Jesus is passionately building His church, and how we're called to love it as He does. The church isn't just a building or an organization, but a living, breathing body of believers connected to Christ and each other.
Notes for this sermon: https://bit.ly/4cgxqDw
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LIFE Church
Kingdom Builders Week 3
[MUSIC PLAYING] Thanks for listening to The Life Church podcast. We hope you enjoy this message. For more information about Life Church, visit lifecherichww.com. I get the great opportunity of introducing one of my dear friends, who my wife and I have known for many, many years, and was our guest speaker at our men's camp, and is our guest speaker today at Life Church. And I need you to know a little bit about who this man is and his family. He's been in ministry for about 31 years. He has been married for 24. He has four amazing kids, amazing life. I'll let him introduce them to you. He has just recently taken over the lead pastoring position at a church in Spokane called Victory Faith. And you know his pastor. We share the same pastor, his pastor who led the church and has now turned it over to him. Has also been somebody that has been a pastor in my life. Craig Lott, so you guys know who he is. He's ministered here. So we have that in common, we're brothers. And he's a father in the faith. But I need you to know this. Pastor Trevor is an incredible, incredible man of God. He's not very good at pickleball, but he's really good at preaching. He's really good at preaching, but I still appreciate who this is. And I'm really particular about whoever feeds you, the word of God. I make sure that I kind of vet them to bring them to you. And here's somebody that has just been so dear to us. We get to spend time together throughout the year in different venues and church settings and conferences together. And we've been able to be at their church and we think this is their first time on a Sunday morning here. And I'm just so excited that Pastor Trevor gets to come preach the word. I need you to know this guy has got this prophetic gift on him. He knows how to preach God's word and you are going to be blessed today. So come on, Pendleton, wall-of-wall, stand to your feet right now. Welcome, Pastor Trevor. See you man. (audience cheering) (upbeat music) - All right, amen. I don't know how to live up to that, but I'll give it my best. Hey, it's so good to be with you. What's up Pendleton? Man, this is, it's amazing. And it's a joy and an honor for us to be here. Pastor Bob and Kara have been people that we've looked up to and still look up to in so many ways. And specifically in the area of how you guys have raised your family. And we're a little bit behind in the years of our children, but we've seen the fruit of your kids being raised in the house of God. And we just looked to be able to model a lot of our parenting, a lot of how we do church as a family from you guys. All your children love God. They love the house of the Lord. And I don't know what, Pastor Bob, what you eat or drink that keeps you at this point where you never age. (audience laughing) I don't know what it is. And then I challenge you to a pickleball one on one on one. One on one after church in the parking lot for all to see. (audience cheering) That would be amazing. That would be amazing. I wouldn't want to embarrass you in front of your congregation, but I'm just kidding. My beautiful wife's here of 24 years. I married out of my league. I married her before she understood what was happening. It's amazing. And my four children, just to give you a window into understanding my children quickly, when they were little and probably even today, if we were to go into, say, Bright's Candy Shop, and we were to say, okay, kids, you get to choose one piece of candy. Isaac, who's 16, my boy, he would go in and he would be decisive, he would go in, he would choose his piece very quickly, okay? Destiny is 14. And Destiny's the negotiator and the lawyer in the family. And so she would try and negotiate, whether I really meant one or could one be two. Anybody got one of those in your family? Maybe you are that child. Justice, who is the baby and everybody's favorite, and he knows it, he would come up with like the 40 or 50-pound gummy bear. Technically, you said one piece of candy and he would get his way. Raima, who was our first born, would be fasting and praying while we're out for lunch, afterwards, trying to decide which piece of candy is the will of God for her life. And that kind of gives you a window into my real world. So, but Destiny, Destiny is the planner in the family. She's always been the planner. She always wants to know the plan and she wants to make sure that everybody sticks to the plan. How many planners do we have here? Pendleton, where are you? Yeah, and I get, like, listen, we respect you. I respect you, I don't understand you, but I respect you. And we need you, we need you to plan, but the problem with Destiny is like, if you break the plan, there's a side to Destiny that emerges. And we've created a phrase of blessing and we call it our animated feeler, if you understand what I'm saying. I mean, it's very animated. She just wants us to stick to the plan. I love the season you guys are in as a church and what God is highlighting. Pastor Bob shared Matthew chapter 16 last week, Jesus words. He