives for letting God use them the way that he does, because they're the real deal, dude.
Speaker 1: So let me just ask you some tough questions about this community thing.
Speaker 1: And you know who you are.
Speaker 1: So I'm not the Holy Ghost, I don't know who this is for, but is it possible that some of us dude, you are attending but you're not connecting because you're not trying to connect, you're not aiming at that as a goal?
Speaker 1: Is it possible that some of us really need so?
Speaker 1: Next month we're going to have a month filled with filling small groups and I want to ask some of you do you really think about that deeply though I know it's not necessarily.
Speaker 1: Is it easy?
Speaker 1: No, it's probably not easy.
Speaker 1: It probably shouldn't be easy, because then it's actually devotion to Jesus Christ For some.
Speaker 1: I want to give you a level two challenge.
Speaker 1: This is where you're thinking about it ahead of time.
Speaker 1: You're thinking about it like helping love other people with authentic community is part of why I'm on earth still so for those of us who might feel that little nudge from the Holy Spirit, that means I'm going to think through my schedule and I'm going to block out times.
Speaker 1: I'm going to think through my schedule and I'm going to block out times.
Speaker 1: I'm going to put parking places in my week Not all of them and they won't always be filled, but it might be a breakfast, it might be a lunch, it might be a dinner.
Speaker 1: We were saying I'm going to keep these spaces open for God to fill with people.
Speaker 1: I'm going to take so-and-so out to lunch.
Speaker 1: We both work near each other and we're going to lunch Guys each other and we're going to lunch Guys.
Speaker 1: I've seen incredible discipleship relationships happen because two people sewed their lunch together or they sewed a dinner together.
Speaker 1: We got to sew where we want to grow.
Speaker 1: If you want to grow disciples, you want to grow friendships, you have to have some kind of a place to put that seed.
Speaker 1: And if you just think about it when, like so, this happens to everybody, you'll be like, oh, we should get together.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, man, we'll do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be great someday you can do that.
Speaker 1: But that's just a very ineffective strategy.
Speaker 1: It's way better to say, oh, I've already got the dates on my calendar, let's pull it out right now.
Speaker 1: We'll pick right now.
Speaker 1: These are the times I can make.
Speaker 1: Can you do that?
Speaker 1: Let's do it.
Speaker 1: And what are you doing?
Speaker 1: You got to say God, this is time.
Speaker 1: What is this time of the week?
Speaker 1: This is devoted to Jesus.
Speaker 1: He gets to have it because he and it might even be important to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like cap shield, baby, it's like Superman's power.
Speaker 1: It is important to you, but you're giving it away because Jesus deserves it.
Speaker 1: I want to give one more challenge about this small group thing and we then we'll move on because we're almost done.
Speaker 1: I want you to just consider, dude, we're all in process, so just consider the possibility for every one of us, if this really irks you, all the time to be around people.
Speaker 1: Is it possible that that's because you're still thinking about this like it's about something that you get rather than something that you give yourself to, because that's the mature Jesus play and maybe you're not ready for it, but if you've been walking with Jesus for a little while, that's where this goes, dude.
Speaker 1: So, like, really think about that.
Speaker 1: Is this about me getting something or is it about me giving myself to something, so my master is pleased and so people feel loved?
Speaker 1: Let's keep going.
Speaker 1: Here's some three things that we could be good at.
Speaker 1: The soil is here, but we're not necessarily.
Speaker 1: We need some more reps, we need some more layups, we need to put some seeds in and take care of them.
Speaker 1: Overwhelmingly, people asked for a young adult ministry, and this was crazy because we didn't say anything about young adult ministries in survey.
Speaker 1: I was like what, why is everybody asking for this?
Speaker 1: I can only assume that's because there's a portion of people here and they weren't just folks that were young adults that are saying I think this is on God's heart for our community.
Speaker 1: We need some place to be able to say to people discipleship and community do not end at high school.
Speaker 1: There's got to be a place where people not only young adults, but people who care about.
Speaker 1: Young adults are being like.
Speaker 1: I'm making this a priority.
Speaker 1: I want to see people grow, and it's going to need some TLC.
Speaker 1: We've got the soil, okay.
Speaker 1: What that means is it will grow here Like it will.
Speaker 1: There's soil, there's stuff you can plant here that just never grow, no matter what you do.
Speaker 1: There's fruits.
Speaker 1: If you try to plant it in one climate, in one soil, it's never going to grow there.
Speaker 1: We have the soil that will grow it.
Speaker 1: People want it.
Speaker 1: We're not great at it yet, but we just need to fire some bullets.
Speaker 1: We need to plant some seeds.
Speaker 1: That idea of bullets before cannonballs, that's a grape by choice idea from Jim Collins in his book Grape by Choice.
Speaker 1: What that means is, if you don't know, it means I'm going to fire a little bullet, I'm going to give a little bit of lead and I'm going to aim it and I'm going to try to hit that target.
