Jump In To Church

Pastor Scott Smith- February 17, 2026

This message explains what the church truly is—not a building, style, or preference—but a people called out by Jesus for His purpose. Looking at Jesus’ words in Matthew 16, the message shows that the church (*ecclesia*) belongs to Christ and exists to carry out His mission in the world. From the early church in Acts, we see believers gathering to worship, learn, serve, give, and share the gospel together, not as an organization only but as a living body. The church is described as a consecrated people in a consecrated place, united around the confession that Jesus is Lord and committed to helping others know and follow Him.

This message then challenges how we approach church, warning that when we treat it as entertainment or personal preference, we miss its purpose. Church is not about what we get from it but about participating in God’s mission—approaching with reverence and readiness, contributing as well as consuming, and living out faith beyond the weekend gathering. We are invited to “jump in,” grow as fully devoted followers of Jesus, and carry the mission into everyday life. The gathering prepares us to be the church everywhere we go, because the church is God’s plan to reach the world through His people.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

All right, so what is church? When you think of church, most of you have this idea in your head. And I know it's weird because I'm asking you, what is church while you're sitting in one? To picture what church is while you're in one. It's like going in and out and then asking yourself, what's a cheeseburger look like? Well, it's in front of my face, right? It's weird. But the reality is, I say church, and there's an image that pops up for all of us. Maybe that image is this for you. Um, it is uh just in your head when you think of church, you see this, right? Big steeple, tower, the hunchback of Notre Dame might be up in the top of that thing, whatever it is. Maybe you think that maybe this is what you picture when you think of church, uh, of sitting in there. Maybe you've seen that in a movie, some stained glass, you know, different stuff. Maybe you're from Texas and everything's bigger in Texas, and maybe this is what you think of when you think of church. Um, no, that's not an NBA game. That's not the Grammys. That's that is the church in Texas. Um, yep, I'm gonna leave that alone. Um and uh okay, I'm gonna have to say some stuff in a minute. All right, or maybe you're from the South, like me, and you picture that old country road church like this. Is a church, this looks just like a church where I grew up. It's got the cemetery in the back and that sort of thing. And um whatever it is, whatever your background is, you probably have this idea of church. And today I want us to look at what church really is. And I need to toss out this disclaimer because here's what's gonna happen. I am going to be tethered to these notes, and there's two reasons for that. One, I'm very passionate about this subject. I'm sure that has resonated. I came out carrying a baseball bat, but that passion had to be put on paper because, second reason, there is a temptation. I'm gonna expose pastors for just a moment. There is a temptation to treat a message about church like one of those long-form podcasts where we rant and share our opinions and our preferences because believe it or not, just like you, I have opinions and preferences too. That being said, those gotta die for this conversation to be done right. So this is not gonna be one of those conversations where I just share what I think church should look like. It is not gonna be one of those conversations where we go into all the denominational differences and we talk about how we're better than they are and that sort of thing. This is not going to be a conversation where we disparage certain styles of church because we have that. Some of us ask, why do people gather all across the world? Why are there so many different types of music styles? Why are there different types of buildings? Why are there different decors? Why do people dress this way in certain churches? Why do people dress that way in certain churches? This is not that message. This is not an opinions-based message on what church is. Here's what we're gonna do this week as we look at the theology of the church, we're gonna go straight to the source. The very first place we're gonna be is actually from the words of Jesus Himself, and we are going to learn what the church really is, who the church really is, whose the church really is, and why the church exists. And we're gonna do that from the launch pad of the very words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 16. You can find it in your phone, you can turn there in your Bibles, Matthew 16, verse 18. You can follow along screen with me if you would like. Jesus is having a conversation with a man named Peter. You've heard of him. Peter's that guy always getting called into the principal's office, but Jesus loved him and recruited him to be on the team. And the guy who's recording this conversation is a guy named Matthew. We'll look at that in just a moment. And as Matthew records the conversation as he recalls it, he recalls Jesus having this identity conversation with Peter. He's asking Peter, who do you say that I am? Who do others say that I am? And then Jesus looks at Peter and he says this to him. What does he say? He says, And I tell you, you are Peter. And on this rock I will build, what's it say? My church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. There's some interesting words here that we're going to look at. The first one is this word church. That word church, as it's written in the verse you just read, is