Stop 9 Church
We want to share important pieces of our worship service with those who might not have been able to be there in person.
Stop 9 Church
C3: Built (Part 1/5)
What does it mean to build a culture centered on Christ? Standing on freshly dried earth after the flood, Noah faced a remarkable opportunity few will ever experience – the chance to establish an entirely new cultural foundation. His first action reveals a profound truth about prioritizing God in our lives.
The foundation of a Christ-centered culture isn't what we build for God, but what we lay down before Him. Before constructing shelter, organizing animals, or planting crops, Noah built an altar to the Lord. This seemingly counterintuitive decision reveals a principle that applies to every cultural context we participate in today – our homes, workplaces, relationships, and communities.
Every culture has a central organizing principle – something functioning as the primary value around which everything else revolves. For many of us, our personal and communal cultures unconsciously form around comfort, control, success, or fear. But Noah's example offers a radically different approach. By establishing the altar first, he declared this new world belonged not to him but to God. The altar wasn't merely expressing gratitude; it was a deliberate transfer of ownership.
Noah didn't offer God leftovers or damaged goods – he sacrificed some of every clean animal and bird, resources he needed for survival. His offering came from sacrifice, not convenience. Similarly, Christ-centered culture today requires giving God our best rather than our extras, prioritizing obedience even when inconvenient.
What would happen if we intentionally built our lives around Christ rather than personal preferences or societal expectations? What if each day began with surrender rather than an assertion of control? Join us as we explore how to create environments where God's presence can transform not just individual lives but entire cultural systems.
Good morning. Let's begin our worship with a prayer. Father, thank you for this morning and just thank you for your blessings. We love to see the green grass and the flowers and the sunshine and the rain, and just springtime reminds us that you are the bringer of life and we thank you for that. And we thank you for your son and what he did for us. We remember his sacrifice again this week. Father, help us keep that in mind, not just around Easter and Resurrection Day, but every day of the year, and we thank you for your spirit, who, we pray, is in here this morning and just lifts us up and encourages us. And thank you for all that you do for us, father, and it's in your Son's name we pray. Amen.
Speaker 2:A common love for each other, a common gift to the Savior, a common bond holding us to the Lord, a common strength when we're weary, a common hope for tomorrow. For tomorrow, a common joy in to the Savior. A common bond holding us to the Lord, a common strength when we're weary, a common hope for tomorrow, a common joy in the truth of God's word. Bless the Lord, o my soul, o my soul, worship his holy name. Sing like never before, o my soul, I'll worship your holy name. The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning, it's time to sing your song again. Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me, let me be singing when the evening comes.
Speaker 2:Bless the Lord, o my soul, o my soul, worship His holy name. Sing like never before, o my soul, I'll worship your holy name. Your rich in love and your slow to anger, your name is great and your heart is kind. For all your goodness, I will keep on singing. Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find bless the Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul, worship His holy name. Sing like never before, o my soul, I'll worship your holy name, your holy name. And on that day when my strength is failing, the end draws near and my time has come. Still, my soul will sing your praise unending ten thousand years, and then forevermore. Bless the.
Speaker 2:Lord O my soul, o my soul worship his holy name soul. Worship his holy name.
Speaker 2:Sing like never before. Oh my soul, I'll worship your holy name. Bless the Lord. Oh my soul, oh my soul, worship His holy name. Sing like never before. O my soul, I'll worship your holy name. I'll worship your holy name. I'll worship your holy name. Name Beautiful Lamb of God, guiltless and pure as snow, gentle and merciful. Beautiful Lamb of God, sent from the Father's love, sent from the throne above, sent to redeem us with His blood. Beautiful Lamb of God, Guiltless and pure as snow, gentle and merciful. Beautiful Lamb of God, suffering great pain for us and by His wounds we all are healed, healed. Beautiful Lamb of God, guiltless and pure as snow, gentle and merciful. Beautiful Lamb of God. Like sheep, we've gone astray, each turned to his own way, but Jesus will take our sins away.
Speaker 1:Beautiful Lamb of God guiltless and pure as snow, gentle and merciful, beautiful Lamb of God Amen.
