The After Sermon /// What is God actually building?

Welcome to The After Sermon by Plum Creek Church.

This bite-sized discussion is where we get to sit down with our communicators and ask a few follow up questions connected to the weekend message, unpack it on a deeper level, and explore how it all relates to our journey of following Jesus more fully.

It’s possible to show up, contribute, serve, and even love what’s happening around you without ever truly letting yourself be known.

In this episode of The After Sermon, Eric and Daniel unpack an overlooked part of Nehemiah’s story: people eagerly volunteered to rebuild Jerusalem’s wall, but actually moving inside it was a different kind of commitment.

That tension raises a bigger question for followers of Jesus: Where does participation stop short of discipleship?

They also explore why community isn’t simply another church activity, how being known shapes us into the likeness of Jesus, and why the invitation of Jesus has always been an invitation into a people—not just a set of beliefs.

Because the goal was never simply to build something people admire. It’s to become a people who follow Jesus together.

This conversation is also available on our YouTube channel along with the full sermon that this discussion is based on.

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@plumcreekchurch

You can learn more about Plum Creek Church by visiting our website as well.

Website: https://plumcreek.church/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the after sermon where we get to sit down with our communicator from the weekend, and this time it's Eric Parks.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hi.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome. Thank you. Um Nehemiah. Yes. I loved where you took the message today. Oh, thanks, man. But why don't you uh give our listeners, watchers, viewers, yeah, yeah, a bit of an update on where you went.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Yeah, I think um so here this will give you a little insight into sometimes how it works as a pastor. This was not the message on Monday. So I had a completely different message and I was really struggling with it. I was just in Nehemiah 8. And for those of you that might like read Nehemiahs, it is a harder read. It's a lot of names, and um, and I so I was on a long walk and I put on the you know, what's a U version and started listening to it. And he's they start reading all these names. There's a ton of them. And all of a sudden something clicked. I'm like, oh, that's a lot of people. I was like, people. This is how my brain works. I was like, people. Wait a minute. The wall, we're focused on the wall, but they keep talking about the people. Then I went back and I started listening again. I'm like, oh, they they didn't do a ribbon cutting when they were done with the wall. When did they do the celebration? When the people moved into the city, and then it all started like clicking, where I'm like, oh, yes, it was about the wall, but it was never about the wall. It was that me and I was pulling a people to live inside that wall. This was all about a people of God, about like, hey, we're gonna, that's why they did the draft and convince people to come live in this thing. It was never just about the wall. And so that's really what we talked about today is, you know, I think it's really easy to make something about something it isn't, sure, right? Whether that's through drift or you rarely is it an intentional thing. I mean, think about like how many times have you looked at something that didn't, you know, a broken marriage, or you know, you end up in a place and you ask yourself the question, how do we get here? Well, that's it, is oftentimes we just sort of drift into these spaces. And I think as we are as a church, we're 20 years old, yeah, and we're heading into what I would call the next season. Like in some ways, the last month has been a celebration of what not just what has been, but what will be. I think it's really important to consistently come back to hey, this has always been about building a people of Jesus, about a bunch of people who understand what he says, work really hard to rearrange their lives around those teachings, and we do that as a community, as a family. We move together. So, I mean, that was the essence of the message. And um, I think it is a really great reminder that this is what I mean, this is from then till now what Jesus, what God has been up to is building a people, right? Uh Jesus pronounces the kingdom. This kingdom is a kingdom of people. So yeah, that's I mean, in an essence, I mean, you don't even have to listen to it now. You don't have to go watch it.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Uh well, well, hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on a minute. I got a qu I got a couple questions for you. Okay. Um, because I think what was really interesting was you talked about um the wall and how like everyone in Miami's day was like, oh yeah, like they're volunteers. Like, I'll build a wall, I'll help. I can do something for it. And then when it came time to like live in it, everyone was like, eh, I don't know. I think, I think I've I'll I might pass. Yeah, and so my question is, where does discipleship, or no, I'm sorry, where does participation stop short of discipleship?