a Greek word. It's this, you can read it with me. It is pronounced ecclesia. Ecclesia. This is the very first time the word ecclesia, the word that we have derived church, the very first time it will be used in the entire Bible. That word is not used in the Old Testament. That word has not been used until Matthew 16. And Jesus himself uses the word ecclesia church. It's going to get used over a hundred more times in the New Testament of your Bible, but the very first time the word is even recorded having been said, is straight from the mouth of Jesus. And when he says it, he calls it what? My church. We got to start there to understand what it means. The word ekklesia, the Greek word here, it means a called out people or a called out assembly. Now, for some language friends, let's do a deep dive here for a moment. We're going to nerd out for about the next six minutes together. And if you don't nerd out, that's fine. Just indulge me while I nerd out and you can listen as an active participant. We have our English word church. That's derived from a German word, Kirch. Now they get their word from a Byzantine word, Kurk, which means belonging to Christ. And the Byzantine word takes its derivation from ecclesia, the Greek word called out assembly. Here's what happens. The church, as Jesus introduces the word in Matthew 16, did not exist in Germany at the time. Do you know why? Because Jesus hadn't even gone to the cross yet, and the church has not even been birthed yet. So the reason that the word takes different shapes, if you're wondering, well, why is it called different things? Because the message of the gospel hadn't been taken to those parts of the world. America didn't even exist at the time. You're like, what? I didn't know that's in the Bible. Think about it. Just do some basic math. It's the 250th birthday of America. This was written a lot longer than 250 years ago. That's how we get these words. They find their core in the very word Jesus uses, ecclesia, this called out assembly, this called out group, this company of Christians, as it were, set apart group of people. And Jesus says it's his. Now here's what's interesting. Let's geek out a little bit more. Matthew is a Jewish man. Now, because Matthew, he was basically the equivalent of an IRS agent. He was good with numbers, detail-oriented person, and he's a Jewish man. The other person he mentions in this story in Matthew 16 is Peter, another Jewish man. And so Matthew likely was more educated than Peter. As Matthew records this biography of Jesus, we call the Gospel of Matthew. It would have been normal for him to have been committed to just chronicling the Jewish traditions that he had experienced. So Matthew would have known about Old Testament gatherings of God's set apart people, the Israelite people, as you may have heard them called before. But Matthew is very careful, again, as the first time it's ever seen in your Bible to point out this word, ecclesia, as Matthew says, Jesus looks at Peter and tells him, Upon this rock I will build my ecclesia. See, that would have stuck out to Matthew when he's recalling the conversation, because Matthew would have been steeped in tradition and would have understood what God's called out set apart people would have done when they gathered. And now Jesus is saying, it belongs to him. Jesus is saying they belong to him. Jesus is saying you belong to him. And this shakes some things up, and I believe that's one of the reasons why we find it here in Matthew 16 is because it's stuck out. Because, see, a lot of us approach church with tradition more than we approach church with scholarship. What I mean by that is we think we know what church is because what we've seen or experienced, but we've never actually looked at what church really is. For many of us, we walked in the room and had no idea that the very first person to even use the word church, ecclesia, was Jesus himself and calls it his church. So here you have Matthew, a Jewish man, so is Peter. Why does that matter? Because both of them, Peter, even in his first letter to a group of Christians who were growing, both of them actually use this Greek word ecclesia and through the teachings of Jesus draw a line to the Old Testament descriptions of God's people. Matthew's gospel is the only gospel that has that word in it. It is the only recording of that. You're not going to see it in other places. You will see metaphors of God's church, but Matthew's gospel, why? It's interesting because Matthew's gospel is also the most influenced by Jewish tradition and history because of the author's background. Yet he's the only gospel writer to use the word church. It's not found in any other gospel, just Matthew's. It's fascinating because his personality would have led him there. And not only that, he records Jesus having a conversation with Peter. So Matthew, instead of doing what most of us would do, I'm writing these things. Ooh, I'm the only person to use this word because I remember Jesus said this, and I have a good memory, and that sticks out. Matthew would not have used Peter as the example if he wanted himself to look good. If you come home and you want your parents to think you're behaving in school, you don't use the example of your buddy being the buddy who gets suspended all the time. Peter's that buddy. Peter's that buddy, probably on a first name basis with the principal at this point. That's who Peter is. But he uses Peter. And even Peter is gonna kind of toss out an homage to the Old Testament gathering of God's people. Why are they doing that? Because they're highlighting Jesus as Lord, church belonging to him. Even Peter will say in 1 Peter 2, he will call the church God's treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. These are