WEBVTT 00:00:04.719 --> 00:00:07.040 Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:08.160 My name's Clayton. 00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:10.400 I'm the pastor here at MetaChurch. 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:18.079 And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you. 00:00:18.239 --> 00:00:20.640 I hope that you enjoy today's message. 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:29.199 The last year and a half, we have all been through some hard times, but you are at the right place. 00:00:29.359 --> 00:00:37.200 This is a movement that knows that God can take our painful season and use them for our purpose and to push us forward in what He has for us. 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:39.039 It's so good to see you guys here. 00:00:39.119 --> 00:00:41.119 If you're new with us, my name is Clayton. 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:42.560 I'm the lead pastor here at Meta. 00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:44.240 I'm so glad that you joined us. 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:47.359 And you've joined us in a very, very exciting season. 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:49.200 God is doing so many wonderful things. 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:54.640 Last week we celebrated 25 baptisms here at Meta Church. 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:03.600 That is why we do what we do to see people move from spiritual death into spiritual life. 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:05.519 And there's more exciting news. 00:01:05.599 --> 00:01:13.200 If you haven't heard, God has blessed us with the purchase of a new building, a permanent space that we are gonna be able to move into. 00:01:13.359 --> 00:01:14.000 Yeah. 00:01:15.760 --> 00:01:19.920 This is something we've been working on for a really long time, and I have a lot of dates. 00:01:20.079 --> 00:01:24.719 We're gonna put them all up here in just a minute for you to remember as we are transitioning in. 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:30.319 Next Sunday, November 14th, we're going to have what we're calling our first look event. 00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:35.200 This will be the first time that we all have a chance to gather together in our new building. 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:47.599 We want to get everyone together to tour the building, to pray over this new space that God has given us and to wrap up our whatever it takes campaign, which so many of you have been giving so generously to. 00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:49.680 This event starts at 6 p.m. 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:54.079 The address to the new building is 1207 Richland Hills Drive. 00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:56.319 It's right off of 151 in Petranko. 00:01:56.480 --> 00:02:00.079 It's only about three miles away from the 151 saloon. 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:08.400 Speaking of the new building, we are pretty confident that our first service will be December 5th. 00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:11.680 We are moving very quickly, we're very excited. 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:18.719 So here's what we have to do in order to move all of our operations over, here's what the next few weeks will look like. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:25.360 On November 21st, we will have our very last service in the saloon. 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:32.319 And so I really hope that you guys will show up as we begin to look forward to what God has for us in the future. 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:39.840 We are gonna take time and thank him and show our gratitude for all that God has done in and through this place. 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:48.639 The next week, November 28th, which is the Sunday after Thanksgiving, there will be no in-person services at all. 00:02:48.879 --> 00:02:50.639 Everything will be online. 00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:55.599 We need one week off in order to get everything moved over. 00:02:55.759 --> 00:03:06.159 Our hope there is that you will use this as you're gathered with friends and family for Thanksgiving to get our message and our mission in front of even more people. 00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:12.800 And if we can pull all this off, then December 5th will be our first Sunday gathering together in our new space. 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:15.360 Again, the 14th is our first look event. 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:18.560 The 21st is the last Sunday at the saloon. 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:25.439 The 28th, there are no in-person services, and December 5th, we will open up the new building. 00:03:25.759 --> 00:03:30.400 That is our transition plan, and we're so grateful for all of you helping us walk through that. 00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:33.520 Now, as we get ready to get in the word, would you pray with me? 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:37.759 God, we love you and we thank you for loving us. 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:40.879 We're just humbled, we're we're blown away. 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:54.639 The God of it all, the God of the universe, sees us, that you desire relationship with us, that you have a plan for us, that you pursue us, God, even when we are running from you, that you are running after us. 00:03:55.759 --> 00:03:58.879 You don't require that we clean ourselves up to come to you. 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:00.800 You meet us exactly where we are. 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:05.680 You help us, you heal us, you make us whole, you set us on the right path. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:08.879 God, we are here from all different parts of our faith journey. 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:16.240 There are people here who have been following you for years and years, and there are people here who are still not really sure what they believe. 