Welcome.
We're glad you're here today.
Woo! Now, if if I can, just as before we get started, let me just give you a couple updates.
One, you all know that we've had a contract on this property that we had bought out on George Bush, and uh everything's still proceeding as planned.
It did get pushed into next year.
Uh we had to do a deal with between the developer and the city about a retaining wall, and it ended up delaying the whole offer by 60 days.
So we were intended to close at the end of November.
Now it looks like it's gonna be the end of January.
Once that happens, we're gonna be completely debt-free.
I mean, we're not gonna owe any money on this.
No money out on that land over there, and we should clear about a million of dollars.
But here's the thing: one of the things we've been counting on is once that money clears, is there there are some repairs that need to be done around this place, and not the least of which.
Uh, this building has two different roof systems.
There's one on the front end of the building, and then there's one that covers the back end, which is about a quarter of the building.
But that back roof is in bad shape.
Now we were just hoping that we could kind of stretch out the days, and then when we close, go ahead and pay to get that roof redone.
It's about$250,000 to get that done.
Uh, but the rains of the last week uh have been telling us otherwise, that it may we may not be able to wait until next year.
The challenge is we don't have the resources to do that right now.
Uh I'm so grateful that Spring Creek, you know, one of the things that has happened, and this is so encouraging to me over the last couple of years, the number of givers giving families we have has increased exponentially.
I mean, there's a lot of people giving money, but what's happened is people are giving less money than what they used to give.
So more people give less money, and as a result, we're actually even behind the eight ball in terms of the money we need to keep the ministry going at the present level.
Uh, this is not to put a guilt trip on anybody.
I'm asking actually for prayer right now.
I'm asking for prayer.
How do we go about this?
We're going to have a couple roofing companies come out and say, is there any way at all we can patch this to get us through until next year when we can do the replacement job?
Um and if not, we've got to look at other alternatives.
But I want you to prayerfully be asking, you know, God, provide the resources for this.
Help us to be able to do the things that need to be done.
Because at this point, especially with the rear roof, there's some leaking that's actually doing damage to a wall.
And we don't want that happening all throughout the facility.
So be in prayer about that.
Ask God if there's anything that you and your family might be able to do extra in terms of on an ongoing basis that maybe we could accumulate enough money to get it done in a few months, as opposed to having to wait till next year.
So join me in prayer for that.
Uh, today I'm beginning a brand new series, and it's called Desert Community Project, and we want to look at, in particular, the sacred rhythm of Jesus Christ.
As we get started, would you just join me for prayer?
Father, I believe this is your church, and I believe, God, that any work that's being done in your way will never lack your resources.
So, God, we bring this need before you, the church roof and the leaks that are happening.
That God, you're going to provide the for the need, you're going to provide the resources so that we can address this problem so it doesn't create additional problems for us at this facility.
I want to thank you, God, that you have encouraged so many hearts and families in this place to give on a regular, consistent basis to the church, even in times when it seems like the price of everything is going up.
They continue to prioritize you, they continue to give to you first.
So, God, just continue doing that in every heart and life.
I pray, God, that you'll just give us wisdom for the future and how we can address these problems.
Now I ask that as we gather around your word, that you're just going to speak to us in a really powerful way today.
Show us what it is that you're wanting to do in our life and how you intend to do that.
In Jesus' name, amen.
So years ago, I'm talking probably 30 years ago now, I came across a mission statement of a church in Cincinnati, Ohio.
You know, every church kind of has their here's our vision, here's our values, this is our mission statement.
And this is a vineyard church in Cincinnati.
And when I read this, something just, it struck such a chord in me that it moved my heart and touched my soul.
I want to read that to you right now.
It says, imagine a ragtag collection of surrendered and transformed people who love God and others.
They're mesmerized by the idea that it's not about them, but all about Jesus.
They're transfixed by his story and his heart for their city.
They are seed throwers and fire starters, hope peddlers and grace givers, risk takers and dreamers, young and old.
They link arms with anyone who tells the story of Jesus.
They empower the poor, strengthen the weak, embrace the outcast, seek the lost.
They serve together, play together, worship together, live life together.
Their city will change because God sent them.
They are us.
We believe that small things done with great love will change the world.
And when I got done reading that, I just said, oh Lord, make it so.
I want my life to be about those things.
I want Spring Creek to be that kind of church because this inspires me.
It makes me dream about what we could achieve for God as we're transformed by Christ and that desire to make him known to the world.
So, really, all of my life in ministry has been aimed at trying to live out these truths so that we become transformational agents in our community.
But that won't happen simply because we pray a prayer and give our life to Jesus.
It won't happen because you're baptized or attend church services.
Those things are good, but in and of themselves, change doesn't happen until we start living life the Jesus way.