Speaker 1: I'm only going to spend, though, a little bit of lead, because I don't know if I'm even going to hit it.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if it's the right target.
Speaker 1: Once I hit it, though, get out the cannonball Now.
Speaker 1: Let's pour a lot of money in it, let's pour a lot of resources in it, let's pour a lot more, okay.
Speaker 1: However, you light a cannonball like I don't know what you do, there it goes.
Speaker 1: You just did a lot of damage and you didn't waste the cannonball, firing it into a place that God is not going to bless.
Speaker 1: You fired it at the very thing you knew was going to grow.
Speaker 1: So we need to fire bullets at that one Community Life Center?
Speaker 1: Let me just help people understand.
Speaker 1: If you're going to build relationships with people, you need a place to do it.
Speaker 1: That isn't always a space like this, so that means if you want a place where you might work out with somebody, you might have an aerobics class with somebody, you might have a coffee shop time with somebody, you might have a place where that's very natural for you and it's all dedicated unto Jesus.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean Jesus is every other word in that context, but it means this is for building relationships toward the kingdom.
Speaker 1: People were very excited about that, but I think rightly so.
Speaker 1: People had some hesitation.
Speaker 1: They're like I don't know if we're good at that, though I would agree I don't know if we're good at that.
Speaker 1: What that would take is we got to plant some seeds.
Speaker 1: I think we got the right soil, but we got to plant some seeds, we got to fire some bullets, which means we got to pick one thing that we actually start to invite the community and friends to, and see if we got that recipe right.
Speaker 1: Does that work?
Speaker 1: Can we create a context?
Speaker 1: Maybe the first thing is a coffee shop, maybe it's something else.
Speaker 1: We're inviting the world into it and saying come hang out with us and seeing if that works, before we do a whole thing about it, let's try one thing about it and see if that thing works.
Speaker 1: Here's another one Worship nights.
Speaker 1: We're doing it next weekend, world.
Speaker 1: I think we can be great at this.
Speaker 1: I think we can be dope at it.
Speaker 1: The truth is the way we're trying to do it.
Speaker 1: We haven't done very many of those, and so we're going to try it.
Speaker 1: I think we got the right seeds.
Speaker 1: I think we need to keep firing these bullets.
Speaker 1: The way you can help, though, is, if you think it's a big deal, you got to go to it, man, or all we're going to learn is this doesn't grow here.
Speaker 1: Our people don't feed this here.
Speaker 1: They don't want this here.
Speaker 1: They don't want to spend time on it, they don't want to be together on it, so we're not going to do it.
Speaker 1: Here's something that people overwhelmingly said we should not do, and I agree Because we should not do a food pantry at this point in our church's history.
Speaker 1: This was the only one where people were actively in the comments trying to talk us out of it.
Speaker 1: They were like please don't, please don't.
Speaker 1: I know some of you wanted it and it is a very loving thing, but I think their rationale was really good.
Speaker 1: They're like many said.
Speaker 1: They've been a part of one and we're probably not at the size where we can do that and do anything else with excellence, because it's just a lot Like there's so much organizational power that is needed and there's other friends of ours, like Lord of Glory, that are so close and they're doing it.
Speaker 1: We would be better off doing a whole bunch of other stuff that we're really good at, because we're not even this like we're not.
Speaker 1: We've done some pop-up ones.
Speaker 1: We could still do pop-up ones, but in terms of having an entire food pantry ministry, there's nothing in our soil that the Lord is saying yes, I clearly blessed that here.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry if that disappoints somebody, but I think that tends to be true even church planting.
Speaker 1: The soil's not ripe for that, it's not ready for that.
Speaker 1: I think what could totally be cool is for us to sponsor church planters which we've done in the past, I think, as we bring them through like a leadership development track, just for church planters to send out and support and be behind them like you go, go, get them.
Speaker 1: But in terms of us doing it, it just doesn't seem like the soil is ripe or ready.
Speaker 1: Now, if we're going to do all that, we got to do the third thing, which is provide, and they began selling their property and possessions and dividing them all up, as anyone might have need.
Speaker 1: They said and this is an attitude shift they said I have this, you need that.
Speaker 1: I think I'm just going to help you have it, because that must be why God gave it to me.
Speaker 1: It's an attitude that says this stuff is God's property, not my property.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that looks like over the next 15 years.
Speaker 1: All I know is for us to do what I really believe God wants us to do these initiatives and probably many more.
Speaker 1: He needs to have an attitude of like my stuff is not mine, because he's not asking us to do a different assignment, he's asking us to do this assignment and that includes a hard set that says my stuff is not mine.
Speaker 1: If I become aware that people need stuff, I'm going to give it to them.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean you give people necessarily your house.
Speaker 1: By the way, this whole text here, this isn't communism happening, okay, communism is forced.
Speaker 1: This was a limited time where these folks, the spirit of God was on them.
