Who Is the Church For?

🎧 Relate Church Podcast
Welcome to the Relate Church Podcast — where faith meets real life. Each week, Pastors Sean and Angela Mooney bring messages that challenge comfort, build courage, and call believers to live on mission. 

We believe the local church is God’s plan A for the world — a place to know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and make a difference. 

From honest conversations to powerful sermons, this podcast helps you grow stronger in faith, steadier in hope, and more passionate about the mission. 

👉 New episodes every Monday from our Sunday gatherings at Relate Community Church in Spring, TX. 

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Transcript

Worship And “Always On Time” Theme

SPEAKER_05 4:41

It's the patient. Every time I should have joined, with the song, to the birthday.

unknown 5:22

I've got you a bit.

SPEAKER_05 6:52

Ain't no rap, ain't no rap, ain't no rap. Gonna cry in my place. Ain't no rap, ain't no rap, ain't no rap, ain't no rap, don't lie in my place, ain't no rap, ain't no rap, ain't no rap, I'll try in my place, ain't no rap, ain't no rap, ain't no rap, I am in my place, must be ground, my play, Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Thank you, God. You are always on time. We praise you this morning.

SPEAKER_05 8:51

Thank you, Jesus. I was so But I never went out. You are under the sun, and you always sometimes always sometimes you all always always sometimes say how you got me, Jesus. I was source in all, but I never went on it, always my time, Jesus When I went through the fire, you are right there to start, you waste my time, always my time, you always want time, all days, my time, all days, all the time Oh how you sustain me There's never been a day, never been a minute, never been a moment that you weren't in it. There's never been a time that you didn't see me through God, so I worship you. Never been a ball that you weren't in.

unknown 12:24

There's never been a time that you didn't see me through God. So I worship you. Never been a ball that you wanted, there's never been a time that you didn't see me through that.

SPEAKER_03 14:05

Can we just say hallelujah in this room this morning? Can I just remind you he is always on time? Look at your neighbor and say he's always on time. And then look at the other one and say, He's always on time. I know so many times we walk into this building on Sunday morning and we've been fighting some things, right? We've been wrestling with some things. Can I get an amen? Is anybody wrestling with something in your life this morning? And I gotta tell you the truth. My testimony today is I've been wrestling with some stuff. I've been wrestling with some stuff. And God said, you know what? I need you to turn to my word. Can I tell you first, when you begin to wrestle with some things in your life, you gotta go to the word of God first. Don't go to your neighbor, don't go to your mama, don't go to your sister, you go to the word of God, amen. And you know what he said? I want you to open up and I want you to go to Genesis. I want you to look at chapter 32, and I'm gonna teach you something here. See, my boy Jacob was wrestling with some stuff all night long. Have y'all stayed up all night and wrestled with some stuff before? You got no sleep, you were worried about some big test coming up, some big job transfer, your finances, your family relationships. Can I get an amen? You've wrestled with some stuff. Now you understand, right? And he said, you know what? My boy wrestled all night. All night. And I had to break something in him to make him understand that I am the God. I am who I am, and I'm always on time. So, whatever you're wrestling with this morning, I want to encourage you that the God of the universe, the creator, the maker of you, the maker of each person standing in front of you, beside you, behind you, is always going to be what? On time. Can I call down my prayer partners? Here's what we're gonna do today. Those things that are keeping you up at night, if you're like me, sometimes it's hard to just continue to cry. Sometimes you feel like you don't have any more tears, and you know what? That's natural. Sometimes you need someone to stand in the gap and pray with you. We have got prayer warriors. They're ready to go to battle for you when you don't have the words to say anymore. You don't have the tears to cry anymore, that you've been wrestling all night, all week, all month, all year with that thing that you just can't say. They're here to remind you that God is always on high. So I want to invite you down this morning as we continue to worship. It's okay. Feel it. This is do you know what this is what this is for? This altar is to lay stuff down. Do you understand? They're not here for their benefit. They're standing as warriors for Christ. They're ready to walk through this battle with you. So I want to invite you down. Let's fill it up, let's give it to God, let's day it's lay it down and wrestle no more. Everybody say, Wrestle no more. Because he's a God that is what? Always on time. Let's continue to worship, bring it down, and let us pray for you this morning.