Speaker 3:Good morning. Today's scripture reading comes from Noah. So Noah, his wife and his sons and their wives left the boat and all of the large and small animals and birds came out of the boat pair by pair. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose. And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things.
Speaker 4:Good morning. Let's begin with a word of prayer, father. God, we thank you so much for this morning. God, we're thankful that we get to gather as brothers and sisters in Christ and truly worship and celebrate your love for us. We're thankful for Jesus. We're thankful for his example of how to love and interact with people. Father, I pray that you would open up our hearts, our eyes and our ears to the things that you want us to know. Be with us as we study and look at how to build a culture that glorifies you. Thank you for the examples that you give us throughout Scripture. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen, alright.
Speaker 4:Some great philosopher once said everybody makes mistakes. Everybody has those days. I was not in here when Steeler read Scripture, but I can tell you I put Noah 8 up there, and so that's Genesis 8. We'll get that right right off the bat. It's not Noah 8, it's Genesis 8. Morgan texted me and all I got was Noah Exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point. And so that is on me. I have made a mistake. That's Genesis 8, folks. There's no Noah. So we'll just get that right right off the bat.
Speaker 4:All right, a couple things I want to announce just real quickly, walk for Water is next Sunday, may 4th, walk for Water. If you know what that is or if you don't know what that is, that is an event that we are partnering with the Buckeye Trail FCA working to raise money to dig a well in a third world country. I think this is the ninth year we've done it and so if you'd like to be a part of that, that is at Buckeye Trail High School next Sunday afternoon. The walk begins at 3.30. Registration starts at 2.30. And if you want to learn more about it, woody will be here next Sunday during class time in this auditorium sharing with you about Walk for Water. So if you want to be a part of that, that's next Sunday. And then I also wanted to share this.
Speaker 4:We have a food pantry here at the church that many of you help donate to, and it's a fantastic thing. But I got a call from a 16-year-old kid this week. I was driving and I got a phone call and I thought who is this? And it was Cooper McManaway. And Cooper McManaway doesn't call me. Okay, that's just, he's a 16-year-old kid. He just doesn't make phone calls, but he calls me and he says hey, I'm in a group at Meadowbrook called Teen Lead, and we're really trying to make this push to help out one of the food pantries in the community. He says is there any way that you could tell the church about it? So if a 16-year-old kid calls and wants to do something good, I'm going to share it with you. And so, yes, we have a food pantry here and please continue to support our food pantry here. But we have some young folks in our community and it's more than just Cooper. There's quite a few teens here at the church that are a part of this, but they're helping out with this, and so if you want to drop off food there at the school, you can do that. There's some non-perishable items I can get you this information, if you want it of things that they're collecting, and then they are also more high tech than me because they're 16 years old, so they have a QR code. If you want to go to Amazon and just buy something and send it to the school, they'll make sure it gets to the Grace Food Pantry. So those are my two advertisements for this morning.
Speaker 4:Alright, here we go. We're talking about the idea. We're starting a new series this week. We're calling it C3. And that stands for Christ-Centered Culture and culture.
Speaker 4:If we think about the idea of culture, it's just a set of shared attitudes, values and goals and practices that characterize an institution or an organization or a group of people, and so I want you to think about something for just a second what is the greatest or the best culture you've ever been a part of? Maybe you worked for a company and just to be a part of that company the culture that was around that company was a good thing to be a part of. Or maybe you've been a part of a sports team or maybe in a club of some sort, and, looking back, you just think or maybe you're in it right now you just think, man, that was a great thing to be a part of. So I want you to take just a few seconds to reflect on that. What's the best culture you've ever been in? Because everywhere you go, culture is being built. In your home, here, in the church, in your heart, culture is being built, and the question that we have to ask is what's at the center of the culture that you're trying to build or be a part of? Is it comfort, is it control, is it success or, hopefully, in the case of the church. The center of our culture should be Christ.
Speaker 4:In the Old Testament we're going to be looking in the Old Testament over the next few weeks whenever God's people wanted to build something that would last, they didn't start with a blueprint. They didn't start with an ambition or excitement. They started with an altar. They began with an ambition or excitement. They started with an altar. They began with an altar. They didn't begin by building something up. They began by laying something down, and that's the truth of the foundation of a Christ-centered culture. It's not what we build for God, but it's what we lay down before Him. So that would be there on your outline if you're following along. The foundation of a Christ-centered culture is not what we build for God, but it's what we lay down before Him.