So, in the first part of this message, I want to show you how God is working in you as an individual to transform your life.
And then in the second part of the message, how God is working in us as a people to transform our community.
So let me begin by saying life change doesn't happen without intentionality on our part.
So I want to begin with a question: what is spiritual transformation?
Here's how the Bible describes it don't copy the behaviors and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.
Now, the word transform in this verse, in the original Greek, is the word metamorphao.
It's a word from which we get the word metamorphosis.
You probably remember this from ninth grade biology class in high school, right?
Metamorphosis is the process by which a caterpillar is changed into a butterfly, this total radical kind of transformation.
That's the language that God uses to describe what he wants to do in your life and mine.
He wants a complete and total makeover.
Now, years ago, as a staff, we came up with the following definition of spiritual transformation.
We said spiritual transformation is God lovingly changing your thoughts, feelings, and actions to resemble Jesus in community for the good of the world.
That's what God is longing to do in each and every one of us.
It's what we as pastors are here to help facilitate.
So this message is really an elaboration on that definition.
It's about how spiritual transformation happens.
So first think about this: it's a fundamental shift that affects the total person.
If you were raised in church or you've been around church very long, you've probably heard somebody make the statement that human beings are made in the image of God, right?
You've heard that statement.
Human beings are made in the image of God.
What does that mean?
What does it mean to be made in God's image?
Personally, I believe that the way we reflect God most is that we are persons like God.
What defines a person is they have a mind, a heart, and a will.
We are thinking, feeling, acting beings.
In those ways, that's just like God, because God's a personal being.
He's a thinking, feeling, acting being.
Now, as sinful people, as broken people, we no longer think, feel, or act in ways that please God all the time.
So the image of God has been somewhat marred in us, but it's still those dimensions in our personality that reflect the God image.
This is where spiritual transformation comes in.
Spiritual transformation is God working in you to transform your mind, your heart, and your will, your actions to look like what he originally intended.
So let me say right up front, healthy spirituality believes in addressing all three of those things.
Unhealthy spirituality tends to focus on one to the exclusion of the others.
For example, there are some groups that emphasize only the mind.
This is their motto, feed the mind.
Now understand, feeding the mind is an important thing to do, isn't it?
The Bible encourages us to feed on the Word of God, to learn to discern truth from error, to be good students of the Bible and rightly divide the word of truth.
Even Jesus said, You will know the truth, the truth will set you free.
So, right thinking, especially about God, is vitally important to our spiritual growth.
Our mind needs to experience transformation.
But you also know it's possible to know a lot of right things in your head and still be far from God.
Listen to the Bible describe this in very specific terms.
Don't assume that you can lean back in the arms of your religion and take it easy.
I have a special word of caution for you who are so sure you have it all together yourselves, and because you know God's revealed word inside and out, while you're guiding others, who's going to guide you?
So the Pharisees in Jesus' day are a classic example of this.
They thought if they filled their life with the Bible, that that would produce spiritual giants among them.
Well, the Bible's there to point us to Christ.
Mastering the Bible is not the point of the spiritual life.
The point of the spiritual life is to be mastered by Jesus Christ.
In fact, Jesus had this to say to the Pharisees.
You have your heads in the Bibles constantly because you think you'll find eternal life there, but you miss the forest for the trees.
These scriptures are all about me.
And here I am standing right before you, and you aren't willing to receive from me the life you say you want.
So if there's anything clear in the Bible, is there's no straight-line correspondence between how much we know about the Bible and how spiritually mature we are.
Knowing about God is really important.
That's not the same thing as knowing God.
So you need redemption beneath your eyebrows.
It's not just about changing your brain, right?
That's one error.
Here's another one.
Some people focus exclusively on the mind, others focus exclusively on the heart.
This is all about feel the experience.
I don't think I need to tell anybody here that there are certain groups where everything in their church is about having an experience.
And once again, let me say, experience is an important part of the spiritual life.
God wants you to do more than just know about him.
He does want you to know him, have a relationship with him, a relationship where you feel his presence or touched by his love and move by worship.
Experience is not just a good thing, it's a necessary thing.
You need to know God personally.
You need to hear his speaking voice.
You need to experience and be settled in his love for you because that produces an unshakable foundation.
But did you know that sometimes there are Christians who become worshipers of experience versus worshipers of God?
There are even those who elevate a subjective experience above the truth of God.
In fact, Paul warned us about this in 2 Timothy 2.
They take up with every new religious fad that calls itself truth.
They get exploited every time and never really learn.
So feelings and experiences we have with God are really important, but experiences alone are never going to produce a mature believer.
Here's a third thing: the will to do the right thing.
And probably a lot of you, maybe some of you that grew up in Baptist churches or in the Catholic faith, you know that sometimes there's a major emphasis placed on what we do, how we act, how we live.