people belonging to something, right? And Matthew, in his gospel, records Jesus calling the church his. This would have been pivotal to have it recorded at this time. Because Matthew is making a note, as would Peter. Hey, we know that God's people have been set apart by God being God's possession, being his. But now Jesus is saying, my called out assembly group of people. It matters to know that because it's going to help us learn some stuff. Because God's people did gather in the Old Testament. This gathering of people that we call church happened before the New Testament. In fact, it's the Old Testament that you're going to read of tabernacles. This kind of uh, I guess kind of pop-up temple before later the temple would be constructed. And the amount of effort that was put into the temple being constructed is a message for another time. But the tabernacle would be kind of uh, you know, set up and tear down kind of thing. And it would be used, it's where you find uh examples and stories in the Old Testament of your Bible of people offering sacrifices to God, uh, worship to God. It's where you see the practices of offerings being given, atonement through sacrifices. And although the tabernacle was portable and the temple was constructed, you would find them meeting in this place. And then eventually what happens is in between the Old Testament and the New Testament, we start to see uh the church forming functionally, or at least in a fashion that you would be more familiar with. But it happens in what we call the intertestamental period. For some kind of historical context here, there is a chunk of time, there are several hundred years in between the end of your Old Testament and the beginning of your new testament. There's time here. We have literature, but it's not in scripture that supports the historical context that there was what's called an inter-testamental period. Inter meaning uh in between. If you're an interim champion, it means you are champion while we're waiting to find a solidified champion. It's in the interim, it is in between. Make sense? So we have that period of time, and in that time, what we start to see is this uh concept of what's called synagogues pop up. Synagogue, big word. It basically was like uh portable temples. It was basically like a local expression of temples. And what happens is the Jewish people who wanted to gather at the temple, they had some hurdles getting to the temple. Maybe uh time constraints or travel constraints did not allow them to get there, but they still wanted to go and take part in the practices that were occurring in the temple. But because they couldn't get there, for whatever reason, they would post up these synagogues, these kind of local places where they could go and do that because it was more accessible to them. Now, I want you to understand this is not the origin of the church during this intertestamental period, but it does highlight the natural flow of kind of organizational patterns and development amongst the Jewish people, amongst the people of God. And the synagogues kind of start to take shape, and it it's it's gonna help us see where kind of God's people gathered and how that grew over time as message would grow, and especially as we get into the New Testament. And those synagogues are gonna have some order to them, much like our churches today. Again, even though it's not where the church originated, so to speak, we do functionally see some stuff. There had to be a certain number of people who could be present and attend those so that it was a viable thing posted up. It had to be governed by a group of elders who would select a leader over the synagogue. It had some order to it, and you see that pop up between Old and New Testament. So by the time you get to the New Testament, you did have God's people gathering for specific purposes in the Old Testament, but the model's changing a bit, and by the time we get to Matthew 16, we can see people gathering in kind of local spots, but never was that called, this called-out assembly, ecclesia, like Jesus does in Matthew 16. It is the very first time we encounter that word that we get church. As defined by Jesus, as claimed ownership by Jesus, my ecclesia, my church. It's the first time that we're gonna see the church get its identity and purpose. It's actually why we say the church was born in the New Testament. There's an event going on, um, this moment in time. It was called Pentecost, and it's a Jewish celebration. These happened. You can read different biographies of Jesus in the gospels. You'll see some of them. And what happens is Jesus had just given his followers, his disciples, this great commission. Hey, you've seen me do the things I've done. I've died on the cross, I've come back to life, and now I'm giving you this mission to take this good news and take it with you. Then he goes back to heaven and they're they're just they're left with this great commission, as we call it. It's found in Matthew 28. And they're sitting there together and they are scared, they are confused, probably, they're burdened, but they're motivated and they're united. They're together. And what happened next was exactly what Jesus had promised. He said, You will receive the Holy Spirit. If you're new to Sunrise, you can go to sunrise.net slash Holy Spirit. That message is available. You can get caught up and understand what we're talking about there. But in the interest of time, that's what happens, and that's when these people embraced this great commission, this mission, together for the first time. So they gathered, they worshiped, they learned, they served, they gave, they shared, and they went out and found other people to hear the good news that they had chosen to devote their lives to. And that is