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:25.199 Maybe they are skeptical or agnostic, maybe they're pretty sure that you don't exist at all, but we're all here, and in your word, you say, if we seek you, we will find you. 00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:30.720 I pray that we would have the humility to do that, to open our minds and our hearts to whatever you might want to say. 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:32.879 And so we come together to learn from you. 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:34.879 We ask it all in Jesus' name. 00:04:34.959 --> 00:04:36.800 And if you're ready to go, say amen. 00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:37.680 Amen. 00:04:37.839 --> 00:04:44.800 As God is moving us into this new exciting direction, we've really been taking this time to just drill down on who we are. 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:49.839 The last few weeks we talked about what we believe and why we believe what we believe. 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:58.000 And now we're gonna take some weeks to talk exactly about who we are as this unique expression of the church called Metachurch. 00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:03.519 Now, it feels like a lot of church planting stories start with someone who has a lot of clarity. 00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:12.480 They have like a mission and they have an idea, and they're able to come forth with a declaration, we're gonna go after these people and this side of the city, and this is how we're gonna do it. 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:18.240 And that's a beautiful thing, and it's probably not surprising that at MetaCurch we started almost nothing like that. 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:22.959 Metachurch did not start with a proclamation or a clarified idea. 00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:25.040 In fact, it was the opposite of that. 00:05:25.279 --> 00:05:38.079 The beginning of MetaCurch started with a question, and it was an odd question for me to wrestle with, because I'd already been a pastor for about 10 years at that point, and I could not get this idea out of my mind. 00:05:38.240 --> 00:05:42.879 The question was: why would anyone go to church? 00:05:43.120 --> 00:05:51.439 And it's a rough question, but if you're not asking it, you're actually not acknowledging what is happening in our world currently. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:58.079 Now we're a little bit protected from this because in Texas, we are in what they call the Bible belt. 00:05:58.319 --> 00:06:07.439 But across the rest of our country and across the West in general, people are leaving the church in record numbers. 00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:24.959 Every year, as polls go out, there are more and more percentages of people who say they have no religious affiliation, they have no spiritual identification, there are more and more people every year identifying themselves as agnostics and as atheists. 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:32.800 What's worse is that the church has become to be viewed as nothing but judgmental, ignorant, backwards, spiteful. 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:48.319 Many people have a view of the God of Christianity as someone whose only job is to ruin whatever fun or joy you might have in your life and lead you into a life of like a prudish nightmare, and the statistics are bearing all of this out. 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:53.279 More than 85% of churches in America are in active decline. 00:06:53.439 --> 00:06:55.600 That was before the pandemic. 00:06:55.759 --> 00:07:03.040 One study has shown that post-pandemic, one out of every four churches will close their doors permanently. 00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:26.240 Almost 60% of kids who are in the church nursery, children's church, youth program, they graduate out, go to college, go to the workforce, become adults, they leave the church behind, and they never join the church again. 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:28.879 Why would anyone go to church? 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:30.480 I had to wrestle with this. 00:07:31.199 --> 00:07:35.759 And at the bottom of it all, many of these problems are self-imposed. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:39.600 Just on a practical level, it can be difficult to get to church. 00:07:39.759 --> 00:07:43.120 You know, a lot of you, Sunday is your one day off. 00:07:43.519 --> 00:07:51.439 You gotta get up early, you gotta get the family ready, you gotta fight with the kids, get everyone in the car, you gotta fight for a parking space, you gotta come in. 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:53.680 The preacher goes way too long. 00:07:53.839 --> 00:07:55.279 It's like, it's hard, man. 00:07:55.439 --> 00:07:58.160 The times all fall during your favorite NFL games. 00:07:58.240 --> 00:07:59.040 It's difficult. 00:07:59.199 --> 00:08:14.959 And so, if you can get a family to church, what they often encounter when they get there are inauthentic, judgmental, top-down, controlling cultures that once they've experienced it, they are sure they do not need in their lives. 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:18.160 Why would anyone go to church? 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:34.799 And the hard part was wrestling with how we got here from this movement and this mission, the church that Jesus started and gave his life for coming to a place in culture where it has lost all of its power and its influence. 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:38.799 And here's what was so difficult for me to wrestle with. 00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:49.120 The first time the word church ever appears in the scripture, our foundation for truth, it is attached to a promise from Jesus Himself. 