Speaker 4:We're going to jump into Genesis 8 this morning and we're going to be looking at a little bit of what takes place with Noah. And if you want a refresher on what's taking place in Genesis 8, the entire world has just been judged and washed clean by the flood. The entire world, everybody but Noah and his family, has been washed away and the culture, the previous world, the previous culture, the previous ideas and standards and expectations has been washed away, and Noah and his family have been sitting on the ark for quite a few months at this point. They've been floating around, waiting, trusting and really just surviving. And where we pick up in Genesis, chapter 8, this morning for the first time, they step out of the ark and they step out onto the ground, and it's a brand new beginning.
Speaker 4:You ever wondered what it would be like to start over, just to start completely new? What if the world would just start over, just to start completely new? What if the world would just start over? That's what Noah is stepping into this morning as we look into this story. He gets to create a brand new culture and it's all up to Noah and his family to decide how that's going to look. What would be the first thing you would do in a new world? Think about this.
Speaker 4:Noah steps out of the ark. The whole world is silent. There's no buildings, there's no crops, there's no cities. It's just the earth, the sky and the few hundred animals that he's been riding around with. He's at the starting line of a brand new world, and Noah doesn't start by building a house. He doesn't start by building a farm and getting the animals spread out. He doesn't start by building a fence, trying to protect everything that he's been riding around with. Do you know what he builds first? He builds an altar. He built an altar to the Lord.
Speaker 4:Genesis 8 v 20. It gets us to our first point. Every culture has a starting point. Every culture has a starting point where it begins, and for many of you, you know your life's kind of established. You're in your career, you're in the middle of schooling, you're a part of a culture, but I want to remind you this morning that your culture can change. The dynamics of the position that you are in can develop and change, and so I don't want you to sit here this morning and feel like you're stuck in a culture. No, you can recreate that culture. You can recreate that culture within your home, within your family, within your business, within the world that you're a part of.
Speaker 4:Okay, and so, as we start looking at this this morning, we look at what Noah's doing. He starts off by creating a culture, and it has a starting point, and what you build first in your culture reveals what you value the most. And so, in this moment, what is Noah valuing? He's valuing the Father. He starts with God, you and I are building too. We're building our lives, we're building our careers. We're building homes. We're building careers. We're building friendships. We're building families. We're building our lives. We're building our careers. We're building homes, we're building careers, we're building friendships, we're building families, we're building ministries. But the question is what's being built first? What are you building first in your life?
Speaker 4:See, we build things based off of many different reasons and why we would do things. Every home, every church, every personal life starts somewhere, and sometimes we build it based off of comfort. I want to make life as easy as possible. Every decision I make, everything that I do is to make life as easy as possible, and some of us have built a culture where we're just concerned about comfort. Some of us have built a culture where we're just concerned about comfort. Some of us have built a culture where we're just concerned about control. I want to make sure everything happens the way that Josh wants it to happen, and so we build our life, we build our career, we build our families based off of control. Some of us build our culture off of success. We want to build something that's impressive. We want people to look back and say look at that. And some of us have built our culture even to be like that. And some of us build our culture or our family or our life out of fear. We want to protect everything. We want to protect ourselves from ever getting hurt again.
Speaker 4:Noah could have chose any of those options. He could have said I'm looking for comfort, I've been cooped up on this cruise ship. That was the worst cruise ever. There was all kinds of animal noises, all kinds of smells. He could have said you know what? I have been on this boat for months. I am building a nice log cabin, it's going to have a fantastic couch and I am going to just relax. He could have said I want to control everything. I'm going to become the ruler of this new land. He could have got off the boat and said I'll make all the decisions, everything's ran through me because I'm the leader. He could have got off the boat and said let's build it up, let's build this great city so that everybody that's ever born will look at it and say man, look at what Noah's done. Or he could have gotten off the ship and he could have hurried and built a fence and gathered all the animals and spread them out so they weren't so loud together, but he could have built it all just to protect it all.