where the church finds its identity and purpose is Jesus telling his disciples that it is his ecclesia and then giving him the very reason that is attached to their identity. And this must be understood for us to move further in our conversation, in our understanding, in our theology of church. It's this the church belongs to Christ. Jesus is the reason for the church. A church without Jesus as the head of it is not a church. It's an organization, yes, but it's not an organism. Here's what I mean by that. Because of entities and requirements for that sort of thing in a civilized society, the church has been established as an organization. It is a specific group of people for a specific purpose. We understand that. But if it stops there, the church isn't what it's supposed to be. The church is not just an organization. The church is an organism, meaning it is living. In so much the church is an organism because it is the living body of Christ, divinely revealed to us by Jesus, led by Jesus, for the express purpose of his gospel. And that gospel lives in and works through the hearts and lives of Christians who are this called-out assembly of people. There are other metaphors for this in the New Testament, in the Gospel of John. The church is called the flock, the vineyard. In Paul's letters to certain churches, he calls it a spiritual house. He says, Y'all, you all. Paul's the first person to invent y'all. We think we invented it in the south. We did not. Bojangles did not invent y'all. Paul invented y'all. You can remember that, it rhymes. He called the church living stones. He called the church body of Christ. Why? What do all these have in common? They are all growing, they are all living. The church is not just an organization, it is an organism and the great commission of Jesus. The very words of Jesus, my church, do this, brought life to the church. It was the proverbial match that lit the fire that would spread the gospel to the world. It's why we're sitting in this room today in what we call sunrise. What's the word? Church. So what we learn here is this that church is a consecrated people. That word consecrated just means to be set apart for a specific purpose. And this early church fully embraced this. These people met in places they met in homes, they met in public spaces for many years. And eventually, as that group of people grew in number, they had to secure designated places to meet. And over time, you'll see this as history marches on, the church would need to find designated meeting places to accommodate the numerical growth of people who were responding to the gospel they were hearing. And because the gospel was taking shape and taking hold of people's lives and living through them as they took the message, we eventually see this growth across the world, and that takes us to what we see church as today is a place where people gather for an expressed religious purpose or experience. And for the Christian church, hear this the central element of this gathering is the confession that Jesus Christ is Lord. Because the church is his. Everything flows from this confession as people gather on a weekly basis. Without the gospel, there is no church. Because without the gospel, there are no Christians. So, what we see through early church history is that church is a consecrated people set apart for a specific purpose. And that group of people grew across the world. They met in designated places to worship God, to learn from the teachings of Jesus, and as history marched on and they grew, they would compile what we call God's Word, the Bible, this library of inspired books, and they would start teaching the whole council of God's word in churches in different countries, places, and spaces throughout the world. They would start to meet regularly. They would observe practices like baptism, communion. They would share with each other. I met a couple on the way out after first service who told me, Pastor Scott, we have a bag of food here because a member of our group, because they're a part of a group, if you're not, I'm teasing out. We'll talk about that in just a few minutes. They're taking food. That person's not feeling well. We're taking food to them. You know what that is? That sounds like, oh, that's a simple thing. No, that's the church being the church. And they did this, they took this seriously. They would come together and they would give to the mission of the gospel. They would give to the organization because they knew they needed to. There was no playbook. We were spreading the gospel. So what is it? What do we do? We give to this. And as this group of Christians grew across the world, these designated places would come to be known as churches because this is where the people of God, this ecclesia called out assembly, would gather together. And when they gathered, it was special. It was not arbitrary like we treat it today. We think the weekend happens every weekend, so the cross becomes a common thing and church becomes a common place. It was purposeful. They had reverence in their time of gathering. They took worship seriously in their time together. They listened with the intent to apply the lessons to their lives. They gave cheerfully and gladly to one another. They gave cheerfully and gladly to help spread the gospel in their communities. It was a dedicated time in a designated place. Thus, the churches we see it today could be called this: a consecrated people in a consecrated place. A set apart people in a place set apart for the expressed purpose of the gospel mandate Jesus gave the church. Consecrated, being set apart for a reason. And it's easy to misunderstand what church is because we don't do a deep dive and look into it. Because for most people, like we joked about with our photos