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:59.519 In Matthew 16, verse 18, Jesus said, I will build my church, and the forces of Hades will not overpower it. 00:08:59.679 --> 00:09:08.720 I will build my church, and even all of the power of hell itself will not be able to stand against it. 00:09:09.679 --> 00:09:21.360 If nothing is supposed to be able to overcome the church, then why does the church seem so powerless in a world that desperately needs the hope that the church brings? 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:37.279 And so this one question led to a season of study that led to eventual clarity on church, what it is, why Jesus started it, and what his original intention was for it. 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:40.080 And out of that clarity, they're wrestling with a question. 00:09:45.279 --> 00:10:04.240 And here we are in 2021, having gone through the last 20 months that none of us saw coming, and that turned our world upside down, we stand in a place right now, at a time in our history that the world needs the movement Jesus started more than ever. 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:06.799 Will we get the church right? 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:13.360 Jesus said, his church, the thing he started, nothing will stand against. 00:10:14.559 --> 00:10:23.919 And if you aren't a Christian and you're not from a church background, one of the starting places for us, one of the things that we believe is that Jesus is truth. 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:28.240 It's not just that Jesus doesn't lie, he is truth itself. 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:33.440 He cannot go against his own nature, which means if Jesus said it, we believe it. 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:50.879 So when we look around and we see a church in decline and we look at the words of Jesus, he says his church will always overcome what we have to conclude is that something about how the church is operating today does not match the church that Jesus set out to start. 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:54.080 So, how do we get this right? 00:10:54.639 --> 00:11:16.320 You see, we have a picture of the movement when the movement moves, and we see it in the first few centuries because what we're doing here today in San Antonio, Texas, and what is happening all over the world and the global church started in an obscure part of the Middle East by Jesus and just a handful of his followers. 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:22.480 It had dramatic impact and it spread like wildfire right at the beginning. 00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:28.320 We see a tremendous contrast between the church today and what it was like in those first few centuries. 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:40.399 Right after Jesus left earth, his followers went and they spread this message of a God who loves us enough to come and give his life for us, to overcome death itself, and a promise that he will return for those who believe in him. 00:11:40.559 --> 00:11:42.720 And the message spread, and it spread. 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:49.840 In Acts chapter 2, we see the response of the people in Jerusalem, the very people who crucified Jesus. 00:11:50.080 --> 00:12:00.000 In Acts 2 38, Peter replied, Repent and be baptized, each of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 00:12:00.159 --> 00:12:05.279 For the promises for you and your children and all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call. 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:11.919 And with many other words, he testified and strongly urged them, saying, Be saved from this corrupt generation. 00:12:12.159 --> 00:12:14.559 And so those who accepted his message were baptized. 00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:23.360 And that day, the first official meeting of the church, that day, about three thousand people were saved. 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:27.759 Three thousand people baptized in the first day. 00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:32.480 This is the church that hell itself cannot stand against. 00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:34.559 And this was not unusual. 00:12:35.039 --> 00:12:46.960 The guys you may have heard of, Peter, James, John, Paul, many others, they would travel the known world spreading this gospel message, the good news of who Jesus was and what he did for us. 00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:51.759 The first 300 years of the church were explosive in their growth. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:58.559 Now, modern people with all of our wisdom and knowledge and all of our savvy were really ready to write these people off. 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:03.360 Like these were ancient, uneducated, ritualistic barbarians. 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:04.960 They believed all the myths. 00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:09.360 This was just another one to add to their plate, and you'd be completely missing the point. 00:13:09.759 --> 00:13:13.759 People believed in the myths and the legend because it helped them. 00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:17.679 It gave them a better life, it helped them integrate into society. 00:13:17.840 --> 00:13:22.720 It was a point of commonality to advance your ability to earn money and income. 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:27.279 It was a commonality for the people that you were dating and marrying. 00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:30.080 Believing in Jesus did the exact opposite. 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:31.919 It did not promote your well-being. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:33.279 It did not help you earn. 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:35.440 It did not integrate you into society. 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:41.120 From the jump to claim the name of Jesus put you under tremendous persecution. 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:43.759 Persecution was coming from all sides. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:47.759 The religion of Judaism saw it a threat to their religious power. 