Well, those things matter too.
The Bible makes clear that when a person is genuine, has a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ, they start living a different way.
True children of God live lives of obedience.
They want to do the things that please God.
But you realize you can do some pretty impressive religious things and still not know God.
Even Jesus said this in Matthew.
Apart from me, you evildoers.
There are people who claim to know Christ intimately.
That's what it means when you repeat the name of the Lord twice.
That's an intimate sign.
I know the Lord intimate.
But they didn't know the Lord, did they?
They they hadn't they had this, they were doing right things, but doing right things wasn't translating over into a transformed life.
So, all that to say, unhealthy spirituality only focuses on one aspect of who we are as people.
And the Bible, so scripture never does that.
It's all three, the totality of our personhood.
Experiences are not more important than truth.
What you know about the Bible is not more important than how you live.
And simply doing right things, doing the things Christ taught, without heart and mind transformation just leads to a dead religion.
We're whole people.
We need a whole answer.
Another aspect of the transformation God wants to do in us, conformity to Christ is its central objective.
So throughout the New Testament, we're told to emulate Jesus, to become more and more like him, to look to him as our pattern or our model.
The whole goal of spiritual transformation is to make us more and more like Jesus.
So imitation is a part of human nature, isn't it?
In a sense, we were born to imitate.
Modern psychology tells us that we often imitate others while we're building our own personality.
We see this really clearly in adolescence.
When your kid first goes to school, they see what other kids are doing, especially if they want acceptance and approval from other people, and they say, well, maybe if I talk like that, or maybe if I have that attitude, or maybe if I dress that way, I'll get that acceptance for myself.
We're all trying on new identities, trying to figure out who we are.
But that desire to find acceptance and copy others doesn't end at 18, does it?
To many adults, we still emulate and imitate.
We become more sophisticated at it.
We're better at hiding it, but it's often true that business people will copy other successful business people.
And pastors will often copy other preaching styles of successful pastors.
And the Dallas Cowboys try to copy the winning strategies of other football teams.
I mean, it happens everywhere all the time.
But the point is, hey don't groan, it's just the truth, and that's all I do up here.
Share the truth.
But the point is, every single person has this hunger for a greater image.
Where does this desire to imitate come from?
Why is it that we can't be happy with ourselves?
Now there's no question, it seems like we're chasing after something that we've lost, and that's really the key to understanding this.
The Bible says we are looking for something we lost.
Because at one time we had a true identity, a true image of being created in the image of God.
But sin came along and distorted it.
What sin did, it caused us to turn our eyes away from the source of our self-image and made us look to all the wrong people and places for meaning and worth.
Because you were created in the image of God, you were made to look like him.
Listen to Paul explain it.
God knew what he was doing from the very beginning.
He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his son.
The son stands first in the line of humanity he restored.
We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.
After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name.
After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself.
And then after getting them established, he stayed with them in the end, gloriously completing what he has begun.
So Jesus is our example of humanity restored.
When you look at Jesus in the gospels, you see what your life was intended to look like before sin came along and messed it up.
Because Christ is the perfect pattern.
So spiritual transformation is about the whole person, mind, heart, and will, starting to look like Jesus Himself.
The question is how?
How does that happen?
And that's our next point.
Three essential catalysts for change.
Now I want to tell you, everybody in this room has a rhythm to your life.
For example, think about what you do first thing when you get up in the morning.
The moment your feet hit the floor by the side of the bed, what do you do?
Some people, the first thing we do is we pick up our phone, we check what happened overnight.
Some people, maybe you go off to exercise, some of you don't.
Some of you may decide to head right to the kitchen and eat your breakfast.
There are certain things about our rhythm that we do on Friday night that we don't necessarily do on Wednesday.
Part of your rhythm may be showing up here on Sunday mornings.
Some come at 9:30, some come at 11.
What you think, what you watch, how you spend your leisure time, what you do in the car on the drive to work.
Do you turn on the radio?
Do you scroll through your phone at traffic lights?
Do you do you uh just remain quiet?
Whatever it is that you're doing, every aspect of your life has a rhythm, your ways, your habit.
And here's the deal: what you're current what you currently do is producing the person in your seat.
Your habits are producing someone, your rhythms are producing someone.
The question is, are they producing the person that Jesus wants you to become?
It's all about how we arrange our life.
Some of us, we do this by intention, we do it on purpose.
Some of us just by default about what's happening all around us.
Now, let's shift gears and let's talk about sacred rhythms.
Sacred rhythms are specific ways of arranging your life to cultivate a personal and intimate relationship with Christ.
Now, like I said, every one of us, you have a rhythm already.
Whether it's by design or by default, you have a rhythm to your life.