SPEAKER_05 18:57

There's no one like to know there is one of the wrong It's worthy of praise So we seen worthy. We crown you, King of the Lord, we crown you, King of the Lord, we crown you, king of the Lord, we crown you, Lord of all, we crown you, you one word, we crowd you, you one word, we crowd you, you one word, we crowd you, Lord of all, we cry you kingdom, we cry you kingdom, we cry you kingdom, we call you all the wall, we cry, we cannot be no one like slain and still on the floor. There's no one like to know And screen giving praise to give him alone There's no one like the Lord Soon There's no man's name to know there is no light So we crown you king of the Lord We crown you king of the Lord We crown you king of glory, we crown you Lord, all he's worthy, we crown you, you all he's worthy, we crown you, you all we crown you, you won't work, we crown you, Lord. Come on and shout it out. We crown you, King of the Lord, we crown you, King of the Lord, we crown you, King of Lord, we crown you, Lord, of all we work, give one word, we cry, give one word, we cry one word, we brought you all the time on the ball, death of the north, no one died, be it on the phone, that's no one like the Lord, don't want to take it if you believe it. There is no one like the Lord. Hallelujah! There's no one like our God! There is no one like Jesus. Hallelujah!

Revelation 4 And Why We Worship

Praise Reports And Generosity Update

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Give it a badness, my goodness. You know that entire song comes from a book called Revelation. It's chapter four. And chapter four talks about how the elders and the creatures cry holy. And one day we'll be in heaven and we'll be able to cry holy, but we'll do our best right now on earth. Give him praise, give him glory for the things that he has done. Why don't you take your seat for just a minute? I want to read you this scripture. It's in Revelation 4. It says, Four living creatures covered with eyes and friends. The first living creature was like a lion. It goes on to describe the different creatures that are worshiping God in heaven. And they never stop saying, holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come. You see, when we come to worship together, it's not just pretty songs. Every word means something. The elders and the creatures cry holy. It's scripture, it's prophecy. It's happening right now in a different realm that we cannot see. In fact, the next song goes on to read the next part of the chapter. And you will so enjoy that. But I want your ears to hear your voice cry holy. When we sing again, I want you to be able to praise him with all that his sinful, broken body can do. Because when we get to heaven and we are healed and whole, that is where the true worship starts. All we can do is grasp at what heaven might be on this earth. So if you had a hard week, it's okay. Heaven's closed. And the Lord is not surprised by any of it. He is in full control. And he loves to hear the praise of his people. I was reminded that when I was a little girl, we would have this part in the service. Maybe you went to a church like this, and my dad would say, Is there any praise reports in the house? And somebody in the back would say, I got a praise report, Pastor. And it would go on for 15 minutes. That's why we don't do that anymore. But I have come to you with my own praise report. Would you like to hear it? This very week we put carpet upstairs in the kids' wing. Praise the Lord, the last of the raccoons have been banished. Hallelujah. That's an uh sorry, that's a joke, but tell ask somebody, they'll tell you what that means. And, and, and, and, next weekend we should have a kids-only bathroom upstairs. I want I want you to notice you can hear them coming down the stairs. They will no longer come down the stairs to use the restroom. Thank you. Once you check those kids in, they're in. Now go get them, please. We are so excited. Pastor is working furiously to finish the last few things in this building before the end of the year. But I'm telling you, we could not do any of that without your generosity. This church is the most generous and giving church I have ever been a part of. And I'm like 225 years old. So that's that's saying something. So as you prepare your offering and the ushers begin to come, I just want to tell you that every dollar that you sow into this ministry is sown directly around the corner and around the world and right here in this house. Because the ones that were in the theater when we were portable know how far this little church has come. When we bought it, the uh the inspector said, Pastor, you must really love this building. And the pastor said, I really love how much it cost. Amen. And so we are happy to be here. We are thankful for you. And if it's your first time, make sure you fill out a connect card. Connect in some way. Those cards come directly to me, and I would love to text you to see how I can pray for you this week. And as you give, give with a generous heart, give with a happy heart, because the Lord is good ground, and everything you sow into him comes back a hundredfold every time. Let me pray for you. Lord Jesus, you see your people, you see their hearts, you see their minds, you see their struggles, God. Touch them this week. Give them blessings beyond their imagination. Touch them and give them peace. In Jesus' name. Will you stand? Let's worship.

Series Setup: Grace, Truth, And Tension

SPEAKER_06 29:58

As we say worthy, our hearts worship. We thank God for who is worthy. We just want to find God. Heavy for the throne of grace, majesty before my eyes, so beautiful, I let my breath take away. I want you to understand that worship. Worship is who we are created to be. Because we have a God that has so much power and so much love. Sing to your father, sing to your dad, the God of all creation, the God that gave his son Jesus, who stepped out of time to be like us. One more time. God loves your worship.