00:13:47.919 --> 00:13:58.799 They were persecuting, imprisoning Rome, the greatest empire at that time, saw it as a threat to their political power and sandwiched in between Jerusalem and Rome. 00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:08.000 If you were to believe in Jesus, and especially if you demonstrated it by gathering together as the church, you were putting your life at risk. 00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:10.639 You were asking for your family to disown you. 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:12.720 You were asking to lose your employment. 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:18.879 You were asking to potentially be imprisoned, and many were even losing their lives. 00:14:19.919 --> 00:14:26.879 Many religions, world religions, have spread through the use of force at the edge of a knife or a gun, convert or die. 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:28.639 That's one way to spread the message. 00:14:28.799 --> 00:14:31.919 Early Christianity did the exact opposite. 00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:34.879 It said, convert and you might die. 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:39.840 But what you have in exchange is something even greater. 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:46.559 This movement moved, it spread and it grew, and nobody could give an account for why. 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:49.039 It cost you to follow Jesus. 00:14:49.679 --> 00:14:53.440 And even though it cost you, it continued to grow, it continued to expand. 00:14:53.679 --> 00:15:04.399 Rome, who was taking Christians and feeding them to the lions in the Colosseum, when the message of Jesus got to Rome, what it did there was extraordinary. 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:12.639 A historian and professor at the University of Virginia, Robert Wilken, he studied the Roman Empire in great detail. 00:15:12.799 --> 00:15:19.600 What he found is that at the end of the first century, there were fewer than 10,000 Christians in the Roman Empire. 00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:26.399 That was about one hundredth of one percent of the population Christians were not even on the radar. 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:32.320 However, 150 years later, the number had risen to more than a million. 00:15:32.559 --> 00:15:42.559 From 10,000 to over a million people who were claiming the name of Jesus, even though you would be sentenced to almost sure death by doing so. 00:15:42.799 --> 00:15:44.879 That seemed to be a tipping point. 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:54.080 Just 50 years later, by the year 300, 10% of the Roman population was now Christian, over six million people. 00:15:54.480 --> 00:16:03.039 Just 13 years later, Emperor Constantine officially made Christianity one of the religions that was accepted in Rome. 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:08.879 And 10 years after that, Christianity became the official state religion. 00:16:09.679 --> 00:16:24.480 Christianity, who serves one God and one God only, became the empire's religion in a place where there was already a pantheon of gods, and the emperors themselves were worshipped as God. 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:34.480 This was spreading to the ends of the earth in a time where there were no denominations, no church conferences, there were no televangelists, there were no Christian bookstores. 00:16:34.639 --> 00:16:40.559 You may not know this, but by that point, there actually wasn't even a canonized or formalized Bible. 00:16:40.720 --> 00:16:44.799 The Bible that you have on your shelf or on your phone, it was not put together yet. 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:52.080 All there were were these letters floating around being copied and transmitted by the small percentage of people who could actually read and write. 00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:56.879 And even if there was a Bible, there was no printing press to distribute it anyway. 00:16:57.679 --> 00:17:02.639 Against all odds, the movement of Jesus spread. 00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:13.680 It spread to the point where 2,000 years later, we are here in America, in San Antonio, Texas, still a part of the same movement. 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:16.319 The church could not be stopped. 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:27.039 And yet, we now live in a society where it is a fair question to ask why would anyone go to church? 00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:32.640 To understand this radical shift, we must understand what the church is. 00:17:33.039 --> 00:17:35.119 First, let's look at what the Bible says. 00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:37.119 We'll go back to Matthew 16, 18. 00:17:37.200 --> 00:17:39.440 This is the first use of the word church in the Bible. 00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:41.519 It says, I will build my church. 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:49.519 Jesus said this: I will build my church, the most powerful force on earth, the church of Jesus Christ. 00:17:49.759 --> 00:18:00.799 Now, to really understand context and began to really deep dive as I felt this compulsion to do, wrestling with this important question of why would people actually come to church? 00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:02.319 You have to understand context. 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:05.759 And one part of context is to look at things in their original language. 00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:13.119 And what Jesus said in the Greek language that this was originally written in is this I will build my ekklesia. 00:18:13.519 --> 00:18:15.200 I will build my ekklesia. 00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:21.759 Ekklesia is the Greek word that eventually was translated to our English word church. 00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:23.920 What does ekklesia actually mean? 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:25.359 What is the root meaning of this word? 00:18:25.519 --> 00:18:28.240 Ekklesia is a compound word in Greek. 