But have you ever intentionally arranged your life with Christ?
Here's something you need to understand about God's agenda for you.
More than your happiness, more than having a successful marriage or great singleness, or even establishing a great business.
Everything about your life, God's agenda is to make you more like his son.
Every up and down of relationship, every win or loss in business, every success or failure in your personal life, God orchestrates them to draw, to get your attention and draw you to himself.
And a bit at a time, a little by little, make you more and more like his son in your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
The question is, how does that happen?
How in the world does God take, God's Spirit take a normal average person like you and me and make us into little Christ?
How does he make us more like Jesus?
This is the sacred rhythm, and I want to show it to you.
It occurs many times in the Gospels.
Here's one of the first occurrences in Luke 6, 12 to 19.
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and he spent the night praying to God.
When the morning came, he called his disciples to him, and he chose twelve of them, whom he designated apostles.
Simon, whom he named Peter.
Peter, his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, son of Alphaus, Simon, who was called the zealot, Judah son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
He went down with them and stood on a level place.
A large crowd of his disciples was there, and a great number of people came from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.
Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him because power was coming from him and healing them all.
So this section in Luke 16 gives us Christ's sacred rhythm.
First, he spends time alone with his Father.
Second thing he does, he gathers a community.
The third thing he does is he goes out to do ministry.
So think of it like this: we go from solitude, which is time alone with God, to community, which are vital relationships that sustain us in life, to ministry, which is service for God for the sake of others.
Now remember our definition of spiritual transformation, that spiritual transformation is God lovingly changing our thoughts, feelings, and actions to resemble Jesus in community for the good of the world.
Our definition of spiritual transformation intentionally follows the sacred rhythms that were shown in Scripture about the life of Christ.
And I have to add, the order really matters.
We go from solitude to community, then ministry.
You cannot reverse this and get the same results.
You can't go try to do ministry, then engage in community, and then go find your solitude.
It never works.
But that's what we try to do all the time.
We go out there and we attempt to do something in our own power and our own strength for God.
I'm going to go do my ministry, and we invariably fail.
And when we fail, then we cry out to help.
We call all our friends, hey, why don't you come around me?
Help me with this thing.
And then when all else false and nothing else works, then we cry out to God and we pray, God, come and help me and save me in all this.
It's the opposite.
It doesn't work.
It's not the rhythm of Christ.
So throughout church history, this sacred rhythm has been described in different ways.
At Spring Creek, the way we say it most often is grow, connect, serve.
That's the same message, okay?
Others call it our communion, our community, and our co-working.
Same message.
So others call it what I'm calling it in the series, our desert, our group, and our project.
And some people call it loving God, loving one another, and loving our neighbors.
But all of them say the same thing.
It doesn't matter what you call it, what matters is whether you practice it.
In the words of the Mandalorian, this is the way.
I mean, this really is.
This is the way of Jesus.
And if you've never heard of the way of Jesus or the sacred rhythm of Christ's life, this is what I'm describing to you right now.
It's how he lived.
And if we're to become like Christ, we need all three.
We need time alone with God.
We need a community around us to sustain us.
And we need to be doing ministry service for others that makes a real difference in this world.
So let's go through them one at a time.
First, our desert is loving God.
Jesus said this: love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind.
It's interesting.
Whenever the Bible describes our relationship with God, it always defaults to the language of craving.
Listen to David in the Psalms.
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
Or how about this in Psalm 63, O God, you are my God.
Earnestly I seek you.
My soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So to satisfy the craving, this heart that's crying out for satiation, for the refreshing water of God, to satisfy that craving, we need more of God.
To get more of God, we have to do what Henry Nowen said.
Henry Nowen said in the spiritual life, the word discipline means the effort to create some space in which God can act.
Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up.
If you want more of God, if you say right now, I don't feel like my spiritual life is hitting on all cylinders.
I don't feel as close to God as I once did.
I don't feel this hunger and this desire to have more of God in my life.
I can tell you right now, you're not practicing the spiritual disciplines.
You're not.
Because the spiritual disciplines create that space for God to enter into your life.
You see, you have a part in spiritual growth.
You really do.
Your part is pushing back life.
I mean, a part of the reason that you're here on a Sunday morning, you've dedicated this time to push back everything else and say, God, I'm bringing myself present to you.
You've done that in worship, you're doing that now in this message.
This is a spiritual discipline that we're all engaged in in this moment.
But you need this every day.
You need this time where you're creating space for God.
Now, there are several ways that you can engage in the disciplines, and there's a lot of different disciplines that are very enjoyable.
We've done a whole series about them.
You can find them on YouTube.
Richard Foster breaks them down into three categories: inward, outward, and corporate.
So look at them like this.