Who Is The Church For

Mission Vs Methods: Staying On Target

Jesus’ “My Food” And Contribution

From Spiritual Consumers To Contributors

Self-Assessment: Where Are You On The Scale

Why It Matters: Church Shaped A Life

Freedom, Purpose, And Making A Difference

SPEAKER_00 38:01

It's a good day to be in God's house. I appreciate you guys for coming out. Some of you in the rain, some of you decided uh against better judgment. You you were laying in bed thinking, I don't want to go to church today. I want to lay in bed and listen to the rainfall and just relax. But it's amazing to be in God's house, to be with you guys. It's a be it's amazing to be in the room uh in and just worship the Lord and open up his word. So we're gonna dive right in. I want to uh say real quick welcome to everybody who's watching online and connecting with us uh through the internet. We love you and we appreciate you being here. Week two of good intention. There are some things that we have to keep the tension in. We want to resolve it. Last week we talked about Jesus. John said that Jesus, I saw him, I lived with him, he was full. If there's anything you need to know about him, he was full of grace and truth. And sometimes we want to go one way or the other, but there's a tension found in the middle that is so powerful if we don't resolve the tension. So if you weren't here, go back and listen to it. It's a great start to this message. And today we're gonna look at a few different tensions, but really more around a question. So I'm not gonna I'm gonna give you a couple things where there's tension between this and tension between that, uh, where we kind of wrestle in the middle. But I want to just ask you a question. If you're taking notes, go ahead and pull out your notes. We're a note-taking church. Um, if you got your binder, would you hold it up real quick? I want to see the difference. Some of you are taking notes with your uh tablets, phones, all that's very good. Um but our team works hard on putting those notes into your hands that are already the binders are already paid for. But right now, I want you to write some things down today. Um, the question is this, um, and it's a question that does not get answered properly or accurately a lot. And the question is, who is the church for? The church exists. We have a building here, we meet, we have people, we have programs, we have policies and procedures and uh all the different things that happen on the schedule um during worship, during our worship services, but who does all that exist for? So, uh first off, before we even get into the subject of who the church is for and unpack that question, I'll say this. I love church. I've been as long as I can remember. I was a church kid, I grew up in church. Um, and when I met when I was 14 years old, I met Angela, my beautiful wife, who was right here and now is not. She's somewhere else. Over there. She's leaving. So I met her at 14 years old. We started dating at 16 years old, married at 19. Um her family was, she was the preacher's daughter. She was, um, so getting close to her meant I got close to uh church and ministry and kind of got to see a lot of things behind the scenes, and I learned really quickly I did not want to see all the things behind the scenes. I realized really quickly there's a lot of stuff nobody wants to see. And uh a lot of that has to do with the fact that when you get close to people, there's it's messy. One of the things we talked about last week as a part of what it looks like to be full of grace and full of truth is that it's very messy. You can't get rid of the mess if you're gonna get close to people, and that's what the church has to be about. Um, I was not uh impressed with a lot of the hype. I uh I think if I looking back now, I probably became very cynical with certain things. I'm like, I don't need that. I don't, I don't if that's what church is about, I don't really need that part of church. And um I I witnessed a lot of crazy things, things that I thought never should be in church, but think those crazy things come with people. In fact, just on like the programming side of church, I saw uh motorcycles on stage and like crazy fireworks and and special effects and stuff that I thought I'm not sure this is what church is about. I don't um even at 18, 20, 25 years old, I I wasn't sure about tons of things I wasn't sure about. I also saw people argue and fight, and I thought, I thought we were supposed to come to church to get away from that kind of stuff. But what happens when you put people in a room, there's mess, there's uh fighting. I had one lady because I would not do what she wanted me to do, she got so upset she threatened to kill me. She wanted to fight me. Like I I was shocked. I was like, ma'am, you're like half my size. If we actually did fight, you would be in big trouble. I've seen a lot of things come and a lot of things go, styles and trends. And um one one thing is true. I still love church. And in the middle of all the mess and all of the ugly stuff, and all of the even worldwide, if you look at the worst parts of church, I believe that church is still worth fighting for. I believe that there are things that are still worth fighting and suffering for. And we will continue to do that because the church has a mission, the church has value that sometimes gets lost in the conversation. But that brings me kind of to our first the first tension around this question of who is the church for, and that tension has to do with the mission of the church because sometimes we confuse the mission with the methods of the church, and I a lot of things, whether it's motorcycles or fireworks or a hundred other different things, it led me as a teenager, as a young adult, as a young pastor to question like what who's all this for? And I arrived at this statement that I want you to write in your notes, and that is that the local