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:33.920 Ek means out or out of, and klecia is from kleo, which means to call. 00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:38.160 Ekklesia means simply to call out. 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:42.240 Now, over time, this has become our word for church. 00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:45.599 But the original meaning is to call out. 00:18:45.759 --> 00:19:00.559 And what's so interesting and it's so informative of what Jesus intended for his church to be is that the word ecclesia, out of all of the words that Jesus could have chosen, he did not choose a spiritual word, he did not choose a religious word. 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:04.000 The word ecclesia was a political word. 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:10.079 And it actually was very informative of what an ecclesia was. 00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:29.279 In politics during Jesus' time, an ecclesia is when people would be called out, it was the ones who were called out of their society, of their town, of their village, and they were given a specific purpose, and they were given a significant purpose. 00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:40.720 And when something needed to be changed or updated or legislated or enacted in that society for the betterment of the society, certain members would be called out. 00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:51.279 They would meet together, decide on a course of action, and then they would move together out into their city to mobilize and enact what was decided. 00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:53.119 This was an ecclesia. 00:19:53.440 --> 00:19:54.400 It was common. 00:19:54.720 --> 00:19:56.400 It said exactly what it did. 00:19:56.559 --> 00:19:58.319 We have a political term that does that. 00:19:58.400 --> 00:20:00.559 It's the house of representatives. 00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:04.240 It tells you exactly what it is, or at least what it's supposed to be. 00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:07.839 It's the house that the people who represent us work in. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:09.200 The house of representatives. 00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:11.359 The ecclesia was the called out. 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:12.640 And what did Jesus say? 00:20:13.279 --> 00:20:17.119 He said, I will build my ecclesia. 00:20:17.839 --> 00:20:21.440 I will be the one who is now calling people out. 00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:32.799 And this movement, my ecclesia, will have a specific purpose, and it will have the most significant purpose. 00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:54.640 The ones he is calling out of their everyday life, calling out of their brokenness, calling out of their addiction, calling out of their frustrations, calling out of their constant search for purpose, calling out of going down every avenue that the world can offer to try and find significance, to try and find fulfillment, only becoming emptier the more that you consume. 00:20:54.880 --> 00:21:01.359 Calling them out for the ultimate purpose, the redemption and rescue of the world itself. 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:12.480 And if you think there is any room for error, Jesus said that his ecclesia, those he is calling out, nothing will stop them, not even hell itself. 00:21:12.880 --> 00:21:15.039 That is his church. 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:28.400 A movement is something you can wake up every day excited to be a part of. 00:21:29.839 --> 00:21:40.079 And if we are willing to be honest, the Western church, what it has largely become, is easy to sleep in on. 00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:43.200 It's easy to skip out on. 00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:50.720 It's easy to skip a month of offering. 00:21:50.960 --> 00:21:52.799 You got bills to pay. 00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:59.759 If you're just giving to buildings, just giving to organizations, just giving to gather and sit in the seats and sing. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:01.519 Songs, it's easy. 00:22:01.759 --> 00:22:03.440 And so we sleep on the church. 00:22:03.519 --> 00:22:06.160 And even the people who love the church sleep on the church. 00:22:06.400 --> 00:22:12.720 And pretty soon the church loses its power, it loses its relevancy, it's it loses its cultural impact. 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:16.960 And so, how did we get so off course? 00:22:17.279 --> 00:22:32.079 For several hundred years, they were just going, they were taking over, they were showing up and calling people to a movement and a part of God's story that He's writing to rescue and redeem the world itself. 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:35.440 And people said, at cost of my life, I will go. 00:22:37.119 --> 00:22:38.960 The church that we experience today. 00:22:40.400 --> 00:22:41.680 Forget giving up your life. 00:22:41.759 --> 00:22:43.839 We'll barely give up our convenience. 00:22:45.279 --> 00:22:47.119 How did we get so far off? 00:22:48.400 --> 00:22:52.640 You see, after Jesus left earth, he left his movement in the hands of a small group of people. 00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:54.480 We called them the apostles. 00:22:55.039 --> 00:23:08.319 And they began this movement, and the movement was moving, and they traveled as missionaries, and they planted these local expressions of the ecclesia, these local churches, and they taught people how to give their life away as a part of this movement. 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:21.839 And you see, right from the beginning, in the New Testament book of Acts, which is a history of the beginning of the church, you see them constantly fighting against one of the main enemies of this movement, the enemy of control. 00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:23.920 And as humans, we love control. 