Inward disciplines are things like meditation, fasting, study, and prayer.
Outward disciplines are simplicity and solitude and submission and service.
Corporate, which means related to the body.
So these are things we practice as a group.
Confession, worship, guidance, and celebration.
Now I have to, I feel compelled to mention something I've never mentioned before in a message about spiritual disciplines.
You've got to learn to discipline your phone.
You have to.
True confession here.
For more than 10 years, and I'm proud of this, for 10 years, I have walked three to four miles a day.
I mean, practically without fail.
Unless I'm just deathly ill or you just can't walk because there's ice everywhere, I'm out there getting my mileage in.
But it serves a dual purpose in my life.
For me to walk three miles, which says something about my shape, it takes me about an hour.
Probably like 55 minutes every day while I walk three miles.
And so I'm not cracking any land speed records here.
I'm just out there and I'm walking.
And when I'm walking, I use that as a time to create space for God.
I push back life, I bring myself present to God.
It's a great time to prayer.
But what I've noticed over the last six months is I get up my phone, and what should be time with me and God becomes Facebook time or catching up on the news time.
And I find myself more engaged with this than with God.
And I notice that, of course, as I'm preparing this message, and I say, okay, God, something's got to give here.
I can't, I can't keep doing this.
I like to carry my phone because it keeps track of my mileage, but it cannot become a disruptor in my life.
So I've decided I'll still carry my phone to keep track of the mileage.
And if Brenda or the girls need to reach me with text or phone, they can do that.
But I don't need to be looking at my phone, I'll just keep it in my pocket.
So listen to these recent findings about Americans and their smartphones.
This is a study released this year.
Americans check their phones nearly 200 times a day.
That's about once every five minutes while they're awake.
Or how about this?
Nearly 46% of Americans consider themselves addicted to their phones.
That's 2026.
That's almost half of us.
And these were the honest ones, okay?
I mean, I'm not talking about the people who are addicted and didn't admit it.
We know what they are, right?
So this is not just a problem for me, it's a problem for us.
So I want to talk to you just for a few minutes about developing digital discipline.
Now, there's no question there's a lot of good that comes from having smartphones.
We can do all of our finances on our phone.
I could deposit a check on my smartphone.
Can you believe that?
Finding your way across town to an unfamiliar place.
You know what we used to do in Dallas?
We bought these books called MAPSCo.
And to get across town, it was five pages of, okay, here's this new neighborhood.
And we had to do that while driving, okay?
Dallas traffic was horrible back then.
So restaurants, home security, health monitors, shopping, being reachable anywhere, anytime, tons of benefits that come from having a smartphone.
But one big downside: our phones are intentionally engineered to be addictive.
Tech companies use things like intermittent rewards to get you hooked and keep you scrolling.
Your phone has been optimized to capture and keep your attention.
And you know what else they do?
They tank us emotionally.
Studies have found that the more time you spend on social media, the more anxiety you'll have, the more depression you'll have, and feelings of being overwhelmed.
And if we're not careful, the moments in our life that used to be restorative, like early mornings or right before bed, or going on a walk with Jesus, they cease to be that and they become things that take from us rather than give to us.
So let me just offer you four simple suggestions.
Number one, remove the triggers.
Social media often triggers our feels, our feelings of insecurity, because apps like Facebook and Instagram present a very heavily curated version of people's life.
And so you're comparing your behind the scenes with everybody else's highlight reel.
And you come away feeling bad.
Just remember social media is a curated reality, not the whole reality.
They're not showing you everything that happens late at night when they're not feeling all that happy and things aren't marvelous.
Second, audit who you follow.
Some people you probably ought to unfollow.
There are some people, this is a great option on Facebook.
It's called snooze.
You say, I'm just kind of tired of seeing this.
And you snooze them for 30 days.
It doesn't mean you unfriend them, but you don't have to be reminded of their constant heartache or their constant, you know, passive aggressive.
I'm saying this to everybody, but I have one person in particular in mind, right?
Third, nuke the notifications.
There are some things you need to know about, most things you don't.
Just turn them off on all your apps, apart from phone calls, texts, maybe your home security system.
There are a few things maybe you need to know about, but you don't need to know every time somebody sends you a message on Facebook, believe me.
Fourth, create physical separation.
I mean, there's a do not disturb and focus mode on many of our phones that says during this time, you just can't disturb me, right?
That's a good option to do.
But remember this when it comes to going to bed at night, don't charge your phone right beside your head.
And please, for the love of Jesus, if you wake up, don't start scrolling, okay?
Just don't do that to your partner.
What's that bright light over here?
Is Jesus coming back?
No.
They're scrolling their phone.
It's interrupting your sleep.
It's not adding anything good.
Digital discipline is essential if you're going to have a quality relationship with God.