earlier, church is a place. The place can look different, and the place can change. We've had stories, we've all experienced that. The place does not make it consecrated. What's done in the place is what makes it consecrated. All churches have unique architecture and decor in today's day and age. Some are in homes, some are in stadiums, as we've seen, some are in strip malls, some are in old grocery stores. Those of us laughing know this used to be an old grocery store. If you didn't know that. Now, when this was a grocery store, I don't think those boxes of lucky charms were consecrated as much as you may love Lucky Charms. This place wasn't always a church. It wasn't consecrated as such. It is now. Why? Because of the consecrated people and what we do in it. And they may look different, but all are designed to be the same. A consecrated people who gather, who worship, who learn, who serve, who give, who share, people who live out what they learn, people who live out their faith and help others know and follow the same Jesus they know and follow. It's what the early church did. Follow along screen, go there in your phone, Acts 2, 44. Find it in your Bible. This is what we read of the early church who, after Jesus told his disciples, I will build my ecclesia. He tells the same group of people and then some take this gospel message to the world. And you know what happened? They did. In Acts 2 44, it says this, and all who believed were gathered together and had all things in common. What's the second word there? And all who believed. Notice that does not say, and some who believed. And ones who were mature enough did this. And ones who dressed a certain way did this. And ones who had gone 30 days without saying a cuss word did this. And ones who had filled in the blank. No, no, no. What does it say? And all who believed. Scott, you're supposed to tell us that we need to be the church and we need to all jump into what God is doing. You are right. I am supposed to tell you that. Do you know why? Because the church belongs to Jesus, and the mission he gave the church was so that all would carry it. And you know what happened? The reason you're sitting in this room today is because people, when they got up from their seat, did not leave what they did in the consecrated place. They took it with them as a consecrated people and lived it out. And all who believed did something about it. If we want the church to thrive on mission, we all got to get involved. Don't take my word for it. Take God's word for it. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. You're like, please don't tell me I gotta go home and start selling off stuff. No. They didn't have a system. This thing is brand new at the time. So they saw people in need in their community, and they're like, uh, what do we do? I don't know. You got any money? No, I ain't got any money. You got any money? No, I ain't got any money. And what do they say? I got a goat. All right, uh, go sell the goat, and we'll just take the money and help these people. And you're like, uh, do I have to go home and sell my goat? Well, if you have a goat, don't sell it. But you don't have to go home and sell your Subaru. That's not what I'm telling you. What I'm showing you is that everybody contributed. And it says, and day by day they attended the temple together and breaking bread in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And there's a consequence to this contribution. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. The church understood who they were, whose they were, and why they existed. And it showed up in the way they approached their time together and the way they lived out their faith. And notice that the New Testament church in Acts would still meet in the temple. This wasn't one of those things that Jesus said, okay, abandon meeting together. No, no, no. It was the opposite. It was meet all the time. We think, oh, okay, church is every weekend, but the church, early church met all the time. It said they would go to the temple and then they would still meet in homes. It's like they couldn't get enough of each other. Some of us, it's the holiday seasons when they come around and we think, I got four hours. I can give you four hours before I get sick of y'all. Yeah. The early church, as imperfect as they were, they would still meet in the temple, even though they were meeting in homes. And the reason for this, and it's interesting because it's functional for us. And it actually, it actually folds into our approach as Sunrise Church. The reason they met in the temple, because the temple was a communal place. Later on, those synagogues would pop up as local assemblies there where people would gather, but people were there. So they went and they worshiped there. But they also used it as a place that gave them opportunities to connect with people. They saw it as a full service location. They worshiped there and they utilized the space to reach new people. They leveraged the location to have conversations about Jesus with people. They leveraged the location for gospel impact. We do that right here at Sunrise Church. There have been people who have been baptized within the last six months here at Sunrise Church because we have leveraged this location to say we want to be a beacon of gospel light in our community and through community partnerships and relationships as we connect with people through this resource God has given us in this consecrated place to use for the gospel mission, we have seen God work. That is not because we had that brilliant idea on our own. We went to the source, we ripped it off. Creativity is just forgetting where you got it from. In this case, I'll admit to you where we got it from. The church in the New Testament. I'm not