00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:29.599 Control makes us comfortable, and control gives us some ability to get our way. 00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:37.279 And you start getting a large, diverse group of people together, and things can get really hairy really quickly, and you make it a non-political movement. 00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:54.880 And so, you know, people who've got MAGA hats at home are sitting right next to people with field of burn shirts in their closet, you know, and like all of a sudden it starts getting really tricky, and there's different ideas and different perspectives and different backgrounds and different worldviews, and we're all coming together, and so everyone's looking for control. 00:23:55.759 --> 00:23:57.359 And there's some problems. 00:23:58.079 --> 00:24:01.680 One of the problems is that Jesus didn't come to control, he came to empower. 00:24:01.839 --> 00:24:09.759 And what you see in every other world religion is using things like fear and manipulation to ensure that kind of control. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:21.839 And when the church, the ecclesia, the called-out people of God, when we begin to use control the same way as all the other world religions, we begin to chip away at the very thing that makes us unique in the first place. 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:25.119 A movement not based on fear, a movement empowered by love. 00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:26.480 We begin to destroy that. 00:24:26.559 --> 00:24:32.640 And by destroying it, we're taking out the foundation of what makes us powerful, and everyone likes control. 00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:37.680 And one of the ways to gain control is to have some kind of container. 00:24:37.839 --> 00:24:43.839 And so if you look at every world religion, every world religion is built on what's called the temple model. 00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:46.240 Everyone has a sacred place. 00:24:46.799 --> 00:24:51.119 You might have a temple, you might have a mosque, you might, you might have a cathedral, you have something. 00:24:51.200 --> 00:24:54.559 It's your sacred place, your sacred space. 00:24:55.359 --> 00:25:03.119 Jesus didn't come to create sacred places, he came to call people to a sacred purpose. 00:25:03.359 --> 00:25:07.759 It is a huge reversal against all other world religions. 00:25:08.559 --> 00:25:12.960 Most world religions have a sacred place, and if there's a sacred place, then you do the right things. 00:25:13.039 --> 00:25:20.079 You put on your best clothes and you make the pilgrimage and you go and you bow down to the place and you worship the place, and the place is the purpose. 00:25:20.400 --> 00:25:31.200 And Christianity says you can go to the most sacred place that you can possibly find here on planet Earth, and the building that you're in cannot compare to the sacredness of the person you're beside. 00:25:31.599 --> 00:25:37.039 It didn't come to create sacred places, but over time there's a gravitational pull towards control. 00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:42.960 And so the ecclesia was the called-out people of God, and the church requires organization. 00:25:43.039 --> 00:25:43.599 It just does. 00:25:43.680 --> 00:25:47.440 As soon as you have three people meeting somewhere, you're organizing at some level. 00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:54.880 And what happened is in the tradition of the early church, within the first hundred years, they started putting together what was called a curiokon. 00:25:55.359 --> 00:25:59.920 In the Greek, that means the house of the Lord or the place of the Lord. 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:14.240 And the curiocon in Greek, what it shows is that we started having the idea of sacred places borrowed from the other world religions, borrowed from Judaism, borrowed from all of the other uh expressions of faith, and we needed our own. 00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:17.359 So we had a Kuriakon, and it was the house of the Lord. 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:20.000 And so what is sacred when it's the house of the Lord? 00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:23.440 It's not the Lord Himself or the people in it, it's the house. 00:26:23.680 --> 00:26:30.559 And if you look at how translation took place, one of the first modern language to be translated to was German. 00:26:30.720 --> 00:26:35.680 And when they translated the word ekklesia in German, they translated it to the word kirche. 00:26:36.160 --> 00:26:40.559 And the word kirche was defined as the house of the Lord. 00:26:40.720 --> 00:26:42.640 What does ekklesia mean? 00:26:42.960 --> 00:26:45.279 It means the called-out people. 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:47.599 People, not place. 00:26:47.680 --> 00:26:51.680 And eventually scriptures were translated into English. 00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:57.519 And there were a few translators who went all the way back to Ecclesia, and they said Ecclesia is about the people. 00:26:57.680 --> 00:27:02.319 And so some people, like William Tyndale, they translated it as congregation. 00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:06.160 A way more accurate description because that's about the people. 00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:10.960 And William Tyndale, for his efforts, was burned alive at the stake. 00:27:12.559 --> 00:27:14.960 We translated Kirche to church. 00:27:15.119 --> 00:27:22.480 And the word itself is not bad, but what has happened is we have viewed the translation through the lens of our tradition. 00:27:23.279 --> 00:27:25.279 Everyone has a sacred space. 00:27:25.519 --> 00:27:27.839 Everyone has a house for their God. 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:29.680 Why shouldn't we? 00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:44.319 So over time, Jesus, with an emphasis on people, shifted to the church, the Kyriacon, the Kirche, an emphasis on place, the house of the Lord. 00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:46.960 And so what? 00:27:47.359 --> 00:27:48.720 Where does that lead us? 00:27:49.839 --> 00:27:55.200 Here we get our word church, and when I began to realize this, so many things began to fall into place. 