Second catalyst, our community, to love one another.
The Bible says it like this: a new command I give you, these are the words of Jesus, love one another.
As I've loved you, you must love one another.
By this, everyone will know that you're my disciples if you love one another.
We can't live lives completely isolated.
We need touch, we need attention, we need conversation, warmth, and affection.
We're bent toward relationships.
Even though we may struggle with them at times, there's something that happens when believers gather together that does not happen when we're alone.
And Jesus told us that.
He said, where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.
Now, is that saying that Jesus is not with us when we're alone?
No, that's not what it's saying.
But what it is saying is when believers gather together, like in a place like this, or in a small group, or a group of believers you work with on the job, when we gather together in community, Christ gives us a special manifestation of his presence that we don't experience all alone.
There's something about the presence of Christ that gets magnified or multiplied when we come together.
In fact, it was Dallas Willard, reflecting on the same verse, who said this personalities united can contain more of God and sustain the force of his greater presence better than scattered individuals.
The fire of God kindles higher as the brands are heaped together and each is warmed by each other's flame.
If you've ever been in scouting or you go camping and you have a bonfire and pretty soon the fire burns down and you just have a lump of a bunch of coals, take one coal and kick it away from the fire and see what happens to it.
It goes out real quick, doesn't it?
But if they're heaped together, that burning goes on.
In fact, if you lay wood on it, it'll reignite.
We need to be together because that's what where God manifests in such a powerful way.
So the Bible knows nothing of a Lone Ranger Christian.
We're in the family of Christ.
My relationship with Christ may be personal, but it's not private.
So the question is not, am I going to be a part of the community?
But how am I going to be a part of the community?
Maybe a comparison will help.
The church is not a coffee bar.
Now, I realize that we have a coffee bar right out here in the lobby as I'm saying this, and I'm not saying this to detract from that business venture or anything like that.
I just want to point out something that's different about church and coffee bars.
Paul Lewis Metzger, he's a professor of theology and culture.
He says that in the average church, the coffee bar has replaced the communion table.
And there's consequences that come with that.
Listen to what he says.
Both the coffee bar and the Lord's table affirm community, but the kind of community they affirm differs significantly.
I mean, think about the difference.
At the Lord's table, we're guests.
We each come, we're invited, we're welcomed by the Lord.
We don't choose who we share the meal with, do we?
We don't place an order.
We don't customize our beverage.
Instead, we all drink, eat the same bread, we drink from the same cup at the Lord's table.
We're all humble recipients of the grace of God.
In the coffee bar, we're in control.
We review our options, we order what we want, when we want, how we want it.
We decide who to share our table with and who to avoid.
The coffee bar is not designed to make us into Christians.
The coffee bar makes us consumers.
This is not who we are as a church or who we're supposed to be.
In the coffee bar, I'm in charge.
And in particular, I'm choosing the company that I want to be with, the people most like me, the people I already know and like.
I want my community to be clean, cool, and efficient, not messy, stretching, or challenging.
But how does that fit with the New Testament concept of the church?
It doesn't.
Not at all.
That's not the sort of church he wants us to be.
Instead, he calls Jews and Gentiles to share one faith, one church, one table.
Because the gospel is all about breaking down barriers and forming a countercultural community, a new humanity where genuine unity is displayed in the midst of radical diversity.
This is one of the great testimonies that the gospel has entered our life.
Gospel communities experience radical diversity in the midst of tremendous unity.
There's spiritually mature fathers and mothers alongside younger men and women and children.
There's diversity in stages of life, elderly with adult children, alongside young professionals with no children and single moms.
The church should enjoy ethnic diversity, black, Hispanic, white, and Asian, along with socioeconomic diversity, the wealthy, the poor, the blue-collar, and believe it or not, it should also have diversity in political views, the Republicans, the Democrats, and the Independents.
Why is this so important?
By being the people who God called us to be, we're reminded that Jesus came to people who were unlike himself.
When it comes to preference, we all prefer low-maintenance, spiritually clean, a mature group of believers to fellowship with.
But that's contrary to the gospel.
And it most definitely does not put the gospel on display.
Instead, we're just mirroring the world's categories.
This clean, homogeneous, knowledgeable people, the religious folks, those are the people Jesus avoided.
Instead, Jesus gets involved with the messy ones, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the lepers, the demon-possessed, and he forms a community that's been radically transformed by the gospel.
I mean, look no further than Jesus' choice of the twelve.
They're the original dirty dozen.
I mean, these Jewish men were chosen from all different sectors of Jewish society, many of them at odds with one another.
So think about this.
When an elderly white woman is praying over a black young professional who's babysitting for a Hispanic family with six kids, what does that say to the non-believer when they first encounter that?