church is the hope of the world. I believe that the local church, I believe that what we're doing is the hope of the world. Why? Because Jesus was sent on a rescue mission for mankind. The Bible says that God so loved the world. Everybody knows the verse in John 3.16 that he gave his only son. God loved us so much that he sent his son, and his son in return. He did all the hard work and then he sent us. He said, Here, I'm gonna build the church. Here, the disciples, go ye, therefore, into all the world. Tag, you're it. And that's what we're we're still doing that today. We've been handed the baton from Jesus. He ascended to heaven and said, Go, you're my body, you do the work. And in the middle of all of that, we get so confused. I don't know why. We get confused, and there's a tension between the the mission that he gave us and the methods that we use. And as there are as many different denominations and types of churches that you can think of where everyone's divided over the methods to the mission. Well, I don't think we should do it that way. I'm gonna start my own church. Okay, go for it. You got different methods, but let's all stay on the same mission. Okay, I want to show you something in uh John. Last week we spent almost all week in John. We're gonna look at this and look at a couple of a couple of other things. But John chapter 4, the disciple, John's showing us something that that Jesus shows the disciples, and I think a lot of people still don't get it. It says, Meanwhile, in John chapter 4, verse 31, meanwhile, his disciples urged him, Rabbi, eat something. Now, this could be where the disciples are just saying, Man, we're really hungry. We need Jesus to get stop and let's eat. So let's tell him, Jesus, you must be hungry. Let's eat. Let's get you something to eat. Rabbi, eat something, but he said to them, Watch this. This is so this, I want it to be like Jesus is telling us this today. I have food to eat that you know nothing about. Jesus says, I don't need to eat, I'm doing something here. Then his disciples said to each other, Could someone have brought him food? They didn't get it. They're like, What do you mean? Did someone bring you a happy meal, Jesus? Did someone feed you while we weren't looking and we all missed the meal? And Jesus tells them again what we need to hear. He says, My food, everybody say, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. I'll paraphrase for you. Uh, I'll give you my translation, and that's this that the thing that fed Jesus was to do things for God. That God gave him a mission, and that mission fed him, nourished him. He did to the point where he says, I don't need to stop and eat. I don't need to be nourished and fed. I can feed myself, and it's with food you don't even know about. And when he says you don't know about it, he's saying, like, you don't get it. And so I'll tell you, there's a whole bunch of Christians. There's a lot of church, there's a lot of churches that meet every Sunday and they don't get it. What Jesus is trying to show the disciples, you're not getting it. It's not, it's not getting into your brain. But when it does, then you join this group where there's a tension because a lot of the church is fighting over. Some people are still trying to do it that way, and so some some I'll put it, I'll just simplify it. Some of the disciples, they're consuming. Some churches, some church people, some Christians are still in the mindset where they're consuming, consuming, consuming, and Jesus says, it does not feed me to consume, it feeds me to nourish other people, to do the work. The things I'm doing are nourishing me. That doesn't make sense, does it? There's tension right there. There's this, like, I don't know how to do that. I just want to come to church and be fed. I just want to go and find a church that uh takes care of my needs. Jesus says, There's a level that you don't get, you're a disciple. You're supposed to be here, I brought you here. But you're missing the next level that I'm on. Between consuming and contributing. And you think well that kind of goes against our nature, doesn't it? To contribute to to to shift from consuming to contribute. You look at babies, they contribute, they they consume. A baby is born knowing how to consume, needs to be fed, needs to be changed, needs to be clean, needs to be taken care of, needs to sleep, needs to be put into a place where it can sleep. And that's how a lot of Christians are. They're consuming, they're being taken care of, they're being fed, they're being changed, they're being put in their little pamper and patted on the bottom and told to go to sleep. And they feel good about it. And Jesus is saying, there's another there's another level up here where I'm fed not by the things you do for me or by the things I put in to consume, but what I pour out. So we have to get out of this consumer mindset. We have to get out of we we wake up and we go find food that feeds us. We go um find food that's made fresh for us the way we want it. Right? We're fast food people. We go sit down at a restaurant and the food's not like it's just the way we want it, what do we do? Send it back. Nope, not good enough. And unfortunately, the the church has become that catering to people because we need to be catered to. I can prove it to you. You think I'm reaching a little? I'm not. I'm telling you that the majority, the vast majority of Christians, specifically in America, wake up and they go looking for church. In fact, we use terminology like, hey, we're just church shopping. I meet some I meet people sometimes, and they just tell me straight up that uh, you know, we're not ready to commit, and I'll introduce myself and they're already on guard. Don't talk to me because we don't want to join. We're just shop, we're just shopping right now. We're just here. We're just looking. I in fact, I want us to be a church where you feel