said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And we're like, what's the plan, God? What's the plan? And he's like, the plan has always been the same. It's never changed. It was the same. When I walked the earth, it was the same. With the disciples, it's been the same through all of human history. The plan is simple. I'm gonna build my church and my church is gonna preach the gospel to the world. And it's through my church that the kingdom of God is gonna be established in the earth. So we're looking for something fresh. We're looking for something new and God's like just stick to the plan. Ephesians chapter five. Says, husbands, love your wives. That's a good word. Just as, notice the words, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for the church. Why, to make the church holy and to cleanse her by washing with water through the word and to present her, the church, to himself as not just an ordinary, a radiant church without stain, without wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. See, Jesus, the only thing in the New Testament we hear him saying about himself that he's building is the church and Jesus deeply loves the church. And I think something God wants to put inside of our heart is he wants us to love the local church, to love the church that we're planted in in the same manner that Jesus did. And he was willing to give his very life, his time, his energy. Jesus was all in for the church. And yet we've all heard people say, and maybe you've even said it. I love Jesus, but I don't love the church. I love Jesus, but I don't love the church. Listen, if you invited me after service and said Pastor Trevor, I would love for you to come over to my house for dinner. My wife and I, our family, we'd love to invite you over to our house for a steak dinner. We know that's your favorite food, and we'd love to do that, and we like you. We think you're funny. We think you're really good at pickleball, contrary to popular belief. And we think, we just think you're amazing. We'd like to invite you over. I'm like, man, my wife and I would love to come. No, no, no, no, we want you to come. We don't want your wife to come. See, here's the problem, Pastor Trevor. We don't really like your wife. She's kind of irritating, you know, the way, and I think that whole, like, love everybody and be kind. I think it's kind of fake. And we don't like your wife. Guess who's not coming over to your house for dinner? 'Cause if you don't like my wife, then you and I got a problem. Like, we're not good, we're not good. And if you decide to talk bad about my wife, I will punch you right in the throat. (audience applauding) And yet in the same breath, we have people all over the place saying, I love God, but speaking bad about the church, speaking bad about leadership, saying, I don't love the church, and Jesus is looking saying, no, no, no, you don't understand, I love my bride, I love my church. And if you love me, you're gonna love what I love. But man, you don't know, man, I've been hurt inside the church. Well, welcome to the club who hasn't been hurt inside of a church. And where do you get healed? You get healed from your church hurt in a healthy church. And we could just do an altar call right now. I love, we've raised our four kids in the house of God. And we've drug them to youth meeting, after youth meeting, and youth camps, and summer camps, and conferences, and everything. And as babies, when they couldn't understand, but their spirits were soaking in the presence of God, and they would crawl under their chairs, and they would fall asleep, maybe like baby Samuel, in the presence of the Lord. And they grew up in that environment, but I can testify this, my kids love church, not because they have to, they love Jesus, not because mom and dad do, because they love Jesus, and they love church, so much so, that a few years ago, we decided to do a staycation, which is a horrible decision. I don't think anybody should stay in their own home, because there's all this work to be done, and the real life, right? But we did a staycation, and so the kids are like, we're going to church on Sunday, right? And I'm like, no, we're not going to church, this dad's work, and no, we're not going, I'm taking the day off. Well, and you would have thought, I told them that there's no more breath available for them to breathe. What do you mean? That's not fair, just 'cause you don't wanna go to church, doesn't mean we don't get to go to church, our friends are at church, we love church, we wanna go to church. Fine, everybody load up in the minivan, and we drive to the front doors, and we open the slider, and all four of them get out, you can go to church. Mom and I are going out for breakfast. True story, 'cause they love the church. My question for us is, do we love the church? Do you love the church that you're planted in? And it's easy to say, I love, but it's proved by how we live our lives sacrificially for the bride. So I wanna look at two pictures of the church in the New Testament, that tell us different things about who the church is meant to be. The first of those is where the New Testament talks about the church as a building. It uses that building language in Ephesians, chapter two, and first Peter chapter two, and I want you to notice as we read through this, all of the relational language and people involved and all of the building language that's merged together. So let's look at it together. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners or strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people, members of his household built on the foundation of the apostles, the prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone, and in him, in Christ, the whole building is joined together and rises, notice these words, rises to become a holy temple in the Lord, and in him, Jesus, you are being built together, better together, being built together to what? To become the dwelling in which God lives by his spirits. First Peter chapter two. As you come to him, the living stone, Jesus, rejected by humans but chosen by God, precious to him, you also like living stones. Stones that are alive are being built into what? A spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. He talks about the church as a structure, as a building, and I want you to notice something about the building. There is Jesus the chief cornerstone, from whom the whole rest of the building gets all of its dimensions and all of its alignment, and notice it is my individual life that is drawn as a living stone, drawn to Jesus in relationship to the cornerstone. But it's not just me singularly as I connect to Christ, my wife connects to Christ, you connect to Christ, we all connect together, but we're not just connected to the cornerstone, we are connected to one another. Think about a brick building, our house is a brick house, and I want you to think about the layers that are all there, and ask yourself if you just pick out one brick in the middle of a wall, how committed is that brick? How committed is that brick? It is committed to all the other bricks around it. It is supporting bricks, it is being supported by other bricks, it is running life alongside of other bricks, and this picture is our connection to Christ and our connection to one another. And I want you to notice that the building is rigid, immovable, and unchanging. It doesn't change, it's solid, it's immovable, and it's unchanging because our commitment to Christ and our commitment to one another should be non-negotiable. You don't get to change that, it's high commitment. You don't get to bow out, you stay committed, and this is what Jesus is building. Let me show you what the church is not. Sometimes we just, we do a little of that. This is not the church. This is a very loose group of people that almost nobody like these guys are starting to get it right. Right there, those two people have paired up, but this is not the church. This is a group of people that are loosely connected. This is not the dwelling place of God. Jesus said, I will build my church. That you could call church all day long, but Jesus looks at it and he goes, that's being built by humans, that's not being built by me, that's not church. (congregation applauding) You ever heard someone say, man, I am the church. I don't need the church, I don't need the church, man. I am the church. You're not the church. Church is plural. You're not the church. The church is a group of people we heard last week, called together for a very specific purpose to accomplish a very specific purpose in the earth. It is a group called together. You are not the church individually. And what happens is we like this because this is the old way we lived, very individualistic, right? Very self-consumed. But what happens is when you have to be built together, suddenly the personality of people that you don't like begins to rub you the wrong way. Different gift mixes, different ideas, different philosophies, different thoughts. And why would God wanna do that? Because that's where the fruit of the Holy Spirit grows. Connected, nobody grows good in isolation. We grow best when we are fitted together one to another. This is the being side of the church. It is our relationship to Christ and our relationship to one another. These old words came to me this week from a Jason Upton song. He says this, he says, "Better trash our idols "if we wanna be in the army of the Lord." Come on, we all wanna be in the army of the Lord, right? We all do, we're like, "God, I wanna be in your army." He says, "Well, if you wanna be in my army, "you better trash your idols." We're like, "Okay, okay, what do I gotta deal with?" And he goes on, he says, "The greatest idol is you and me. "We better get on the threshing floor." This is what stops me from being committed to the local church, would be my individualistic, American way of life. Listen, we live in a great nation that has a lot of great attributes. But when the attributes of the nation that we live in go against the kingdom principles, we are kingdom first and American second. And I am proud to be, I'm proud to be a Canadian who has now become an American, who has renounced my country, and now I'm in the land of the free and owned guns. I love that, I love that freedom, I love that place. But listen to me, there are some things about our country, some things that we celebrate, and one of those being individualism to the highest degree and self, and that doesn't work with the Bible. And God knows that we need one another. What's the first problem we see in the scripture? Most people would say, Adam and Eve, they sinned, that's the first problem. That is not the first problem in scripture. God looked at