When the poor have equal standing with the rich, when a struggling new believer is not judged but encouraged, when a homeschooling family has lunch with a public schooling family, when things like that happen in our community, what's being put on display?
The gospel.
Because something radically has different has happened with these people.
They formed a new identity without the labels and the stigma and the categories of the society in which we live.
In the community of Christ, Jesus forms a new humanity where the dividing walls are all broken down.
Now I'll tell you, this is harder than homogeneous groups.
But it's messier and it's more challenging, but it's more glorious and more gospel honoring.
It doesn't begin with what you want to prefer, it begins with what Jesus is doing in a lot of different lives.
I don't know about you.
I'm very glad that God has made this a very diverse place, but the best diversity that happens is when we're together in close community.
And when we're together in close community, it's hard to maintain certain ideas that we get from society that often judge people who are not like us because we come to love people who are not like us.
And we come to realize that those categories don't fit everything, that this is not taking into account Christ's reality.
So that's that.
And then the third aspect of sacred rhythm is our project, to love your neighbor.
Jesus told us to love your neighbor as yourself.
You are made to serve, to do good, to give away the things that God has given to you.
And that's the way we find our joy, a joy that can be taken away from us because we're giving what we've received.
Ministry is not just about working for Jesus, it means becoming a partner with Jesus.
It's that he becomes our coworker.
So what does this ministry look like?
Well, it looks like the vision statement of the Vineyard Church in Cincinnati.
Let me read it for you again in light of everything I've said.
Imagine a ragtag collection of surrendered and transformed people who love God and others.
They're mesmerized by the idea that it's not about them, but all about Jesus.
They're transfixed by his story and his heart for the city.
They are seed throwers and fire starters, hope peddlers and grace givers, risk takers and dreamers, young and old.
They link arms with anyone who tells the story of Jesus.
They empower the poor, strengthen the weak, embrace the outcast, seek the lost.
They serve together, play together, worship together, live life together.
Their city will change because God sent them.
They are us.
We believe that small things done with great love will change the world.
Friends, love is not love until it's given away.
And Christ is not going to be everything you long for him to be until you give him away.
Now I'm not going to talk a lot about service because in the rest of this series we're going to be spending a lot of time on the topic of service, but I want to ask one more question, and that is this: how do I know if it's working?
Well, Paul tells us this if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I have not love, I'm only a resounding gong and a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains but have not love, I'm nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Now these are some pretty impressive religious activities in these verses.
Speaking in tongues, prophetic powers, understanding all mysteries, having all knowledge, mountain-moving faith, giving away your possessions, sacrificing your life for others.
Yet all of them are devoid of any real power if they're not done in love.
They're nothing but a bunch of religious noise, a clanging gong, a clanging cymbal.
Love is the great authenticator.
It proves that we've been with God.
So what if God's church, his people, really believed that leading with love was the only way to bring other people into his kingdom?
What if God's Spirit was so in control of our lives that that same love that characterized Jesus characterized us?
What if the fruit of the Spirit began to manifest in our life, that our character began to resemble that of Christ?
Now let me share with you a story that perfectly illustrates this.
I shared this story for the last time about six years ago, but I want to share it with you again today.
It's about Tony Campalo.
Tony Campallo is from Philly, and he was in Honolulu doing some ministry.
And there's of course a big time difference.
If you've ever traveled across the country or gone over to Europe, you know that sometimes your internal clock gets way off, and you're awake when everybody else is asleep.
Well, that's what he found himself.
He found himself wide awake at 3 a.m.
And so he went to a local diner that was open.
And while he's sitting there and he's having his coffee at the counter, uh, all of a sudden these eight or nine really loud, boisterous prostitutes came walking in and sat at that uh uh coffee at that uh bar, that table right at the front, uh, the counter, that's the word I'm looking for.
Uh they sat down right beside him.
And he couldn't help but overhear the conversation because one of the women said, Tomorrow's my birthday, I'll be 39.
And her friend looked at her and said, So what do you want from me?
I suppose you want me to throw you a party and make you a cake.
And the woman said, Why are you so mean?
I don't want a birthday party.
I've never had a cake in my life.
Why don't I want anything from you?
Just be quiet.
And the woman said, You know, you you're just so mean.
And shortly after that, they get up and they walk out.
Well, Tony and the diner are the only people remaining in that.
The diner owner, they're the only people remaining.
And Tony looked at the owner and said, Do these women come in here every night?
He said, Yes, they do.
And he said, The one seated next to me, he said, You mean Agnes?
He said, Yeah, does she come in every night?
Yeah, yeah, like clockwork, every night she's here, same time.
And Tony asked, What if we throw a birthday party for Agnes tomorrow night?