00:27:56.640 --> 00:28:01.119 We took our translation and we viewed it through the lens of our tradition. 00:28:01.759 --> 00:28:06.640 If it's the house of the Lord, then of course, there's no running in the sanctuary. 00:28:06.880 --> 00:28:11.279 If it is the house of the Lord, then the house itself becomes a part of the purpose. 00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:13.440 It becomes a part of your passion. 00:28:13.599 --> 00:28:19.039 If it's the house of the Lord, then you gotta make sure that only the right people get in and the wrong people stay out. 00:28:19.119 --> 00:28:23.359 If it's the house of the Lord, then you better show up in your Sunday best. 00:28:23.440 --> 00:28:28.240 And if your Sunday best isn't good enough, then you might as well not show up. 00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:40.319 If it's the house of the Lord, then we create unwritten rules and unwritten codes, and we have this exclusive level of membership, and there's an us and there's a them, and we're very clear on who the us is, and we're very clue on who the them is. 00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:53.680 And if the them walks in, you know they're gonna get judged, and you're gonna judge them even or either until they come up to your standards of what is required in the house of the Lord, or you're going to judge them until they leave and never show up in church again. 00:28:53.759 --> 00:28:57.440 And I'm telling you, if that's how we're gonna run church, people are gonna choose the second option. 00:28:57.599 --> 00:28:59.839 They are voting with their feet right now. 00:29:00.319 --> 00:29:11.599 And what happens is you end up with a small segment of people who get to feel really good because they are the chosen few who get to exist in the house of the Lord, and the rest of the people are left on the outside. 00:29:11.839 --> 00:29:22.880 And their only hope is to find something in the world to try and fill this God-sized hole in their heart, and we end up distancing ourselves from the very people that Jesus put us on earth to reach. 00:29:24.079 --> 00:29:27.359 The early church did not grow because it sought to control. 00:29:28.240 --> 00:29:41.759 The early church grew because people knew Jesus, saw his miracles, watched him die, saw him three days later, resurrected, spent 40 days with him, saw him ascend into heaven and promised to come back. 00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:56.960 They were willing to cement that belief with their life, and they spread that message to the ends of the earth, and nothing could stop it as long as it was focused on what Jesus told us to focus on. 00:29:57.599 --> 00:30:31.200 The calling out of a broken world, the calling out of broken people, the calling out into a movement that is saving, rescuing, and redeeming the world and the opportunity, if we get the movement right, the opportunity for us as sinful, flawed, jacked-up individuals to have an opportunity to play a role as that story, the story of God unfolds should be worth giving our lives to. 00:30:31.279 --> 00:30:37.200 And if we're just giving our lives away to protect a sacred space. 00:31:11.599 --> 00:31:18.240 Now, interesting sermon for a bunch of people who just bought a building. 00:31:18.400 --> 00:31:19.359 Am I right? 00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:25.920 And it's more important now than ever. 00:31:26.880 --> 00:31:31.839 Because I'll be honest, I'm so grateful for the saloon and all that God has done here. 00:31:34.400 --> 00:31:37.519 But it's pretty easy to not call this a church, you know? 00:31:38.319 --> 00:31:39.920 It's just obvious for us. 00:31:40.079 --> 00:31:41.920 It's right there in front of us. 00:31:42.160 --> 00:31:42.799 You know? 00:31:43.039 --> 00:31:47.920 A church is not a sacred place, but it should have cleaner bathrooms than this. 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:48.799 You know what I'm saying? 00:31:48.880 --> 00:31:54.079 Like, we can at least have one-quarter sacred bathrooms at some point, you know? 00:31:54.559 --> 00:31:55.839 It's so critical. 00:31:56.000 --> 00:31:58.880 Right now is the time to hammer this home. 00:31:59.200 --> 00:32:09.599 Because if we're not careful with a new beautiful building that we can be oh so proud of, the building itself could become the same trap. 00:32:09.839 --> 00:32:12.799 The building itself with all of its potential, and it has a lot of potential. 00:32:12.880 --> 00:32:14.160 I hope you come to the first look of it. 00:32:14.319 --> 00:32:15.599 It has so much potential. 00:32:15.839 --> 00:32:22.880 It could be the most incredible tool for the movement, for the people of God, for the church, which is you, you are the church. 00:32:23.039 --> 00:32:27.680 It could be the greatest weapon in our arsenal to come after and take this city for Jesus. 00:32:27.759 --> 00:32:42.559 But the moment it becomes the purpose, the moment the building itself becomes the passion, we are trading the movement that Jesus started for a false version that has been pushed through our world. 00:32:42.720 --> 00:32:53.839 A false version that says the purpose of church is just to come to sit in the seats, to sing the songs, to read out of the book, and then you can check it off of your religious list and be good. 00:32:54.480 --> 00:32:58.559 That version, this counterfeit church, has failed. 00:32:58.799 --> 00:33:01.440 It has failed in its mission to reach our world. 00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:05.279 It has failed in its mission to bring hope to the hopeless. 00:33:05.599 --> 00:33:07.279 It is dying. 00:33:07.519 --> 00:33:12.960 And if we forget what church actually is, we will die as well. 00:33:14.319 --> 00:33:17.920 I'm not saying there's no purpose to what we're doing right now. 00:33:18.559 --> 00:33:21.200 Scripture calls us explicitly to meet together. 00:33:21.359 --> 00:33:26.640 In Hebrews 10, it says, and let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works. 00:33:26.799 --> 00:33:33.680 Verse 25, not staying away from our worship meetings as some habitually do, but encouraging each other. 00:33:33.759 --> 00:33:38.880 And all the more as you see the day drawing near, meeting together is vitally important. 