comfortable and people feel comfortable to come and not feel pressure to join anything. That's part of it. But there's also another level where we are not church shopping and we say things like I'm church shopping, or I left that church because I just wasn't being fed. Or we can't find a church that meets our needs. What if the church what if like Jesus is showing the design? What if what if we woke up and instead of looking for a church that would meet our needs? What if we went to church and went to a place and joined a people and thought, okay, let me put it in terms, but I feel like I'm preaching to the choir. You guys, most of you have already joined our church, so I'll put it in these terms. What if you went to a small group that didn't meet your needs, but you were meeting their needs? What if you looked for a group of people that you could connect with, not because you needed everything they had, but you were able to pour into them, and that fed you. That's a different mindset that most of us will never get. But it's where we move from consumers to contributors, and I think that's what Jesus was trying to show the disciples. So I want you to write it in your notes this way. We are not spiritual consumers, we are spiritual contributors. That's what we're pushing for, and there's a tension there because all of us have to consume, but there's a shift that happens where we stop being babies. Paul said, I don't when I was a child, I thought like a child. I did childish things. But at a certain point, you have to stop thinking. I think you guys want me to give you the word and feed you the word just bite by bite on Sunday mornings. That's the only time you consume the word of God. That's that's not good. In fact, you'd like me to pull out a little baby food bottle and just open wide. I'll just give you a little bit of wisdom here. You can feed yourself. How old is okay? How old is a baby whenever they learn they can feed themselves? And when our kids got to a certain age and they're like, Dad, I'm hungry. Okay. Like, dad, I need to go to the bathroom. Okay. I'm well past that point in our relationship where I need to help you with that. You can handle it. Spiritual contributors feed themselves, and they don't need to be fed with the same things that babies are fed with. So, who does the church exist for? The church exists for the world. God so loved the world. All this was done for the world. And our food. Here, here, let's look at your if you have your printed notes right now, or if you're using your notes on the app that you can download. I put a little scale in there from consumer to contributor, one through ten. And I want you, don't do it just yet, because I want to talk about it for a second. I want you to circle where you think you are between consumer and contributor. And if you didn't die on the cross for someone's sins, then you can't circle 10. You might be a nine, but let's talk about it for a second. If you came into church today and you checked the kids in and you went through the little machine that you didn't set up, and then you handed off your kids to someone else, they're being watched by someone else that's not you, and they're being trained and taught the word of God by someone else that's not you. And then you went and grabbed a donut that you didn't pay for, or help pay for, then you went and got coffee that the coffee team prepared that you didn't have to make. And you got ushered into this room and sat down in a chair that you didn't have to pay for. You didn't help set it up and you didn't clean it. You sat down and participated in worship that you didn't have to lead. Maybe you thought it was a little bit cold, so you took your sweater off, but because the AC was too cold. You didn't have to pay for the AC either. It was a little warm. And then maybe you put it back on. We have a um this last week, one of the other things that we did, Pastor Andrew didn't mention this, is we put uh we were able to put in um blow in insulation all in up and re-insulate this room because we've had a lot of problems keeping it cool. And so for the last two weeks, I've had several people walk up to me and tell me, Pastor Sean, you know you can you can let the the uh the AC up just a little bit. It doesn't have to be so cold when we start now because it's the air, the room's keeping up. So thank you for helping us take care of the building. But if you didn't help pay for any of that, you just came in and sat down. You might want to circle a two. You're not the devil, so you don't have to circle one. The devil's one and Jesus is ten, so you don't have to you're somewhere in there. But if you maybe you have joined the dream team and you're serving and you're uh you're giving faithfully, and maybe you're a five or a six or a seven or somewhere in there. I want you to think about where are we as contributors? Or if you're way down as a consumer and you're so focused on what you're getting out of what God has for you, you totally miss that God what God has for you is what He can do through you. And you need to move a little higher. And Jesus is saying, Come on up here where I'm at. I got food you don't know about, I'm on another level. So I'm asking you, as us as a church, as a people, we can point at all the problems with the church, or we can say, Let's fix the problems in the church and be better and come up to a higher level. God calls us to serve in his church, and by serving, I mean he calls us to contribute, he calls us to give and serve and pour out our lives into other people's lives. The church has never been a building, it's people. We don't go to church, we are the church. We need a building, but it's not a building. So, why does this matter? Let me I will talk to you real quick about why this matters, and some of you will relate to this. The church saved my life. It may it may look a lot different than what you expect, although