creation in the creation account in Genesis, and six times he looks at everything. He's kind of complimenting himself, which is awesome. Holy Spirit's there, Jesus is there. He's making stuff, he's like, "That's good!" That is very good. Did you guys see that? This is awesome. I mean, he is encouraging himself. Six times he says, "This is good." And he looks and he says, "This is not good. It's not good for man to be alone." The first problem in the Bible was isolation. But you're like, but Adam wasn't alone. Adam had God. He absolutely did have God. And notice the implications of this. God is with him, his immediate power, presence. He can talk with God, he can walk with God, he can get everything he needs from God. And God looks at it and he says, "But that's not enough! That's not enough. It's not good you need someone with skin on. You need a human to do life with, to be married with, to build a family with, to build a community with. It's not good for you to be alone. I just need Jesus, man. It's just me and Jesus. That's all I need. And that's absolutely not true. To be saved, Jesus is all you need. Absolutely. To be saved from your sin, to be reconciled to God, Jesus is all you need. Absolutely. But to do life, Jesus is not all you need. Jesus built us together on purpose. Why? Because we need one another. This is where we get strengthened. This is where we get built. This is where we get encouraged together, committed in relationship. Consider all the New Testament letters. They are not written to individuals. They are written to groups of Christians, local churches in the New Testament. There are 33 local churches, seven regional churches. Why? Because that's what Jesus is building. That's what he's going after. Is that unified place. And notice when we get that going on, when we are devoted to the Lord and devoted to relationship with one another, it says in that context, we begin to, as the church begin to be the dwelling place for the tangible presence of God. When we build relationally like that, God comes and sits down in it. That doesn't happen just on a Sunday. Sunday's big church. Life groups are small church. Both of those are found in the New Testament, and half the New Testament model is meeting together in homes. And if we don't do that side of church well, we won't really continue to do this very well. It's a big push today to get connected to a life group. Everybody needs to be in a life group. Everybody needs to be connected. We all need that. And you're like, but I feel pretty healthy. Well, maybe if you feel so good that you could show up on behalf of those who are not good, and you could be a leader to be able to help somebody else. Right? That's what we do. We give and we get. We begin to be the dwelling place of God. When we get unity, when we get connectedness, that's where miracles begin to break out. We're an incredible season as a church. I feel like we're just at home here with the worship and the prophetic, but we are seeing more people saved than we've ever seen before. We are seeing a great return of prodigal sons and daughters. We are seeing ridiculous miracles that the Lord is doing. It's beautiful. Cancer being healed. People being set free from things that have plagued their lives for years. And you are experiencing the same thing, and the question is why? Because God is good, but God comes and sits down where brethren dwell together in unity. Where we are devoted and committed to one another. And somebody is going to offend you. And when they do, you have to say, I'm a part of something that is rigid, unmoving, and unchanging. And I don't get the option to just whimsically bow out and leave because somebody hurt me. What I do is I stay and I have a deep conversation, and we deal with it, and we grow together. It's not easy. Jesus never said it would be easy. I pastor and people absolutely irritate me. The highest level. I love people depending on the day. No, for real. I'm like, I love people. It's why I do ministry. And I'm like, why do I do ministry? People are so mean. Come on, we're all pretty complicated. And we all need one another, the church as a building. The church as a body is the second thing I want to look at. And I want you to notice the contrast. The body, this visual image as we read the description, the body can move. The body is not rigid, it is flexible. Very different than the solid structure of the building and our relationships. Over here, we've got this very fluid moving body, which is the function of the church. Over here, we have our being, over here, we have our doing. That's what it is, our function as God's people. First Corinthians chapter 12. Just as the body is one, and as many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit, we're all baptized into one body. Jews are Greek, slaves are free, and all were made to drink of the one spirit. For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. Ephesians 4 verse 16. From him, Jesus, the whole body joined together and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love as each part, notice, as each part does its work. There's a job that God has called us to do. There are giftings and callings that are in every single one of our lives. Every single one of us is a different part of the body, and meant to do something significant together with others in the earth. And we can't do it on our