that smart. We took it here. So what do we do? We set aside time every week for worship, for connection, for learning, for prayer, for serving and generosity. Every week we do this, just as the church is intended to do. And we also, like the early church, we utilize our space to serve as a beacon of gospel light in our community. Thus, as we gather and we open up our space, we do so on mission, continuously putting our efforts into helping people know and follow Jesus. And then we take it with us and we do it. I found out this week we had people as a result of a new small group that was launched in the last month or so. This year we've launched a few different groups. One of them is new and it's reaching new people. And two people in that group professed faith and received salvation this week in a small group because the church said, Let's take it with us. Again, we're just taking our cues from God's word and the story of his church as he designed and defined it to be. Because what we do here is so special, it is so important, it is bathed in purpose. You hear me say it all the time. Don't leave it here, take it with you. We should take with us what we do as a consecrated people in this consecrated place and live it out in our lives. I'll say it like this. Our time together in this place should prepare us to love God and people well throughout the rest of the week. Our time together in church prepares us to be the church. We gather to worship, and when we leave this place, we go be the church in every area of our lives, and we return the next week to do it all over again. But you notice something here as we've learned what the church is and how it functioned. There's something you got to get with our theology of the church. The big word there is ecclesiology. That word has so many syllables, it doesn't even fit on one hand. It just means the study of the church. I want you to notice something here that we said from the words of Jesus and their response to those words. The church belongs to Christ. We are his for him, for his glory, for the sake of the gospel. Too often we think church is all about us and what we can get from it. Now let me be very clear before I get an email. And I want to love you and help you and hear my heart. I hope and pray every person, every single week you walk in the doors, that you get something from what we do in this place as a people. I hope you get something from church every single time you are here. But that is a product of our purpose. That is not our actual purpose. Our purpose is to glorify God by helping people know and follow his son Jesus because the church is his. And we are to follow him. And as a result of that, we are blessed with the fruits and the ministry of a consecrated people meeting in a consecrated place and living on mission together. So I hope you get something from it, but you need to understand this because it will change the way you approach church, and you're never gonna get the most. You're actually, it's counterintuitive. If you're looking to get something from church, you'll never get from church what God actually wants you to get from church. You'll never get as much as you think you're gonna get if you go to get. So I'm gonna say this, and it's not to offend you, it is to help you actually get the most out of church you possibly can. Church is not about you. Church is you. Church is about God. It's about his glory, his worship, his priorities, not our preferences. It's his purpose. God's will is that people would know and follow his son Jesus, who is the head of the church. It's about his plan. It is a place where his people can gather to worship him, to serve together, to learn from his word, to connect with people. A place wherein God's love is put on display and carried from that place into the lives of those who follow Jesus. A place where his goodness is recognized through worship, and his people open up their hearts to his way. It is a people who grow together, who serve together, who share with each other, who give together. It is a loving, gracious, generous people who understand their purpose is from God to help people know and follow His Son Jesus. That is who the church is, that is whose the church is, and that is why we exist as a church. But if you don't see church for who it is, what it is, whose it is, and why it is, you will never get from it what God wants you to get from it. It's baseball season coming up, which means spring training is right around the corner. And let's say we take a trip to spring training in Phoenix, Arizona, to watch the Padres get ready for the season. And we go and we're sitting in the stands and we see Manny Machado step up to the plate, MLB All-Star, and he steps up there and we notice something weird about him. He's looks like he's holding a bat funny. Baseball gets thrown, and what happens? Whoof! Strike one. And we're thinking, is he messing with us? Is he trying to go viral on the internet? What's he doing here? Come on, Manny, what are you doing? Manny, Manny, what you doing? Next ball comes. Whiff. And we're like, okay, dude, did he hit his head? What is happening with Manny Machado? Third strike comes, whiff, Manny strikes out. We stand up, come on, man. You want to run down there and grab the bat from him and say, Manny, you're holding it wrong. Now that's a stupid thing to say to Manny Machado. He's an all-star. He knows what he's doing. Why would that, why would that be an issue if we see him holding the bat like this? You know why? He we know that's not that's not the way the bat is supposed to be held. That's not the way you're supposed to use the bat, Manny. You're gonna miss the ball. You might hit it a few times, but man, it's not gonna go very far. You're not gonna get the most from the