And the owner breaks out in this big cheesy grin, called his wife in the back, who's in the kitchen, and said, Hey, this crazy guy out here wants to throw a birthday party for Agnes.
And so they all agreed and made plans for the party.
Next night, Tony is back at the diner at 3 a.m.
The place was clean, amazingly clean, decorated with crepe paper.
There's even a big sign, a banner that said, Happy birthday, Agnes.
Pretty soon all sorts of street people began to trickle in.
As you see, word had gotten out on the street.
Prostitutes from all over Honolulu were filling up the place.
Then at their usual time, Agnes and her friends came walking through the door, and everyone shouted, Happy birthday, Agnes.
Well, Agnes' knees, they buckled.
She was stunned, she was speechless.
They led her over to the counter, she sat down, everyone starts singing happy birthday as the owner's bringing out the birthday cake.
Her mouth fell open, her eyes filled with tears.
The owner said, Blow out the candles so we can all have some.
And Agnes just sat there, staring at that cake.
Finally, she blew out the candles and the owner handed her a knife.
And she looked at the cake and she said, Do I have to?
Let me have just a minute.
And Agnes looked at that cake like it was the most precious thing she'd ever been given.
And finally she asked, Do I have to cut it?
And the owner said, Well, no, I suppose you don't have to.
And then she said something even more strange.
She said, I'd like to keep it for a while.
I don't live far from here.
Can I take it home?
I'll be right back.
And the owner said, Sure, you can take it.
And Agnes picks up that cake and cradles it like she's carrying the holy grail itself.
And turns around and walks out of the diner with her cake.
And everybody's kind of shocked, a stunned silence kind of fell over everybody.
And that's when Tony said, What do you say, let's pray?
Now, this is about as bizarre a scene as you could imagine.
I mean, here's this highly respected, well-known Christian sociologist, surrounded by every prostitute in Honolulu in a greasy diner in the middle of the night, and he says, Let's pray.
So Tony does that.
He prays a simple prayer.
He prays that Agnes would somehow find the love of Christ, that she would find the healing that she craved, and that God would be good to her, especially on her birthday.
And then he said, Amen.
And that's when the owner looked at Tony and said, Hey, you didn't tell me you were a preacher.
And Tony said, I'm not a preacher, I'm a sociologist.
And the owner asked, What kind of church do you belong to anyway?
If you know anything about Tony.
He broke out in this wide grin and he said, I guess I come from a church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3 o'clock in the morning.
And the owner said, No, no, you don't.
There is no such church.
Because if there was, I'd join it.
Friends, people are starved for a fresh expression of God's love.
The kind of love that takes your breath away.
Let's be that kind of church.
You see, Jesus is calling us to be the kind of people who demonstrate his unconditional love to people who are so deeply wounded, so deeply battered that many of them wouldn't even think of coming to a church.
We're the body of Christ.
That means we're the hands and feet of Jesus.
Because he's living in you, that means he's walking the earth today.
His character is what's intended to shine through you and me.
You see, we're not called to be spectators in the world.
We're called to be miracle workers.
We're called to be walking, breathing definitions of love and forgiveness.
Desert community project.
This is the way.
This is what Tony did.
He's walking with God.
He shows up.
He invites a community to gather with him and celebrate this woman.
And then Agnes' life has fundamentally changed because of a demonstration of love.
I had a professor in college, in seminary, graduate school.
His name was Dr.
Howard Hendricks.
He's gone on to be with the Lord, but he would tell us in class that he would often pray the same prayer every morning.
This is what he'd pray.
Lord, here I am.
I want to be your suit of clothes today.
I want you to take me and use me.
Lord, just walk around in me today.
I wonder if you'd dare to make that your prayer.
Not just today, but every day in the coming weeks and months.
Lord, wear me like a suit of clothes.
Walk around in me.
Show your love to people who are desperate to experience it.
Let my life intersect with people who need it like that.
God, help me to reflect your love to them.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you so much for who you are.
Thank you, how the story of Jesus has changed my life.
I know, God, that you're working in me and will continue to work in me.
There's still so much to do.
But Lord, what I have learned is that when I push back life and create space for you, that you fill that space.
That God, as I gather with my brothers and sisters, there's power and encouragement and inspiration and accountability by being involved with the body of Christ.
And Lord, then we go out and we do what only you can do.
We meet people where they are with exactly what they need.
Because, God, you supply the words, you supply with the resources, you supply what's necessary for us to be your hands and feet, your mouth and your heart to a world that's desperate to experience it.
God, whatever it takes to make us into that kind of church, do it.
Whatever it takes, God, to make us into the kind of people who would pray every day, Lord, wear me like a suit of clothes.
Help me to show up where the need is greatest, and help me just to love people in your name.
I pray it all in your name.
Amen.
God bless y'all.