I've told this story many times. I'll continue to tell it because it's my testimony. I had a drug problem whenever I was younger. My mom drugged me to church for as long far back as I can remember. That was my drug problem. I I did not have a typical uh intervention uh testimony, like where I had a lot so many problems that my that I was in jail and and and and on the edge of death. No. I had a lot of friends that went through that, but I had uh more of a prevention testimony where at three years old, I I don't remember ever not being in church. I was uh church did so many things for me that it prevented me from going down the wrong path in so many different ways. So I'm gonna give you four really really quick things that I think the church did for me. Number one, it helped me to know God. Like I grew up in Sunday school at five years old, they gave me a uh a precious moments Bible, a little blue precious moments Bible, and I read that. That was my favorite thing. Had some little picture drawing cartoons in it. But I I learned to love God's word. They gave me a little dog tag in kids' church that let me know that I was in God's army and you couldn't tell me anything else. I was in still in God's army. I believed it. They teached me to have a repentant heart. They they taught me to have a repentant heart, they taught me to love God's word. The youth group challenged me to a deeper relationship with God. Don't just be a child, be a be an adult. Commitment, faithfulness. I had a pastor that preached and modeled faithfulness and faith in a way that I had never seen before. I avoided many moral and ethical landmines that I could have stepped on, and lots of my friends did not go that way. Friends I grew up with that are no longer alive, that are struggling and broken because they went the wrong way. The second thing the church taught me was that it led me to find freedom. How do you know kids see a lot of things? You can tell a kid to do this because this is the right thing, but when you do something different, kids see it. Kids see hypocrisy in their parents and in other church people like nothing else. They can see when you're saying, uh, do what I say, not what I do. So I followed the people that I thought were successful, and I thought this is success in God's kingdom, and I'm gonna be like them, and I'm gonna have a marriage like these people, and I'm gonna raise my kids to be like these people, and I was sh I followed the models that were put in front of me. And by the grace of God, I did not go down a lot of the paths that I saw other people going. In my early 20s, I joined Celebrate Recovery in our church, not because I needed to recover from an addiction, although I found out I had a lot of problems. I joined Celebrate Recovery because it was just what we did. We joined things. Alright, I'll go. And I ended up teaching the class. And I got to see a lot of what God could do, and I learned this. I didn't have to keep the pain. I didn't have to carry the pain for the rest of my life. That I didn't incur, and I didn't have to carry unforgiveness. And that God had more for me. And I wanted that more. The third thing that it taught me was to discover my purpose. I say this all the time, and I truly mean it. That you were made on purpose for a purpose, and you are not that purpose. I learned that God had a plan for my life. And if I'll ask him what it is, he'll show me it. He'll show it to me. And so still, at 46 years old, I wake up thinking, God, what's your plan for me? What are we doing today? What direction do I need to go in? What do I need to do with this relationship? With this money, with this time that I have. And he shows me his plans. And I'll follow the best that I can for us for my family. The fourth thing that the church gave me was it taught me to make a difference in the world that once I learned what my purpose was and I knew it wasn't me, I could use it for someone else. So at 16 years old dating Angela and her family, she was born in Zimbabwe. And uh her parents at 17 years old took off, got married, and went into the uh to the missions field and connected with people literally all over the world. And so at as a teenager and a young adult, I got to see so many missionaries and people come in bringing stories from all over the world and watching missions being built around the world and realizing that I think I have problems. God, I'm I'm complaining because my air conditioner went out in my car, and yet there are people suffering around the world, just trying to go to church. I started to realize that the problems, the things that I thought were a big deal, are not a big deal. They're so small. I started fighting for something bigger than myself. I like to give in the offering when I was a little kid, and then whenever I had my first job at 16 years old, 15, I started working at 15 years old at the Sonic drive-thru. And I was like a cook and a car hop. I got to go back and forth. And so whenever Angela and her family would pull in, I would come out and serve them, and then they'd give me the biggest tip that I had gotten. But I could not wait at the end of my two-week pay period to give my offering in the church, to give my tithe at 16 years old. Because I knew that I had watched other people who were ahead of me, business leaders and faith leaders, and family leaders, and men that I that I loved, and men that I thought, these guys, they are following God, and I want to live like them. They attributed their success to their tithing and that God would bless them. They would stand up and say, I'm giving this because God has blessed me. And I said, I want that in my life. I'm gonna do that. And so then we had we couldn't just give online, we had to wait two weeks to give in the offering. Here's another tension I want to show you, and that is we can become so in love with the way we do church, and the feeling that we