Speaker 4:But the first thing he did was he built an altar. He decided that God, that Christ, would be at the center of it all, that in his home, that in his heart and in everything. That it would begin with an altar, not when it was convenient, not after he builds everything else, but the first thing was God was going to be number one, because if you don't build the altar first, you will build an idol later, and so the first thing Noah decides is that God is number one. The first thing that we have to decide if we're going to have a culture shift in this world is that God is number one. He's priority number one. He's the nothing I love the most, he's the thing that I'm going to choose each and every day, because if we don't do that, other things will creep in, other things will become more important, and when things become more important, they become a, it becomes a priority, it becomes an idol, and so if we don't build the altar first, then a lot of other things can creep in in life and become idols. And so the first thing Noah does, he builds the altar. He doesn't build a shelter, he doesn't build a city. He builds a place where people can surrender, a place where people can say God, you are first.
Speaker 4:It's not just about the altar, though. It's about what he's going to put in it and on it. Noah doesn't offer God the leftovers, he doesn't just toss up a little thank you and move on with life, but it says in the Bible that he takes some of every clean animal and every clean bird, the things that he's going to need to survive in this new world, and he places them on the altar. Mark and I were talking at the 830, and he says usually, as the farmer, you're going to get rid of the annoying animal. You're going to get rid of the animal that keeps knocking over the fence. You're going to get rid of the animal that keeps making the mess. Your mindset, as the farmer, is not to get rid of the best, it's to get rid of the one that's causing you problems. And so I want you to notice, though, that Noah doesn't take a shortcut here. He doesn't say oh, that animal hasn't been to the groomer for a while, we'll send him. Or oh, that one really took a beating on the ark. He's bruised up, we'll set him on the altar. No, it says that he puts the best before God. He doesn't do it at a discount.
Speaker 4:Sometimes we want a revival to happen, but we only want it to happen if it's going to fit on our schedule. Or we want God to move, but we only want Him to move if it's not going to make us uncomfortable. Or we want a godly home. We want God to be in our home, but we're not willing to change anything that happens behind the doors of the home. Or we want God to be in the center, but we don't want Him to have control.
Speaker 4:What Noah does, what he teaches us about true culture, is that it begins with offering God the best what he needs. He took some of the clean animals and the clean birds and he sacrificed the burnt offerings on it. You don't build a Christ-centered culture with your extra. You build it with your first. That's the first thing that he did. You build it with your best. You build it with a sacrifice. Real culture doesn't begin. Real culture is built with sacrifice, not convenience. A real culture is built with sacrifice, not convenience. Noah isn't just offering a sacrifice to say thank you. He's kind of staking a claim. He kind of draws a line in the sand. Think about what Noah's been through. Noah's watched a world that's chose everything other than God get washed away. Think about what life was like before the flood. You read about it. He says there's all these terrible things going on. Noah's been a part of that community. Noah's been a part of that culture. So the first thing he does when he gets off the ark is kind of draws the line in the sand. This is what we're going to be about now.
Speaker 4:Back in the day, when explorers were discovering new territory, you know how they would market. They would plant their flag. They found a new area. They would say we're planting our flag. So I want you to ask this question to yourself this morning when are you planting your flag? Who are you giving ownership to your life? This world belongs to God. That's what Noah declares.
Speaker 4:When you buy a house, other than filling up a lot of paperwork and paying a lot of money, at the end of the day, when you pay off that house, what are they going to give you the deed right? Which says what you got it right? Which says what you got it? This is yours. It's a document, it's a piece of paper that says you got it. What Noah is doing in this moment, guys, is handing the deed to God and saying this is yours. This land, this new opportunity you've created for the family, it's yours, and so our worship, our life is us handing the deed to the Father and saying this is for you. Does that make sense? Alright, let's keep going.
Speaker 4:The altar establishes ownership. What he's saying is that this life, this future, this world that you've now presented me and my family, it doesn't belong to me, it belongs to you, lord. The altar doesn't just express gratitude. It establishes this is for the Lord. The altar doesn't just express gratitude. It establishes this is for the Lord. What would it look like in today's world if God was in the middle of everything? What would it look like? What if, in every moment of your life, there was an altar for the lord? What if, every time you sat down for the with the family, it was about jesus? What about every time you went to work? It wasn't about what you're doing, but it's about jesus? What would life look like? How different would that be? A christ-centered culture doesn't happen by accident. It happens when you build the altar first. We read here in Genesis 8, it says and the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart Never again will I curse the ground because of humans.