own. The hand by itself can't accomplish without the rest of the body, nor can the eye, nor can the ear. And we all are a different part, but it is in our togetherness that we actually can do what God has called us to do. But notice, if we are not connected relationally, and unconditional love is not a high commitment, we will begin to do things, and the enemy will obliterate the church, because we're not committed to one another. Just so a little bit of discord, and it all falls apart. But once we're committed, that's where we get to engage, and that's where we get to, as Jesus did, give our lives for other people. Mark 10, Jesus called them together and said, "You know those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles, they lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them, not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant. Whoever wants to be first must be slave of all." For even the Son of Man, notice these words talking about Jesus, even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Jesus existed for other people. Jesus' mission was to serve the world that He came, to find people in their brokenness and minister to them, and that is the job and the function of the church. Not just the lead pastor, not just the elders, not just the directors, right? Not just the team leads, but every single one of us working together. And when a church can get this going on, a church will, these two things, a church will be unstoppable. Everybody connected and everybody using their giftings and their callings to accomplish the will of God. To preach the gospel, we all preach it. To disciple people, we should all be discipling people. To make Sundays happen, to join a serve team in everything together, providing a place where people can encounter Jesus. At our church back home, it takes 180 Sunday volunteers to make our two services happen. 180 people that will show up and serve and take the gifting and the calling inside of them and use it on behalf of other people. And nothing is insignificant. Well, I just make coffee. That's not insignificant, because someone gets a warm cup of coffee and it tastes really good, and suddenly they begin to settle down because they're so scared to come to church for the first time. And well, I just greet people. Well, yeah, absolutely, that's powerful. Somebody gets a conversation that makes them feel so seen and so loved that they're like, "I haven't felt that anywhere. I'm coming back to that place." I mean, the preaching was good, but I'll tell you what I felt when that person talked to me and asked those questions, and then I came back the second week and they asked me about my grandma and what was going on in my life like, "Man, that's irresistible." All the different gifts that God has put inside of us, the creative gifts, some have them, some don't, but if you have them, then you use them. The administrative gift, we love that, then we use that. The serving gift, the gift of hospitality, and the list could go on and on and on and on. Everybody doing the work together, it is the doing side of the church, reaching people, serve, serve day, serving the community, running life groups, serving in children's ministry, serving on the youth team. You're like, "I'm 70. Join the team, man. I'll tell you one thing. I'll tell you one thing that young people need. Young people don't just need young leaders at a youth ministry. I did youth ministry for 23 years. What young people need is to see a grandma or a grandpa on that team who for the last 60 years of their life have been praying, worshiping, running after God, and you might not have the same energy that you had, but they need to see in your eyes and in your words and in your spirit, young little 15-year-old, I am burning way hotter for Jesus than you are. Don't be fooled by my lack of energy. I am burning way hotter for you. If you've been serving Jesus for a long period of time and are doing it right, you are the ones who are the most committed and the most on fire for God. The longer I serve Him, the more I love Him, every single one of us serving on behalf of people. Why do we exist? Two things. Love God and love people. Man, we've overcomplicated it. So many books written on so many things. Two things. Two things. Just we could just love God extravagantly. Love each other and love everybody else. And by loving other people, it's where we serve. It's where we give our lives for somebody else because somebody gave their life for us. We make space. We make room. It's an honor to spend our money. It's an honor to spend our time. It's an honor to open up our homes because somebody did that for me and that caused me to know Jesus and I get to do the same. I get to return the favor. Do you know that every year in America, we spend over $8 billion in sports memorabilia, hats and shirts and all of that. And I love sports. I love football. And it's like we buy all this stuff so we can sit in the stands and watch the game. Or we sit on our couch and we watch the game. For most of us, a game we've never played. And we yell at them as though we're the expert. And the call, I can't believe that and why'd you hire that person? How'd you drop that ball? Why didn't you pass the ball? Why did you pass the ball and not run the ball? But we're not in the game. There's a big difference between being in the stands and being on the field. Taking a hit and judging the hit. Spectating versus being engaged. Looking the parts. I'm a shirt. I'm a hat. I'm a shoes. I'm a socks. I'm all in. And we look the part. But no movement. No change. Almost like, remember when Goliath had come out and challenged Israel for 40 days? It says that Israel went out every single day for 40 days, dressed for battle. They formed the battle line. And it says, go back and read it. It says they raised the battle cry. And then nobody entered the battlefield. And they looked the part. But looking the part doesn't change anything. And a little David said, I'm going to do something. I'm going to step onto the field. See, if God has moved you and done something in you, I believe biblically that we are all required to then engage and steward the giftings and the callings that God has placed inside of us and to do that on behalf of others. And there's no greater joy than that. To lay down your life for somebody else. And it's not just where you're gifted. Sometimes it's just finding a need. I got to really feel called to kids ministry. Well, you've been hearing for the last four weeks, perhaps, that there's a need there. And you could just fill that need temporarily. I mean, you don't have to feel called specifically to it. You're called to the church. And here's where it changes. Rather than it just being, you know, this sense of, you know, it's the church I attend. I'm just, I'm doing my best to serve Pastor Bob and Kara's vision. And that sounds good. But what about owning the vision? What if it was more than just serving somebody else's vision? What if that vision got inside of you? And you said, that's my vision. That's my vision. I serve because it's my vision. Like I own it. I embody that. I resonate with that. And that's very different. There's garbage in the parking lot. And you're like, this is my church. And I'm going to pick up that piece of garbage. There's a need over here. I'm going to help do that. That's, that's a dangerous church. Engaged. God is calling us together more than ever before to be that beacon of hope and life for the world. And people are so broken and they are looking for a place of hope and a place of life. They are looking for, for the stories of your life and my life that have been transformed by Jesus that can give them hope for their own story. And we need everybody engaged, everybody relationally committed and everybody finding a place to serve, to give. I'll end with this story. Justice, our youngest, well all our kids serve in kids ministry. But justice was not able to serve in kids ministry yet because it was only nine years old. And in our church you can start, you can be like a junior helper when you're 10. And the very day that he turned 10, he was so excited like bubbling over. You remember that? He was freaking out to go up to Pastor Ellie and say, I'm finally 10 years old. I want to join victory kids. And you might be like, well that's cute. That is more than cute. That is somebody at the age of nine or 10 years old getting the revelation that you have a part to play in building the local church. And you can serve somebody a little bit younger than you. You can play with some kids in some classrooms and you can be somebody that they look up to in your life. So the question we should ask ourselves I think this morning is, are you connected relationally and where? Are you in a life group? If you are not, I know at the end there's opportunity today is the sign up day. You need to join a group in my opinion. My wife and I lead a group and it's one of the greatest things that we do. We call them life groups as well. And with what God has put inside of you with your personality and who you are as a person, are you actively engaged somewhere and contributing and serving? You close your eyes with me this morning. I want to ask you one more question. If you're here and you don't know Jesus and you want to connect to that cornerstone, you want to give your life to him. You're not right with him. You've wandered away from him. You need to put your, you need to come back to the Lord. You're at our other campus in Pendleton and you're in that spot and you want to say yes to Jesus. Just look up at me. Give me a little wave with your hand and say, you know what, Pastor, that's me. Thank you. Thank you. At the other campus, you've got your campus director there. They're looking out right now. Just give them a wave. That's me. That's me. How many, how many other people? I love it. So many just saying yes to Jesus. I want to lead us in a quick prayer. And for those that are praying this, I mean, we all want to pray it together as a church, but for those who are making this decision, I want you to pray this with every bit of faith that you have, putting your heart to these words. So pray with me. Jesus, I acknowledge I need you in my life. I confess that I'm a sinner and I'm in need of your grace and I receive your grace this morning by faith. I yield my life to you, Jesus. I say yes to you, to be my Lord, to be my God. I commit myself to you in Jesus' name. Amen. Come on. Let's put our hands together for those that made that decision. Thank you for listening to the Life Church podcast. We want to help you on your journey of finding the life you remain for. Please visit lifechurchwww.com to take your next step and connect with us. [BLANK_AUDIO]