bat unless you hold it the proper way. Look, holding a bat like this is fine. If you're trying to kill a spider in your house, that's fine. But holding a bat like this is not gonna allow you to hit that 95 mile per hour fastball. Why? Because he's not handling it properly. Most people tend to approach church like this. Yeah, man, this is what church is. I know what church is. I know what church is. Yeah, it's that place that uh they got that music I like. With. Yeah, I go to this church because I really like the I really like the way it's decorated. With. No, yeah, we left that church because the guitarist left, and I really like the guitar solos, so we we went and found another church. With. Oh no, they used to have it painted like this. They don't have it painted like that anymore, so I don't go with. Oh, no, no, no. I like this church. I like this church over here because everybody there looks just like me. With. I really like this church because everybody thinks just like me. With. Ready to get uncomfortable? Oh, I like this church. Um, they talk about politics. I like that. With no no no, but see, I like this church because they don't talk about politics, and I really like that. Oh, with. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, I like this church for for uh uh the way the people, the way people dress in this church, yeah, they get it. I like that. With no, no, no, but the way that people dress this church, no, I like oh, with, and you know what happens? We approach church like we think church is all about us, and so we end up approaching church holding a bat like this, whiffing, not getting the most out of it. And so we go to church and we go to church and we go to church and we go to church, and we never get out of it what God wants us to get out of it, because we have approached it wrong. You won't get the most out of it unless you approach it the way you are supposed to and know what it is. Otherwise, it's not gonna connect with your life the way it's supposed to. You gotta know who the church is, whose it is. So, what does that mean for us? How should we approach church? How do we approach church the right way? I'm gonna give you two words reverence and readiness. Here's how we should approach church reverence and readiness. And I'll share them with you as definitions to help you. Reverence is acknowledging how special it is, how important it is, how loved by God it is. We are called the bride of Christ, how purposeful it is, how God's plan is the church. There is no plan B. It was plan A. Go reach and teach people with the gospel. Period. We should approach it with reverence and readiness. When we show up to church, we understand I'm ready to gather, I'm ready to worship, I'm ready to learn, I'm ready to connect, I'm ready to share, I'm ready to serve, I'm ready to give, I'm ready to grow, I'm ready to consume and contribute. And I'm ready to take what I do here and live it out because I see church is the assembly of God's people, both the place and time we gather and the people who gather given the greatest mission ever recorded, helping people know and follow Jesus. That's why we take it seriously. Because there is no plan B. And if plan A is trying to hit the ball like this, we will never get out of church what God wants us to get from being his church. That's why we take it seriously around here. We don't take ourselves too seriously around here. I'm preaching with a baseball bat. And it is come as you are. Everyone in this church is on a different uh in a different season. Everybody's at a different phase of this journey of life and in your journey with Jesus. Praise the Lord for that. We are a multi-generational plot yourself on this continuum of spiritual maturity. It is all over the map in this church because we exist to help people know and follow Jesus, which means you can be Jesus Junior or running at the devil, and you can be a part of this place and grow in your faith together. We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we take the mission seriously because we recognize what church is: a consecrated people gathering in a consecrated place for the expressed purpose of helping people know and follow Jesus, growing in our faith together and helping others do the same. So, what's that mean for you? What does that mean for you? It means now you get invited to jump in to what God is doing here. At the beginning of the year, we laid out for everybody, we said, look, we do have a goal as a church. And we defined that for everyone. We are not just arbitrarily moving in a direction without a compass. No, no, no. We know where true north is for us as a church. And it is this we desire to produce fully devoted followers of Jesus. And we have defined a fully devoted follower of Jesus as someone who learns God's word to know God's way, who lives like Jesus teaches, who loves like Jesus teaches, who gives like Jesus teaches, and who helps others do the same. And as such, we crafted a discipleship pathway. As you become a fully devoted follower of Jesus, which to help everybody in the room, never stops until you are with Jesus in heaven. So this is a marathon journey as you continue to grow. But as such, we wanted to create tangible steps for everyone in our church, a three-phased discipleship pathway, as it were, that we call show up, jump in, and live out. Now, here's what's wonderful about that. Everybody in the room is already at phase one. Way to go. You've shown up. That's awesome. But not everybody in the room has jumped in yet. And I want to invite you to do just that. To jump in and take that next step. That could be getting baptized. That could be just wanting to have a conversation with a pastor that could uh that could just start to answer some questions as you're