Speaker 4:Never again. I will never do it again, because Noah built the ark. When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, god responded with this covenant blessing Never again will I curse this earth At the end of the day. At the end of the day, what if your greatest impact on this earth is not about the house that you built, it's not about the career that you built, it's not about the name, the family name that you built? What if it's about the altar that you built, the altar that your kids see you worshiping at the altar, that your friends see you worshiping at the altar that shows the world this life belongs to Jesus?
Speaker 4:Noah didn't build the altar to get something. He built the altar because he believed God deserved it. And I think sometimes we build the altar thinking we're going to get something. We don't come to the altar in a moment of realizing it's everything that God deserves. Christ-centered culture doesn't happen by accident. It happens when we choose the altar over our agenda, and that's what we're going to start looking at over the next few weeks. Is this idea of building a culture that is centered around Jesus and it all begins? The Old Testament will show us, and we're going to look through the Old Testament the next few weeks. It shows us that it all began at the altar, at a moment where you give everything up to God and you say this is for you.
Speaker 4:Let's pray, father. We thank you so much for the way that you work in our lives. Father, we long and have a desire to worship you and to focus on things that matter. Father, I pray that you would remove all distractions in this life. There are so many things and thoughts and just expectation that this world puts on our hearts and, father, I pray that we would break those today, that we would come to an understanding that this life is more than about our name and about the house that we build or the career that we build, but it's about you, father.
Speaker 4:Father, I pray that you give us the strength to lay things down at your feet. Father, I pray that we can surrender control, that we can surrender comfort and convenience and place them at your feet and everything that we do, father, that we would give glory to you. We're thankful for the examples that you give us. We're thankful for the life of Noah and his desire to serve you In a moment where he could have went in every direction. Father, he chose you, father. I pray you, father. I pray that we do the same. We thank you for the life of Jesus, the example that he gave us, the life that he lived, the sacrifice that he made for us so that we could be united with you. Father, jesus, god, give us opportunities to go out into the world this week and point people to you, to point people to your Son, to be a light in this community. Father, I pray that the revival would start in our homes and spread throughout the community and throughout the world. It's in your Son's name we pray, amen.
Speaker 2:Have thine own way, lord. Have thine own way. Thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will. While I am waiting, yielded and still. Have thine own way, lord. Have thine own way. Search me and try me. Master, today, wider than snow, lord, wash me just now, as in thy presence, humbly I bow.
Speaker 2:Have thine own way, lord. Have thine own way O'er my being, absolute sway. Fill with thy Spirit Till all shall see Christ on the always Living in me. Come, set your rule and reign In our hearts again. Increase in us, we pray. Unveil why we're made. Come, set our hearts ablaze with hope, like wildfire in our very souls. Holy Spirit, come, invade us now.
Speaker 2:We are your church. We need your power in us. We seek your kingdom first. We hunger and we thirst, refuse to waste our lives for our joy and prize To see the captive's hearts released, the hurt, the sick, the poor at peace. We lay down our lives for heaven's cause. We are your church. We pray.
Speaker 2:Revive this earth. Build your kingdom here. Let the darkness fear. Show your mighty hand. Heal our streets and land. Set your church on fire. Win this nation back, change the atmosphere. Come here, we pray. Unleash your kingdom's power reaching the near and far. No force of hell can stop your beauty-changing heart. You made us for much more than this. Awake the kingdom seat in us. Fill us with the strength and love of Christ. We are your church. We are the hope on earth. Build your kingdom here. Let the darkness, fear Show your mighty hand. Heal our streets and land. Set your church on fire. Win this nation back. Change the atmosphere. Build your kingdom here. Build your kingdom here. Let the darkness, fear Show your mighty hand. Heal our streets and land. Set your church on fire. Win this nation back. Change the atmosphere. Build your kingdom here. We pray.
Speaker 1:Amen. God bless you everybody. Have a great week. Tell somebody about Jesus this week.