get from being fed by church, and the the feeling of consuming, and we get so in love with the methods we use that we lose the mission. There's a tension there. There's a the we we have to create methods, we have to try methods, we have to try this. It's like a fisherman, a fisherman uses all kinds of methods, but what if the fisherman got so in love? What if a fisherman loved a specific lure so much that that's the only lure he would use, and then realized that I'm not catching any fish, but I sure love this lure. Alvin, if a hunter was hunting the same way and never killed anything, we would change the method. We would love, you gotta do something else. Well, we never did it that way before, Pastor. How are we why would you do that? Well, what we're doing is not working. Let's do something that is working. And when I look at the mission of the church and all the methods that I've seen, uh, and you probably we probably could come up with a list a mile long and we could laugh and we could cry for many of the methods. I've seen churches, been in churches, been a part of churches that have more lights than we have, fog and lasers and earplugs, which we have earplugs. I've seen the pastor wear flip-flops on on the stage. I've seen been to churches where you think the pastor's there, but he's not. It's just a hologram. Or the pastor comes in on a zipline, or the pastor dresses up like Darth Vader in some kind of weird sermon series. I've been to the church uh where they don't have a lot of loud music or drums, but they have hymn books. They only use the King James Version of the Bible. They don't have any lights, they don't have any fog, no drums. And instead of flip-flops and shorts, they wear, I did for a long time, wore a suit and tie every Sunday morning. Maybe the services go a little bit longer or a little bit shorter. But the point is that they're all methods. And if we if if we lean towards or grab a hold of the tradition of any method too strong that we lose the mission or that we're failing at the mission, I say we need to throw out the methods and change them out for new methods that are working. Our methods cannot be so important that they outweigh the mission. So right now, and I've had people come up to me and say, Pastor Sean, I'm so thankful that you don't you guys don't have fog and have a lot of lasers and lights, and I just tell them, well, we might. And I'm like, if if I thought for one second that wearing flip-flops or lasers or fog would get the lost saved, I'll do it. I don't care about the mission. I don't care. Listen, some of you talk to me about the time that our service lasts. If I could do a 20-minute service and the lost get saved, we would do a 20-minute service. I don't care. I don't, I'm not setting the time of the service or the kind of lights that we use based on what I like or what you like. I hope God approves of it, but I think that God, the Bible says that God looks at the heart of a man. God looks at our intentions to follow him and our humility. And if I don't walk in and say, Well, I know how we need to do things, if we don't do it my way, by God, it's wrong. God can see our humility. So if we just keep pursuing him and his heart to love the world, not the things of the world, but the people, the souls that are going to hell. I don't care what the methods are. So I will tell you there will continue to be attention. And you may walk in one day and there's lights and fog. I'm just telling you. We're gonna do whatever. In fact, if you want to know where the line is, like what how far are you willing to go? I don't know how far we're willing to go, but I will tell you this that my line is this that we're willing to do anything short of sin to see people get saved. To me, that's the mission. And to me, we should be willing. Thank you. We should be willing to go as far as necessary. Let me give you a couple of last verses. Matthew chapter 5, verse 16. Jesus said in the same way, let your light shine before others. That's that's the job. Let your light shine before others. But there's a tension between the churches for the lost, but at some point when the lost come in, they get saved. That God begins to work on us and change us, and there's this tension that starts to happen. Well, wait, the church isn't for me anymore. Yes, it is for you, but it's also for others that they may see your good deeds. Everybody say good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. That's the pro the process that happens. And I want to kind of tell you a story in closing in the next four or four minutes or so, just give you this illustration that I I've heard the church described as uh a hospital before, and I think that's pr very close to true. I think that the church, um, in comparison, usually it's compared to something like the church is uh not a cruise ship, it's a hospital, right? It's not about like we're not here to just have a party because of us for for us. We're it's a hospital. We come together and we do what we're meant to do because there are people who are lost and broken and hurting, and God wants to heal them and help them. Here's here's where I think the illustration works best, and that is that we're a hospital. The church, the big sea church, that's the churches around the world, and this church, the local church, is a hospital. And the Bible says that God draws us near Him, He's the Holy Spirit is drawing people near, we're or we are drawing, we're inviting people in. And someone comes in that's hurt, broken, lost, needs their wounds binded, needs to be healed from life, healed from sin, healed from hurt. And so we admit them in the hospital. Hey, come on in, you're you're here. This is your place, this is your chair, this is your seat. Let's get you plugged into a small group. And what happens with people in the hospital, I think what should happen is that it should be you're admitted, you stayed overnight, and then we come talk to you. The doctor is meeting with you, Jesus is is healing all of your problems and putting us through this process of sanctification, and now no pressure, but when you're ready, we want you to kind of get up and get around, start to meet people. We want you to like become a part of the staff. So, yeah, you're a patient, you can still come back and you can still stay, you're still admitted. But when you can, we want you to be a part of the staff, and you think, Well, I'm not, I don't even know, I can't be a doctor. No, Jesus is the doctor. We just get to serve food in the cafeteria, we get to sweep the floors, we get to do all the we get to clean the parking lot and wipe up the toilets, take care of each other. I get to take water to the person in the next room and take care of them while they're while they're getting starting to feel better. But there's a lot of church people that just think, I can't believe they asked me to do something. I'm a patient here. Or they say, I've been here for 20 years, and how dare they put someone else in my chair, or how dare they make me sit next to someone. Listen, I'm not, I we have a no-hassel guarantee. I'm not, I'm not gonna pressure you to give or serve, but I'm gonna boldly tell you that that's what we're here for. We're here to pour out because something happens when we start pouring. It's like Jesus said, there's food. I have food that you don't know about. Something nourishes me. There's another level of living in being a follower of Jesus that I can't just get healed up. We don't just get healed up and sent back out into the world. This is not a service, this is not services rendered. We're not here to consume, we're here to contribute and produce. Because the streets are full of broken people who need to be admitted. As long as we don't make room for them, as long as we're so focused on us that we lose the mission. I can't imagine what God is thinking. Last week we talked about the prodigal son, and He's He's inviting both sons in, and neither will neither one thinks they're not worthy, and the other one thinks that they can't believe he'd let the other one in. And the job of the celebration and the mission of the church is not being accomplished because we're too focused on other things. Last verse is this for it's by grace you've been saved through faith. This is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. I'm not telling you that we should contribute so we can be saved. I'm telling you that you're saved so that you can contribute. I'm telling you that the work that God's doing in you is so that you can work for his kingdom. For we are God's handiwork, creating Christ Jesus to do good works. There's the there's that word again, to do good works. We are created in Christ Jesus to do what? To do good works, which he prepared in advance for us to do. Meaning this, I like I like to think of it this way: that he created us to do good works that he already prepared for us to do. God's got a job prepared for you, and he's prepared you for that job. So if you'll step out and do that job. So finally, last thing you can write in your notes is this that the local church is God's plan A for the world. We're gonna pray in just a second, but there is no plan B. We're it. Jesus tacked us in, and now we got to do the work. Most Christians will never step into that level and come up to Jesus' level, being nurtured by the things that we're pouring out into other people. And so, my challenge for you in closing today is this don't be like other Christians. Let's contribute, let's pour out our lives for his kingdom. Would you stand up on your feet? And I want you to worship for just a moment and commit in your hearts. For some of you, that might be a making a dedication that okay, God, I'm gonna go to another level in you, and I'm gonna I'm gonna change my mindset. I'm not going to be stuck on methods, or I'm not gonna be stuck on consuming. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you, and then we're gonna come back and pray in closing. That He sent His Son to die on a cross so that we might be saved, to pay a price that none of us could even imagine paying for. He overcame death so that we could have life. And today, if you're in the room or watching online and you want that life and you want to be able to say yes to the life that God says, I have more for you, then I think all it takes is a confession. It takes in you saying, Yes, I'll follow you, Jesus. Coming someone whose life is following after his plan for you. Today you can you can start that life by saying a prayer of faith, by just saying yes by faith. And I want to lead you in that prayer. Would you just bow your heads right where you are? I won't embarrass anyone, but I would invite everyone to say this prayer with me. Would you say these words, God? Today I give you my life, and God, I thank you for sending your son to die for me and to pay a price that I could never pay. So forgive me of my sin. Make me whole, make me new, breathe new life into me, and from this day forward, I choose to follow you with all of my heart, all my soul, all of my strength. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you for saying that prayer. If you said it for the first time, we last month we started a uh a new believers class called Fresh Start. And if you are a little bit lost and I don't know exactly what's next for four weeks, you can sit down and uh just look for Fresh Start in the foyer. We'd love to talk. I've talked to you about it, uh, or any of our staff. If you want to pray with someone else before you before you leave today, they'll be right up here at the front. Otherwise, God bless you. We love you. We'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:21

We encourage you to go out and be a contributor to the kingdom of God, and we hope that you have a productive week. God bless you.