exploring faith. That could be for some of us, I want to get involved in a group, I want to meet some new people. I'm gonna show up on Wednesday and pray and connect, or maybe I'm gonna find uh you know opportunities for you know some of these groups that have been started, or or maybe for some of us it's I want to I want to start serving. I love people, I want to go meet people, I'll be on the hospitality team, I'll greet people at the door, or maybe you're like, no, I don't want to do that at all, but I'll I'll work behind a camera or I'll I'll do some other things. Maybe some of us we love hanging out with kids. We want to serve in kids' ministry or or cafe or whatever it is in our youth ministry. There are so many different ways. Maybe behind the scenes helping with facility stuff. Maybe we want to jump in there. Maybe for some of us, we're like, Scott, there seems to be a lot of stuff. Generosity is the value of our church, and I hear of all the cool stuff our church is doing because of the generosity of our church. I'm not in that yet, and I want to jump into helping with that, and maybe that's the next step for you. Whatever it is, there is a next step in your journey with Jesus, and we want to help you jump in and take that step here at sunrise. So here's how we're gonna do that. There's all the tap tags and the QR codes and all those that Dylan and Mackenzie and everybody talks about all the time. That's great. Use that if you want to use that, but I also want to invite you to do this. After service, I want you to go right to that middle counter. Big TV screen says jump in weekend right there. You can't miss it. There will be people at that counter. People. Why? Because the church is a consecrated people and we want to walk alongside each other. So here's what's gonna happen: you can fill out that form and just put an area of interest, something that you want to do to jump into what God is doing, and here's what's gonna happen: an actual person is going to contact you and have a conversation with you. We are not doing this because if we get enough check marks on an Excel sheet, we make ourselves feel better and we can say February was a success. That is not the point. The point is to grow in our faith together. So we want to have personal conversations. How can we walk alongside you as you jump in? How can we support you? How can we help get you connected? How can we help you grow in your faith? So you can do the tap tag, you can do the QR code, or if you want to do the old-fashioned way of walking up to somebody, having a conversation, filling out in pen and ink an actual clipboard, somebody will follow up with you and help you jump into what God is doing. Stop swinging like this. You will never get from church what God wants you to get from church unless you see it for who it is, whose it is, why it exists, and you jump into what God is doing. So I'm gonna pray for us, and then as we conclude our service, find a way to jump in, and we will grow together. God, thank you again for your word. God, I pray, even as you know, funny as it can be to use a baseball bat to preach, God, I ultimately pray that it is your word. Jesus, your words that are heard. Because those are the ones that change lives. God, even making us a part of the plan, things like foster care supply drives coming up where we shine the light of the gospel by taking care of those who Jesus, you told us to take care of. God, I pray even this week, there are people who are wrestling with decisions. There are people who are wrestling with bad news. I pray that there are those of us in each other's lives that will love on those who need that, that we will hear this message and do something with it, that maybe jumping in for us is to care for people in the church. God, I hope that you are honored by everything we say and do as your church as we see fruit week after week, people getting baptized, people responding to the gospel and choosing to accept salvation, people going and serving people who are unwell in homes, just the fruit, people going on school campuses and sharing their personal testimony of your work in their lives. God, the fruit is just I mean, it is we are just blooming with your fruit. But God, I know there are some of us that we still need that extra boost of encouragement to jump in. So, God, I pray that you give that to us through your word. So that we would be a church who knows who we are, whose we are, and why we exist. And as we respond to that, that we would be a church that honors you and continues to see you bring people through the kindness of the cross and the good news of the gospel. As we help people know and follow your Son Jesus, I pray that everything we have done in this place does not get left here, but we take it with us and we come back again to do it all over again as your church. Knowing that Jesus, as you say, the gates of hell will not prevail against your church. God, we ask this in your name, and we thank you for your word. It's in your name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 49:23

Thank you so much for joining us today at Sunrise Church. We hope this message encouraged you and blessed you. If one of the ways that you choose to worship with us here at Sunrise is by giving online, there's a link right here that you can follow and it'll take you to that payment portal. Everything that you donate helps not only go towards reaching people in the greater San Diego area, but also all around the world for our industry. If you want to get further connected, whether in person or online, you can email this email right here, and either myself or some one of our team members will be there to answer it and help you get connected in any way that you need. Thank you so much for joining us.