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Well, that's a really good question because I think sometimes they can feel, and sometimes even within the context of our spiritual communities, we'll say things like, Well, we just need you to contribute, or maybe join a small group. And all those things are really good. Yeah, they count, but they serve something deeper and greater, and that deeper and greater is the reason why we contribute and serve, the reason why we uh join a small group is uh so that we can uh be engaged inside of the people of God in ways we otherwise couldn't. Like, you know, this is when you when you look at the New Testament in Acts chapter two, it is undeniable that this was a people-based movement. Like what happens in Acts is like these people start gather the kind of cost happens, and there's a group of people. Yeah, and then from there, this group of people start living life together and selling the things they have and giving it to others. And that group of people attracted other group more people, and they they wanted to live inside this. And this is what is so fundamentally cool about the kingdom is that um, you know, even in Nehemiah's day, there were some prerequisites to live inside the wall, sure, right? Like um there were, there were uh things that you had to um, you know, nationality, some things that had to be in place. Then Jesus establishes a brand new kingdom, he establishes a brand new people, and the apostle Paul talks about it. It's not Jews or Gentiles or slaves or uh masters, it is not male or female. This is a people of God that now are gathered underneath one common thing, and that is Jesus and the cross. And and this has been like when you say, what's the difference between like some of these things we might participate in and discipleship? It is, well, all of these things are our means to that end to become more like him, to understand what he said, that we would live in this community together, that we would grow together. Um, and just as in Nehemiah's days, sometimes it's easier to stay in stay put in the kingdoms you've already built and just be an admirer of like you know, like people still I would suspect that there were lots of people who came into the city walls during the day and shopped and did their thing and then they went back home and lived at home. Yeah. And I think that metaphor is important because I think it's really easy to it can be easy to show up um for a weekend and admire and even like what's happening, but not ever be really known. Never really join the people, yeah. Never truly align your life, not just with the teachings of Jesus, but with this this people of God.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Well, I think that's the threshold of uncomfortability. Yeah. Right? It's like, well, like I'm a little bit uncomfortable because maybe I'm stepping into a place that like is new for me. That's awesome. The next step of that is becoming known, and that becomes really uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

For real. But I mean, that is part of the journey, right? Yeah. Um, and I think I I think in this day and age, uh in particular in our our modern churches, we've made it really easy to uh we live in a culture, jot just churches, a culture where it's really easy to not be known. I mean, where we can show certain parts of ourselves. Sure. But that is like when you really begin to study Acts chapter two and this whole idea of like this people of God, this people of Jesus, um, this is part of the goal. I say it all the time. Um, if you leave that the richness of community out of your discipleship, then you won't fully be formed into the likeness of Jesus. You you won't. You you can learn a lot on your own and you can do a bunch on your own. Um, but this is an invitation into a people, into a family, right? That's the invitation.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

And um, you said it, you said it in you, I I love how you brought, sorry, I'm ruining the message again, but you brought the Ephesians verse. Yeah, for the end, where it literally says, like, in him you are also being built together, together, together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Yes, and like that's what this is all about.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

I mean, if you go back, I won't like I opened this up like I was gonna be able to read it. I don't have my readers on. So um, but if you read, just go back to Ephesians chapter two, and I started in verse 21, but back it up just a little bit, and in into verse 18, for through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you're fellow citizens. Like this whole language that he uses is all language that they would have understand as like it's a citizenship, it is a uh a nation, it is a people, it is a gathering, and it's not a building or bricks. He says it. We are it's all built in and through Jesus. He is the foundation, he is the mortar. And so, and and we're part of that, right? So I think it's really important because as I said up front, and I said at the end of the message, it's really easy to make something about something it isn't. And so um, what this is about, it's certainly about following Jesus and his teachings, but it's certainly about in that process joining a family, a community, a people. And um, and we have to make space. The question has never been for Plum Creek, like, hey, should we build bigger things? The question is, should we make room for a bigger family? And I think I think that's the stuff you have to wrestle with.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Oh man, appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

All right. Well, now that you don't have to listen to the message at all, I can thank me later. I can go to YouTube, watch the message that this entire conversation was based on. You can get this uh on your podcasting platforms wherever those might might be. Until next time, we'll see ya.