00:33:39.920 --> 00:33:42.400 But the meeting is not the purpose. 00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:49.279 The meeting is part of the process to bring the people of God into the fullness of their purpose. 00:33:49.839 --> 00:33:58.400 We are not meeting in a church, we meet together as the church in the space. 00:33:58.799 --> 00:34:04.319 And you can rewind the tape ever since we've been pushing for a new building and expanding and fundraising. 00:34:04.400 --> 00:34:05.359 You can rewind the tape. 00:34:05.519 --> 00:34:06.720 We've been very careful. 00:34:06.880 --> 00:34:12.480 There's no point where you can find us saying we are building or buying a church. 00:34:13.199 --> 00:34:18.400 When you begin to understand church, that is a sentence that doesn't make any sense. 00:34:18.639 --> 00:34:25.199 At the very beginning of MetaCurch, we put together the basis of our strategy for reaching our city. 00:34:25.360 --> 00:34:31.679 We tried to, as simply as we could, define exactly what Jesus' original intention for his church was. 00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:34.480 And at the broadest level, this is what we discovered. 00:34:34.719 --> 00:34:39.840 Jesus called us out to meet together and to move together. 00:34:40.079 --> 00:34:43.760 And when you're just going to the sacred space, you just meet. 00:34:43.840 --> 00:34:46.880 And any movement, that's great, but it's not the purpose. 00:34:47.039 --> 00:34:55.519 The purpose is information and building knowledge and coming together and sheltering yourself from the big, bad world outside of the sacred place. 00:34:56.000 --> 00:35:03.519 Jesus said, We meet together, we come together, we challenge each other, we get inspired and enlightened, we fully discover our purpose. 00:35:03.679 --> 00:35:12.239 We come in to get our marching orders so that the church, you and I, the church, can then leave this place and move together in real ways in our community. 00:35:12.400 --> 00:35:30.320 And if we get the church right, if we will meet together, not for the sake of meeting, but meet together in order to move together and effect real change in a very broken world, we can reclaim the power of the church as it was intended, as it took over the world, and we can make a difference in this world as well. 00:35:35.920 --> 00:35:38.719 Why would anyone go to church? 00:35:40.320 --> 00:35:44.400 That's a question that if we're not asking it, plenty of other people are. 00:35:45.519 --> 00:35:52.320 And if you look at the statistics, there is a resounding answer that we won't go to church. 00:35:52.960 --> 00:35:55.280 But you see, there's a flaw in the question itself. 00:35:56.559 --> 00:35:59.519 The question implies that the church is a place. 00:36:01.199 --> 00:36:03.519 Church is not something that you can go to. 00:36:03.679 --> 00:36:06.159 The church is something you are a part of. 00:36:06.480 --> 00:36:10.000 You are the church, you are the movement. 00:36:10.400 --> 00:36:18.559 And if you want to see the power of the potential of this movement, then you will meet together and you will move together. 00:36:18.719 --> 00:36:35.679 Not just information in the meeting, but application of the word of God into our real world that needs a movement of people who will quit playing church and checking off a religious list, but start living as the church and making a difference in our world. 00:36:35.760 --> 00:36:37.599 Let me remind you what Jesus said. 00:36:37.840 --> 00:36:40.000 I will build my ecclesia. 00:36:41.519 --> 00:36:45.840 And the forces of Hades will not overpower it. 00:36:46.079 --> 00:36:47.280 Metachurch. 00:36:47.599 --> 00:36:51.199 We are one local expression of the church. 00:36:51.360 --> 00:36:58.320 All believers in all places, we are all called to move with Jesus, to move with the Spirit of God. 00:36:58.480 --> 00:37:01.280 We can't be responsible for anyone but ourselves. 00:37:01.440 --> 00:37:12.960 But in this place, if you think that this is where you come and get comfortable and feel a little bit better about yourself because you went to church, you are going to be uncomfortable here. 00:37:13.199 --> 00:37:15.119 We have work to do. 00:37:15.519 --> 00:37:21.840 And as God is blessing us and expanding us, we must make sure we take that work seriously. 00:37:21.920 --> 00:37:22.960 We will meet together. 00:37:23.199 --> 00:37:25.039 We meet together in weekend gatherings. 00:37:25.199 --> 00:37:28.159 We meet together in community with each other in our life teams. 00:37:28.239 --> 00:37:34.559 We meet together to get healthy in our life classes and programs, but we meet to move. 00:37:34.719 --> 00:37:35.760 Would you pray with me? 00:37:36.239 --> 00:37:37.280 God, we love you. 00:37:38.559 --> 00:37:40.800 I thank you for your ecclesia. 00:37:40.960 --> 00:37:42.960 I thank you that you have called us out. 00:37:45.519 --> 00:37:48.559 You've given us purpose, you've invited us in. 00:37:48.880 --> 00:38:00.960 No matter who we are, where we've been, no matter how many skeletons are in our closet, no matter how little we may think of ourselves or how disappointed we are in the life that we're living, you have called us out. 00:38:02.079 --> 00:38:05.760 You've called us into something bigger than ourselves. 00:38:06.719 --> 00:38:11.679 You have called us to a life of specific and significant purpose. 00:38:11.920 --> 00:38:16.880 And I pray that we would be the church that you intended for us to be. 00:38:17.039 --> 00:38:17.519 We love you. 00:38:17.760 --> 00:38:19.599 We pray these things in Jesus' name. 00:38:19.840 --> 00:38:20.480 Amen. 00:38:23.840 --> 00:38:26.559 Thanks so much for listening to the message today. 00:38:26.719 --> 00:38:32.000 If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast. 00:38:32.159 --> 00:38:35.119 You can rate and review or share it with your friends. 00:38:35.360 --> 00:38:42.000 If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv. 00:38:42.239 --> 00:38:44.480 There you can learn how to take next steps. 00:38:44.639 --> 00:38:48.320 You can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit. 00:38:48.480 --> 00:38:52.400 And you can also give financially to help push this movement forward. 00:38:52.639 --> 00:38:56.079 Man, I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.