SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, when we say things like, Now my life and my fat and my salvation will be found in you alone.
SPEAKER_01: We're saying great things that the Bible has said all along.
SPEAKER_01: Like in Psalm 62, when the Bible says, My salvation and my honor depends upon God.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we come to you because you're the truth.
SPEAKER_01: We open the Bible because it's the truth.
SPEAKER_01: It's authoritative and it's understandable.
SPEAKER_01: You're not hard to understand.
SPEAKER_01: You lay it out there in plain talk so we can get our head and our heart around it so that our hands can give expression to it this week.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, that's what we ask for.
SPEAKER_01: We're blessed to be your people.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks that we get that we're surrounded by people who have a story.
SPEAKER_01: We look forward to hearing their story.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we open the Bible because we want to hear a little bit more of your story.
SPEAKER_01: So bring it to bear on our lives today.
SPEAKER_01: We ask in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to John chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest, we're going through the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: It's just kind of a recount, a retelling, a focus of the life and ministry of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so we are in John chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you this morning about why church is not a business.
SPEAKER_01: Why church is not a business.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of conversation and a lot of even debate, and a lot of people are like, oh, church is a business.
SPEAKER_01: You should just run it like a business.
SPEAKER_01: I fundamentally, I put all my cards on the table.
SPEAKER_01: I fundamentally and radically disagree with that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm not saying that there's not principles that we have to use to be good stewards and we do all that stuff, uh, but when it comes down to it, church is not a business.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just give you two practical reasons, and then I'll show you three reasons right out of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Two practical reasons.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, we depend more on volunteers than we do employees.
SPEAKER_01: We depend more on volunteers than we do employees.
SPEAKER_01: We have altogether about 15 full and part-time employees.
SPEAKER_01: Most of those 15 people here at the church are part-time.
SPEAKER_01: They're not full-time.
SPEAKER_01: Any given Sunday, we have a little under or a little over a thousand people total attendance here on our campus.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way that the 15 full and part-time people that work here could could make all that happen.
SPEAKER_01: So every Sunday, every Wednesday, and every day during the week, volunteers to make that happen.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: When you go to work tomorrow, look at your coworker and say, Hey, are you getting paid for this?
SPEAKER_01: And be prepared for them to say, Why do you think I'm here?
SPEAKER_01: If I wasn't, I wouldn't be here.
SPEAKER_01: That's something that's fundamentally unique about the church.
SPEAKER_01: The second thing is we value different things.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me just say this: if you're a businessman or you have a business or you work in a business, nothing wrong with that, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not bashing on businesses.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying we value different things and we should.
SPEAKER_01: Like if you're in business, you should value profit.
SPEAKER_01: Profit's a good thing, amen.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're nothing wrong with making a profit.
SPEAKER_01: Or our stock price, our market share, all that.
SPEAKER_01: All that stuff's well and good.
SPEAKER_01: Here at the church, we value one thing we value souls.
SPEAKER_01: It's just a weird, you say, well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Because when we become like a business, and see, there's a lot of uncalled uh people, especially men in ministry nowadays, and because they're not called by God, they take business maxims and they apply it and they run their church.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody said recently, I was in a conversation, I try not to say crazy things out loud, but sometimes I have spiritual tourette and words just fly out of my mouth.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I was talking with a friend of mine who I love, and he said, We were on a golf course, and he said to me, He lives up in the woodlands, and he said, Yeah, my pastor runs our church just like a business, and he said, and we love it.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01: And I just, out of my mouth, I just said, that's the crazy tragedy right there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry to hear that.
SPEAKER_01: I pray for your church.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Oh, what do you what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it is a business, right?
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not a business.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what I'm saying: we value different things.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, you know, again, in business, value profit, value market share.
SPEAKER_01: I hope that God blesses your business beyond your wildest imaginations as you wind down the air.
SPEAKER_01: I hope that's great.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible says this Mark chapter 8, verse 36, Jesus says, What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and he forfeits his own soul?
SPEAKER_01: We do what we do to focus on your soul, the spiritual, eternal part of you, because we believe you were created by God for a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: And so those are just a couple practical reasons.
SPEAKER_01: We said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Why church is not a business?
SPEAKER_01: Uh let's just look into what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 2, starting in verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: The Passover, the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: In the temple, he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there.
SPEAKER_01: And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep of the oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers, and he overturned the tables.
SPEAKER_01: He told those who sold the pigeons, Take these things away and do not make my father's house a house of trade.
SPEAKER_01: His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for your house will consume me.
SPEAKER_01: And so the Jews said to him, What sign do you show us for doing these things?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus answered, Destroy this temple in three days, I will raise it up.
SPEAKER_01: The Jews then said, It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it in three days?
SPEAKER_01: He was speaking about the temple of his body.
SPEAKER_01: When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is where Jesus goes.
SPEAKER_01: This is referred to as the cleansing of the temple.
SPEAKER_01: When I say that why why the church is not a business, let me just give you three reasons right out of the text.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, because this is sacred space.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is sacred space.
SPEAKER_01: Look in verse 14, the first three words.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a pen or pencil, underline those first three words in the temple.
SPEAKER_01: In the temple.
SPEAKER_01: See, what they're doing is not bad.
SPEAKER_01: It's just not the thing that you do in the temple.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the thing Jesus is making.
SPEAKER_01: They were not in the actual building.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, if it was like here this morning, they were cut, they were in what's called the court of the Gentiles, kind of the outer court where people would gather for worship.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and and and and so it's not that what they were doing was wrong because people came for a specific reason to the Passover.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll get to that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: But when he said this is sacred space, Jesus goes crazy.
SPEAKER_01: And wouldn't you love to have been there to see that?
SPEAKER_01: Because most people think Jesus was a pacifist.
SPEAKER_01: He rode in on a donkey, you know, passing out rose petals.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, everybody, can't we all just get along?
SPEAKER_01: By the way, that was Rodney King, not Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, he said things in the Bible like, hey, I didn't come to bring peace but a sword, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And and he just, one of the things he will not tolerate, and I'll show you why at the end this morning.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things he will not tolerate is people using the sacred space of God for other purposes.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I say, in the temple, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Temple is a word that denotes something sacred, something consecrated to God.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, it is to be devoutly revered.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what they had in there, they had sheep and oxen and pigeon and doves and money changers, and all of a sudden, these things, Jesus makes a whip.
SPEAKER_01: He looks around, sees these strands of rope and stuff laying around.
SPEAKER_01: They tied the animals up with.
SPEAKER_01: He quickly whips up a little home craft because he's DIY.
SPEAKER_01: He gets up a little whip and he goes to town.
SPEAKER_01: They cute up Indiana Jones, dun-da-dun-dun, whap pow! And animals are running everywhere, and coins are filling the air.
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't you at least once before you die like to see something like that?
SPEAKER_01: You'd just be like, hey kids, Jesus is setting it off in here.
SPEAKER_01: Get a load of this.
SPEAKER_01: And he's driving everything out.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the best part: no one says anything.
SPEAKER_01: No one is like, hey, there's a neurotic Jew over here with a bull whip.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody call the cops.
SPEAKER_01: No, because they know deep inside what they're doing is not what they're supposed to be doing in this space.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's the temple.
SPEAKER_01: There's something sacred about this.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself, hey, what is sacred to you?
SPEAKER_01: What is sacred to you?
SPEAKER_01: That's a question no one asked you this week, have you noticed?
SPEAKER_01: Because when I said what is sacred to you, some of you are like, ooh.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: What is sacred?
SPEAKER_01: What is what what is devoutly revered?
SPEAKER_01: What is consecrated to God?
SPEAKER_01: Because, see, here's what I'm saying, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Nowadays it's not, we don't have, when you drove up, it wasn't oxen and sheep and pigeons and doves, and people weren't selling.
SPEAKER_01: There weren't money changers out there in the lobby, kind of, hey, uh nowadays it's professional fundraisers and and like enjoy solutions, and it's companies like a company called Vanderblumen that'll call and say, Hey, we want to help you with your staffing needs.
SPEAKER_01: I got a call this week from a person that said, Hey, Pastor, I just need 15 minutes of your time.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a mean person, but the guy called because what they send you emails, and if you don't respond to the emails, because it's just, I probably get in a given week 25 to 35 emails or phone calls about what they want to do.
SPEAKER_01: This week it was, hey, Pastor, we got six steps to guarantee the largest Christmas offering ever in the history of your church.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, uh, it's like delete, delete, delete, delete.
SPEAKER_01: So they call.
SPEAKER_01: They get through the call screener, and when they get through the call screener, I take it as a sign from God, Neil, I want you to have some fun today.
SPEAKER_01: And so I do.
SPEAKER_01: I said to the guy said, Hey, Pastor, can I talk about your church?
SPEAKER_01: Can I talk about your church?
SPEAKER_01: And you're I'm sure like other churches, you're struggling.
SPEAKER_01: No, we're not.
SPEAKER_01: That's assumptive language.
SPEAKER_01: Don't assume that about us.
SPEAKER_01: Our people they do what God tells them to do.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Pastor, I need to see 15 minutes, and I can almost guarantee you, almost, great word.
SPEAKER_01: I can almost guarantee you the largest Christmas often ever in the history of your church.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, what is your plan?
SPEAKER_01: What is your strategy?
SPEAKER_01: Blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I am not here to extradite and extract money from my people.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, I'm sure you got it, you got it, you got to be aware of your donor base.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not aware of my donor base.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know who gives what.
SPEAKER_01: It's none of my business.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says don't your right hand, not your left hand is doing, therefore, your pastor probably shouldn't know.
SPEAKER_01: Well, pastor, how do you gonna know who to count on?
SPEAKER_01: Great phrase.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where I had my weight on my back foot, and I just sit anywhere in here, because Jose Altuve is up the bat.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, How do you know who to count on?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I count on the same person I've counted on, and it ain't my people.
SPEAKER_01: I love my people.
SPEAKER_01: But if God doesn't come through, we are up the creek, my man.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have a plan B.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, Pastor, it doesn't have to be that way.
SPEAKER_01: And at that point, I snapped, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And I started spit started flying out of my mouth, and I was like, absolutely it has to be that way.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's what you want to do.
SPEAKER_01: You want me to pay you money so you can teach me a strategy to get involved in something that I don't need to be involved in in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Well, can I ask you, do you have a catastrophic financial plan for the future of your church?
SPEAKER_01: What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, let's just say something happens and giving goes down.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I got a plan.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna fire Don Minton.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, excuse me?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's an old guy.
SPEAKER_01: I'll put him out the pastor first.
SPEAKER_01: Well, and if it doesn't get any better, what are you gonna do then?
SPEAKER_01: I'll fire our women's pastor, Marcy McClendon.
SPEAKER_01: And he made the connection.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, she's got your same last name.
SPEAKER_01: She related, yeah, that's my wife.
SPEAKER_01: She's only part-time, it ain't that much anyway.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Pastor, I'm trying to be serious.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm being serious.
SPEAKER_01: I said, let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: I would fire myself first of all, and then we would just lay off everybody before I would hire somebody like you.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, This is and this is the part, I said, don't check out on me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not mad at you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying, I think what you do is so unbiblical and so unnecessary.
SPEAKER_01: And I think we're getting sheep and oxen in the temple, and that ain't a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: This is sacred space.
SPEAKER_01: We don't need to be crammed up with entrepreneurs and entrepreneur ideas.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying don't be entrepreneurial.
SPEAKER_01: I've got friends that are entrepreneurs.
SPEAKER_01: I can't even say it.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they're always starting businesses, and I'm like, okay, wonderful, that's glorious.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing: when it comes to this thing, the church is not a business because this is sacred space.
SPEAKER_01: We're not here to make a profit, we're here to make a difference.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Well, uh, this has been uh mildly entertaining.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I've had a good time.
SPEAKER_01: Call back next week.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Well, can I ask you how this I'm not me?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Can I ask you how you go about your staffing needs?
SPEAKER_01: Because you know, we have a relationship with Land Blumen.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I know what they are.
SPEAKER_01: It's the head of an agency.
SPEAKER_01: I said, let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_01: I said, you want me to pay them money to find somebody to be on our staff?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Are you currently looking?
SPEAKER_01: I said, no, we're just kind of waiting.
SPEAKER_01: I'd love to hire a teaching pastor.
SPEAKER_01: I'd love to teach about, I'd love to preach about 30, 32 times a year and let somebody else preach once a month, and then the month of July and that, just to expose my congregation to various gifts and personalities.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, oh, Pastor, we would love to help you with that.
SPEAKER_01: Why would I pay you to help me?
SPEAKER_01: You don't know my church, you don't know what we're like.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, we've helped out and starting to listen off all these churches.
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
SPEAKER_01: But let me ask you something.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible, I hate to bring up the com the Bible in a conversation with people like you, but the Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 22, God says, Who has stood in the counsel of the Lord to see his word?
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Okay.
SPEAKER_01: I said, to see his word.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, God's word, God's direction for our church is so obvious.
SPEAKER_01: If we'll stand in God's counsel, we won't just hear it, we'll see it.
SPEAKER_01: Why should I hire you to see it for me?
SPEAKER_01: If I don't hear from God anymore, my church should fire me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just a guy taking up space on the bench.
SPEAKER_01: They need somebody else that still walks with God and hears from God.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, Pastor, uh, you know, this is the wave of the future.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not interested in the future.
SPEAKER_01: It may be the wave of the future, but you ought to ask yourself where you're going.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's what we're doing: we're setting up a scenario within which you no longer need called men and women.
SPEAKER_01: You just need a checkbook and a consultant.
SPEAKER_01: So it's no longer sheep and oxen and pigeon and doves.
SPEAKER_01: But I just want to say, hey, why is church not a business?
SPEAKER_01: Because this is sacred space, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And secondly, because we value content over convenience.
SPEAKER_01: We value content over convenience.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says the Passover, the Jews was at hand.
SPEAKER_01: Allow me to explain.
SPEAKER_01: People were coming to Passover where they would make sacrifices and they would pay the temple tax.
SPEAKER_01: And it's what they did.
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus just says, not in here.
SPEAKER_01: It's like when you were a little kid and you ran in the house and your mom was on the phone and she's cooking, and with that one leg, she kicks the cat and she sees you, goes, ah-a-a-outside.
SPEAKER_01: Not in here.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, girlfriend, what were you saying?
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_01: She said, uh, no, that's great.
SPEAKER_01: People were coming to Passover and they did two things.
SPEAKER_01: They made sacrifice, okay, to keep the Passover feast, which is why the animals were there.
SPEAKER_01: And then, secondly, they paid the temple tax.
SPEAKER_01: The reason money changers were there is they only accepted one form of currency.
SPEAKER_01: People came from far away that had different currency.
SPEAKER_01: And you ever rented a car at the airport and you're driving back and you forget to gas it up, and you're like, oh man, I gotta get gas right here.
SPEAKER_01: They got you.
SPEAKER_01: That gas ain't$2.09 like it is at Kroger up here.
SPEAKER_01: It's$3.49.
SPEAKER_01: And you're jammed up for time and you just pay it, and you get on the plane, you're like, man, the man stuck it.
SPEAKER_01: To me.
SPEAKER_01: That's what they're doing.
SPEAKER_01: They charge as much as 12% interest for the currency exchange.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, Hey, these people are coming to worship me, not make you rich.
SPEAKER_01: What do you think you're doing?
SPEAKER_01: See, that's the second reason we we value content over convenience.
SPEAKER_01: They set up right there in the court, right outside the front door of the temple where people came to worship God and said, Hey, I know you came from a long way and you didn't have an animal to sacrifice, and you got some some crazy, strange money.
SPEAKER_01: We'll exchange your money and we'll still get an animal for sacrifice, and it's this much.
SPEAKER_01: And people were stuck.
SPEAKER_01: They came to worship God, so what'd they do?
SPEAKER_01: They paid it.
SPEAKER_01: God hates exploitation.
SPEAKER_01: And especially when you exploit people in the name of God, he hates that twice as much.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what I mean when I say we value content over convenience, here's three reasons why we value content over convenience.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, if we're not careful, we're gonna make things so convenient for you that you'll forget what you're supposed to do while you're here and why you do it.
SPEAKER_01: You forget, hey, it becomes so convenient.
SPEAKER_01: You're in and out before you know, you're like, hey, that was painless.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not supposed to say this.
SPEAKER_01: It shouldn't be painless every Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: You should be so mad at me some Sundays, you should walk by and go, I'm gonna get you for that.
SPEAKER_01: This happened right here.
SPEAKER_01: One Sunday, a lady walked by and I just said morning.
SPEAKER_01: She went, I said, that good, huh?
SPEAKER_01: She goes, I ain't talking to you after that.
SPEAKER_01: All right, hey, I'm available.
SPEAKER_01: Have me over for coffee if you'd like.
SPEAKER_01: You and your husband, I'm available all week.
SPEAKER_01: She said, but don't sit by your phone.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody said, That bother you?
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: No, this shouldn't be convenient.
SPEAKER_01: It should be consequential, but not always convenient.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the the second reason we value content over convenience is because churches should be more about content than convenience, because content is what prepares you for the realities of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Content.
SPEAKER_01: Meaty, thought-provoking, expository, right out of the Bible teaching that tells you this is what it says and this is what it means.
SPEAKER_01: Let's think about and apply that to our life.
SPEAKER_01: That's what prepares you for the realities of the gospel because the gospel, and by the gospel, I mean the good news of Christianity and the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this, beloved, it's not always convenient.
SPEAKER_01: I ask my kids, I say this a lot.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, loving people is not convenient.
SPEAKER_01: It's just not.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a complaint, it's just an acknowledgement.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, this is where you should hear things that create and sustain and nourish in you a deep hunger for God.
SPEAKER_01: This is where you and I should come, we should hear things that create in us and stir in us and sustain in us and nourish in us a deep hunger for God.
SPEAKER_01: You should, if you're in this room and you're 14, you should hear things when you come to this church that affect the way you think and live when you're 21.
SPEAKER_01: And people say, Hey, how'd you get this way?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I went to a church and they they taught the Bible and it was compelling and it was like pop rocks in my brain.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I was like, I gotta think about that.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's why we're not a bit a business.
SPEAKER_01: Because uh I didn't I didn't read you my quote that I brought.
SPEAKER_01: I I I I read other things beside the Bible, actually.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and if I'm not careful, I could have made this a sermon about convenience because we in America are addicted to it.
SPEAKER_01: I read this magazine, it's a business magazine, and the guy says this he says, the consumer of today recognizes the shortage of time, they want to get the most out of every nanosecond, and retailers need to cater to this preference.
SPEAKER_01: Convenience means whatever suits you best, it means being able to choose what you want, when, and where you want it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: Because someone used this quote at a conference talking to pastors to say you should adapt to this reality.
SPEAKER_01: That is the greatest disservice we could do to you.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's not, I mean, that's great in business.
SPEAKER_01: Again, use that.
SPEAKER_01: Write that down, pull out your phone and take a picture of that if you want.
SPEAKER_01: But that that's not how you become conformed to the image of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Uh most I was talking with Travis, our connections pastor, and most churches, he was in a class, he's working on his uh uh uh on his D Man, his doctorate ministry, and in one of his classes they were talking about how every church has a subtext.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of an unspoken, hey, this is what we're really all about.
SPEAKER_01: He says there's four subtexts in all churches.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and let me listen for you briefly.
SPEAKER_01: He said there's social reinforcement.
SPEAKER_01: Uh that that asked the question, aren't we great?
SPEAKER_01: Aren't we great?
SPEAKER_01: That's the group that gets in their community group and they're like, hey, our community group is great.
SPEAKER_01: This is wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: We love this.
SPEAKER_01: Uh secondly, there's selling.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't this a great church?
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, there's training.
SPEAKER_01: Uh a lot of Bible churches fall in this category.
SPEAKER_01: No disrespect to a Bible church, but uh that subtext is, isn't this information great?
SPEAKER_01: But here's the fourth one.
SPEAKER_01: Here's where we want to be as a church is worship.
SPEAKER_01: And this this subtext asks the question, isn't God great?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't God great?
SPEAKER_01: We want you to walk out on Sunday and put the keys in the bucket and just kind of sit there for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Your kids are like, hurry, dad, my friends are beating us to the pizza place.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, just give me a second.
SPEAKER_01: I just oh man, God is so good, kids.
SPEAKER_01: Do you get how good God?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, God's good.
SPEAKER_01: Crank the car.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is the question we want you to have just emblazoned on your soul.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't God great?
SPEAKER_01: What are you great?
SPEAKER_01: It's like David said in the Psalms, I was glad when they said to me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last reason I say that the church is not a business.
SPEAKER_01: We have one audience.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me.
SPEAKER_01: The life and the reaction of Jesus in this context makes no sense unless you realize he says, Zeal for your house will consume me.
SPEAKER_01: This happened back in 1981 because I was a junior in high school and I thought, that is crazy.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know what Texas AM was, but apparently it's a college here in town.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and have a football team.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you could tell from yesterday, uh, but they do.
SPEAKER_01: We good?
SPEAKER_01: You good?
SPEAKER_01: You're like, you're on thin ice.
SPEAKER_01: Whoop, I'll say it for you, you sister kissers.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, uh this happened.
SPEAKER_01: It's just a joke.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Give me give you a moment to come back.
SPEAKER_01: Don't pinch the baby.
SPEAKER_01: We're leaving.
SPEAKER_01: He and something AM.
SPEAKER_01: Make sure you don't take more offense over your alma mater than you do God.
SPEAKER_01: That's free.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's a little side right there.
SPEAKER_01: But this happened in 1981.
SPEAKER_01: One of the core of cadets, he was charged with, he was down the field, and an SMU cheerleader ran out on the field.
SPEAKER_01: And apparently you're not supposed to step on the field at Kyle Field.
SPEAKER_01: And the cheerleader thought that, I mean, I mean, the the the the core guy thought, oh, this is the this is a sacred field.
SPEAKER_01: And the dude ran out there and kicked him and pulled a sword.
SPEAKER_01: If you go to an AM game, they don't allow them to have swords on the sideline anymore because this happened in 1981.
SPEAKER_01: Go on YouTube when you get home.
SPEAKER_01: There's a little six second clip that shows the guy pulls out a sword and stands off of the guy.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, yes.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember people were talking about I'm a junior in high school, I'm not a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: All I heard was a guy.
SPEAKER_01: Pulled a sword on a cheerleader.
SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, he should have.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, What happened?
SPEAKER_01: And somebody basically just said, Hey, his zeal got the better of him.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you just made the connection.
SPEAKER_01: You see, zeal for your house.
SPEAKER_01: It's a reference to Psalm 69, verse 9, where David said, Zeal for your house has consumed me.
SPEAKER_01: You see, God has always used men and women who are consumed by the thing that God's consumed with.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the question I want to put before you.
SPEAKER_01: It's simply this Do the things that bother God bother you?
SPEAKER_01: Do the things that bother God bother you?
SPEAKER_01: Because when you when you embrace it, you have one audience.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine as a business having one customer?
SPEAKER_01: Because if I do business with you, I assume I'm your only customer.
SPEAKER_01: I know that's crazy.
SPEAKER_01: But you and I were created to relate to God as if, hey, I live my life for an audience of one.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to just please you.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says in Ephesians 5, verse 10, and find out what pleases the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the sooner you find out what pleases the Lord and you begin to do that, I mean, you and your wife should put this language in the water in your home so your kids grow up around this.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm not sure that pleases the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible says, hey, find out.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Not so you'll modify your behavior, but so you'll you'll experience your creative purpose.
SPEAKER_01: I'm created to live a life, and it's not perfection, by the way, it is relationship.
SPEAKER_01: I love that Brett will sit up here and say, Hey, and I haven't been perfect since I came to faith, but I'm different.
SPEAKER_01: And I got some appetites in me I haven't always had in me.
SPEAKER_01: Again, do the things that bother God do they bother you?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we we come to your word because it's the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, we're thank you that you were bothered by the things that bothered God.
SPEAKER_01: And that that's not an invitation for us to go out there half-cocked and try to right all the wrongs in the world, but really it's just a call to simplicity.
SPEAKER_01: Just a hey, let's order and ordain our lives around these kinds of things.
SPEAKER_01: That this is what it's about, and this is why it matters, and this is what matters.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, our confession today is that we are we are not a business.
SPEAKER_01: We have one audience, we have one person that we need to please.
SPEAKER_01: And we value content over convenience.
SPEAKER_01: It's not always going to be convenient, it's not always gonna be perfect.
SPEAKER_01: So if we come to church, be it this church or any church, and we just want to critique and criticize, we what we're really doing is we're excusing ourselves from what we were created for.
SPEAKER_01: And that's biblical community.
SPEAKER_01: Where we can call people and say, hey, I'm out of lemon juice.
SPEAKER_01: Can I walk down and get lemon juice?
SPEAKER_01: Or hey, can you watch my kid for two hours?
SPEAKER_01: I just need a break.
SPEAKER_01: I just need to go to Marshall's and find something on sale.
SPEAKER_01: Just to feel like God still loves me.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we were made for, God.
SPEAKER_01: Community is not sitting around answering religious questions, it's it's it's doing and sharing life with each other.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, we we just we're reminded today that this is sacred space.
SPEAKER_01: That our body is now the temple.
SPEAKER_01: And when we gather, this is this is sacred.
SPEAKER_01: We do things here when we gather in Jesus' name that we don't do anywhere else.
SPEAKER_01: And so we want that to kind of inform the trajectory of our gathering going forward.
SPEAKER_01: And now, Lord, we just want to think and let this just kind of wash over us for a minute before we get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: So, Holy Spirit, press in on us what we need to remember.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we're grateful this morning that you've given us all these things.
SPEAKER_01: You've given us babies and wives that calibrate us and husbands that are here to lead our families spiritually and baptize our children and to do life together.
SPEAKER_01: You've given us friends and neighbors.
SPEAKER_01: And in John 2, the back half of John 2, you've given this example and you say, Hey, let's don't become something, don't let church become something it was never intended to be.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a business, and these are not customers or clients.
SPEAKER_01: This is a church.
SPEAKER_01: And these are your people, these are your sons and daughters, and we gather here in this sacred space with a sacred responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not heavy, but it is sober.
SPEAKER_01: And we're mindful of that today.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for all that we've gotten to see.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for a mind that we could comprehend you.
SPEAKER_01: We don't understand as much today as we will three months from now, but we want to live in light of what we know today.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: We're grateful in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest today, let me say thanks for being part of our church.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you're always welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we have people that are all on the spiritual continuum.
SPEAKER_01: We have people that are seeking, that are asking questions.
SPEAKER_01: We have people that have been Christians 38 years, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And everybody uh of all different walks of life is welcome.
SPEAKER_01: When you came in, you were given a worship folder.
SPEAKER_01: On the far right side, it's a little tear-off portion, ask for some information about you.
SPEAKER_01: If you fill that out, just tear it off.
SPEAKER_01: Drop it on these wooden boxes by the doors.
SPEAKER_01: And if today's the day you worship God uh through obedience and generosity, that's where you do that as well, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Let me make you aware of two things going on this week in our church.
SPEAKER_01: Next Sunday, a week from the day, is our starting point class.
SPEAKER_01: It's our class for people that are curious about what membership here at Grand Parkway looks like.
SPEAKER_01: If it happens at 10 o'clock in the fellowship hall, which is right behind me.
SPEAKER_01: Uh you can register online if you have any questions, see any of us uh here.
SPEAKER_01: We would love to talk with you about that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's the slide.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, I think I told you the wrong time.
SPEAKER_01: It starts at 11:30.
SPEAKER_01: It's 11:30 to 12.
SPEAKER_01: It's during the next service.
SPEAKER_01: And so you can come to this service and then you can just, it's an hour.
SPEAKER_01: Just gives you information about a church.
SPEAKER_01: It does not obligate you to anything, but it does give you the opportunity if you will and say, hey, I want to be a part of a church like that.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing I'm gonna remind you of is that this week is our man movie, Tuesday night at 7.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna go see the documentary, The Price of Fame.
SPEAKER_01: It's a one-night, one-showing only deal uh at uh the Regal 22, which used to be called the Palladium.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us are gonna meet before then if the movie's at seven, uh, and tickets are$13 because it's a one-night only deal.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, some of us are gonna meet at Dickie's barbecue out here on the Grand Parkway and have a little barbecue at six.
SPEAKER_01: But we'll send you an email this afternoon with the address.
SPEAKER_01: If you say, hey, I can't do the movie, but I want to come eat.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, we'd love to uh uh love to meet you and hang out.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to just do life together in here.
SPEAKER_01: We want to do life together out there, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_01: Uh while you're standing, let me remind you, we'll be available down front.
SPEAKER_01: I asked Brett, uh uh Daniels, the guy that shared earlier.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Hey, would you be available?
SPEAKER_01: I just think what you shared meant meant a lot to our people, and they may want to have come by and have questions, and you may say, Hey man, can you pray for me?
SPEAKER_01: I relate to what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: So, myself and some of our pastors and Brett will be available if you have any questions, or we can do answer or pray with you about anything, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: Because you matter to God, you're never going to be clients or customers.
SPEAKER_01: You're sons and daughters, and that changes everything.
SPEAKER_01: Depart now and live as changed men and women to the glory of God and the pleasure of his people.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you or dismissed.