Speaker 1: People were in town because of Pentecost and they said they need that, they need that.
Speaker 1: We're just going to pull all of our stuff and give it away voluntarily.
Speaker 1: And they still had their stuff because they still had houses to go to.
Speaker 1: And Ananias and Sapphira, peter said to them this was yours.
Speaker 1: Why did you lie to the Holy Spirit If you know that whole chapter in Acts, chapter 5.
Speaker 1: The chapter in Acts, chapter five.
Speaker 1: The point being they didn't give away all of their stuff and you don't need to give away your house just because that's an example that happens in the Bible.
Speaker 1: But what we do need to adopt that they had was they had a heart set that said I'm a little suspicious of the impulse in my heart that says mine, mine, mine, mine.
Speaker 1: I want to resist that and ask the spirit of Jesus to come in and say God's, god's, god's, god's.
Speaker 1: Whatever God wants with it, he can do it.
Speaker 1: And then, finally, prayer.
Speaker 1: They were praying people and they were continually devoting themselves to apostles' teaching, to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that they just prayed frequently.
Speaker 1: It means there were specific times of prayer.
Speaker 1: Remember, this is coming out of Judaism.
Speaker 1: There were certain times when the Jews got together and prayed times of day.
Speaker 1: Well, christianity at first, dude, it was just a flavor of Judaism.
Speaker 1: So they surely went to all these times of prayer and as time went by, they split off and did their own Christian thing.
Speaker 1: But the point is they did it regularly.
Speaker 1: They did it again and again, specific things that they were praying.
Speaker 1: And you know, that's what I want to invite us to keep doing.
Speaker 1: And this 15-year vision, let's just not be like, okay, got it, lord, good, hey, we'll see you in 15 years.
Speaker 1: No, we're going to take this slow, just like we have Okay, god, no-transcript a church.
Speaker 1: And we want to ask you to the same way that these folks did, pray with us, because the prayer is where the power is, baby.
Speaker 1: The prayer is where you punch the devil in the mouth.
Speaker 1: The prayer is when you get crap out of your way and the kingdom floods in.
Speaker 1: And, guys, you know this, if you don't pray, dude, ain't nothing going to happen anyway.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what great plan you got, god needs to anoint whatever it is you're going to do, and that comes through prayer.
Speaker 1: So I want to invite you to do that.
Speaker 1: Hopefully, by next week I'll have the text QR code that you can click and then you can opt into that text thread and every Wednesday until you push stop, you're going to keep getting that text.
Speaker 1: But here's the deal All these things, they require unselfish devotion.
Speaker 1: It's unselfish devotion to the teaching.
Speaker 1: It's unselfish devotion to one another, to fellowship.
Speaker 1: It's unselfish devotion to providing and sharing and separating stuff off to others.
Speaker 1: And it's unselfish devotion to providing and sharing and separating stuff off to others.
Speaker 1: And it's unselfish devotion that says I don't feel like praying, but I'm going to pray because I want to see the kingdom come in my lifetime.
Speaker 1: Sound like a deal.
Speaker 1: Let's pray right now.
Speaker 1: Hey, jesus, you know what you're doing and I want to thank you so much.
Speaker 1: You are a mastermind, you are a maestro.
Speaker 1: We don't deserve to be in on any plans of God, but we thank you so much for speaking through the community.
Speaker 1: We thank you for showing us some of the things that are on your heart.
Speaker 1: I feel like we get some of that for the church, but I'm asking you now to cater that to every individual heart who's here right now or watching online or listening later on.
Speaker 1: To every individual heart who's here right now or watching online or listening later on.
Speaker 1: What are the things you're calling them to stay strong and get stronger in?
Speaker 1: What are the things you're asking them to set apart as devoted unto the Lord?
Speaker 1: What about their time do you want to talk about?
Speaker 1: What about their resources do you want to talk about?
Speaker 1: What about their agenda items do you want to talk about?
Speaker 1: What about their lunches and dinners?
Speaker 1: Do you want to talk about God?
Speaker 1: We just give you permission.
Speaker 1: We want to be like these folks.
Speaker 1: We want to be devoted in such a way that we can say, wow, the Lord really lived among them.
Speaker 1: There was a fear and awe that came upon them and the Lord was adding daily to their number those who were saved.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, amen or in person.
Speaker 1: Also, if you're looking for leadership development related content, don't forget to check out the Fierce Leadership Podcast, available wherever you get your podcast from.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to support this ministry.
Speaker 1: It's because of you that this is possible.
Speaker 1: You can click on the link in the description to give now or visit fiercechurch for more information.
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Speaker 1: Whatever challenges you're facing, I know you can make it.
Speaker 1: Don't give up.
Speaker 1: Hang on to Jesus.
Speaker 1: He won't let go of you.
Speaker 1: Jesus loves you so much and we love you.
Speaker 1: I hope someday we get to meet in person.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening.