Building A Culture That Combats The Enemy's Schemes

I want to talk to you this morning about building a culture that combats the enemy schemes.

Building a culture that combats the enemy schemes.

Talked about some of these things, or a lot of these things at Bellicose the last couple weeks.

So if you guys heard that, it's going to be some similar stuff, but hopefully specifically to our church, Christ Church.

So, essentially, you know, we're in the first few months of this church plant.

And a lot of what we're building into it now will be stuff that will be just caught more in the future than it will be intentionally built.

Culture is caught.

And so there's certain things that when we're intentional to build into our culture now, eventually we won't have to try very hard to build them.

And new people will come in and just be, oh, this is normal.

This is what you do.

And that's the benefit of culture.

That's also the drawback of culture.

Because when you build the wrong things, people catch the wrong thing.

Okay?

So, this time of our church life, building into kind of the wet cement of our foundation, is really important that we build well.

And that verse says, the one that I preached on when we sent you guys all off, that we should be careful how we build.

Okay?

Okay?

And so, when we're culture building, it's good for us to think, though, too, it's oftentimes we think, oh, the culture of our church will be determined by the culture of our church.

Sounds redundant.

But really, there's two kind of things that factor into it.

One, the culture of our own homes always affects the household of God.

Okay?

Does that make sense?

So, like, the qualifications for an overseer and elder in 1 Timothy 3.

He, speaking of an overseer, must manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.

For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care for God's church?

Okay?

And then he says later in verse 12, when he's talking about deacons, similar thing.

Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well.

Later, in verse 15, he says, he speaks of the church as the household of God, which is the church of the living God.

Okay?

The household of God, which is the church of the living God.

And so, oftentimes, we've gotten into this deception that we can separate the household, our own household, from the household of God.

When in God's economy, in his scriptures, he's saying, if you can't care for your own household, you can't care for the household of God.

And so, ultimately, when we're building into the culture of a church, we're always building on those two fronts.

We're building in households and then the household of God.

And you can't just build the household of God and not pay attention to your own household.

The household, your personal household comes first in divine order, according to 1 Timothy 3,

in order for the culture of the household of God to be what it's supposed to be.

You can't care for the household of God if you don't care first for your own household.

And so, a lot of this starts off with us just saying, okay, we need to make sure we're building these things.

There are demonic schemes against us.

The devil has a vision to thwart what God is doing.

And one of the main ways we combat it is by having a house in order, both our personal house, and then a household of God in order.

Does that make sense?

You follow me on that?

Okay.

So, but I wanted to go into a little bit more specific of what the schemes of the devil are that I see really coming at us right now.

And I think it's important for us.

He's not going to be new to you, but I think when we talk about it together, it kind of opens our eyes to see what we're up against

and maybe give us a little bit more sobriety.

So, 2 Corinthians 10, I mean, sorry, 2 Corinthians 2, 10 to 11, in the NIV says,

Anyone you forgive, I also forgive.

And what I have forgiven, if there was anything to forgive, I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake,

in order, okay, so answering the question why, in order that Satan might not outwit us, for we are not unaware of his schemes.

Okay.

The devil has schemes.

Okay.

We shouldn't be outwitted by his schemes.

In other words, we should know what his schemes are.

We should not be unaware of them.

Ephesians 6, 11 says, put on the whole armor of God.

Why?

So that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

There are demonic schemes that are against us, and we are to stand against them.

Okay.

So, the way I kind of envision this and see this is that there's three things that the devil has been throwing at us and our culture big time these days.

First one is trying to get us, all three of them are isolated, fruitless consumers.

Okay.

The devil is trying to get us isolated.

He's trying to get us to not bear fruit.

And he's trying to get us to just only think about consuming.

This is kind of an onslaught of our culture.

It's coming at us harder than ever before.

And if we're not aware of it, it'll come into the church as well.

And I'll talk about that in a second as well.

So, first one, isolated.

You see this all over in kind of our culture.

You see it with social media.

You can be in the same room with a bunch of people, and everybody's on their phones, right?

It just, it isolates us.

I'm not saying that means that that's bad in and of itself.

In fact, a lot of times what it's really just exposing is what's inside of us rather than the evil of, like, social media.

It's really the evil in our own hearts that gravitates towards that isolation.

That's the desire of our flesh, to not care about other people, to only care about ourselves.

Social media, you see this in what's happening with the government shutdowns that we had with COVID, all isolation, where it's basically built into us now for us to be used to that.

It didn't really, there wasn't a whole lot of opposition to it because this is our culture now.

You see this in entertainment, with our phones, with the epidemic of loneliness.

If you just look up news articles on loneliness, it's at epidemic proportions, where most people are feeling lonely.

Most people are feeling isolated.

And this is a demonic strategy.

This is not an accident.

The devil wants you to feel isolated.

And it's crept into the church as well.

You have people who are part of churches, but they have no friends.

That is absolutely asinine and absurd.

Like, that makes no sense whatsoever.

And that's ipso facto not the church as well, okay?

You cannot have a church where you don't have friends.

That's not church.

You can call it a million other things, but don't call it church, okay?

But this is the devil's strategy.

Like, yeah, I'm a part of this church.

Do you have any friends there?

No.

What?

Right?

Like, this is, and you might think, well, yeah, I would never do that.

But I'm telling you, in the name of church, this is happening all over the place.

Elders who aren't friends.

You have pastors and elders who are a team of elders, and they don't have a relationship.

They're not friends.

They're just, they're professionals.

Okay, this, it's, comes into the church where we don't act like family, okay?

We're, we're, we want community, so to speak, and that's what everybody says.

I've heard so many people that come to church, they say, oh, I'm looking for community.

All right?

Well, there's nothing distinctly Christian about community.

You can get community anywhere.

There is something distinctly Christian about the family of God.

God creates family.

The devil tries to counterfeit it.

He's the father of lies.

And his version of church is a counterfeit family where we're not friends and where we're not connected and where we're still isolated, but we call it community.

That's dangerous.

All right?

This is the, this is the strategy.

We saw this infiltrating the church when the church just played dead and just did whatever the government wanted to do with these government shutdowns and just stopped meeting.

You know?

The church you guys were sent out of?

I mean, I remember multiple people coming to Bellicose Church, and they were coming from other churches.

I'm just like, why are these people coming from other churches?

What is going on with other churches?

And they literally say, I remember people saying, I have not heard from my church in any way, shape, or form for three months.

How does that even happen?

All right?

But again, it's a demonic strategy.

Isolated.

Get people isolated.

Get the church isolated.

People who think that church is just an optional thing, that church is, as long as I get a certain level of community or a certain level of preaching, it doesn't really matter what it looks like.

And so I can substitute with podcasts and just make sure I get together with people who are my friends here and there.

But that's not the church.

Okay?

The church is specific things.

The church is a family, a body, an army, salt, light.

The church is a house of prayer.

It's many other things.

And so we can't just do, you know, kind of our own version of church and say, oh, I have community, and I get some preaching on a podcast, and that's church.

That's not church.

And you wouldn't find anything like that in the Bible.

But again, that is a demonic strategy to get you isolated and think, oh, I'm fine.

I have community.

I have preaching.

Therefore, I have church.

You absolutely don't have church if you have that.

You do not.

And I think the Bible is clear on that.

You don't see anything like that in the book of Acts or anything in the epistles.

It's people being stuck in the same small group for 20 years, right, where it's like they never get any other people.

They've hit their friend limit.

They've hit their capacity for who they can know.

There's no mission.

It's just I want to grow old with this group of people, and our kids grow up together, and there's not a desire to be on mission to lost people.

It's a demonic strategy of isolation.

This kind of mentality that says I can only get to know so many people.

I can't get to know more than that.

I only have this certain friend limit that I could get.

It's all demonic strategy of isolation.

Second, fruitless.

We see this in the culture.

We see this with the scourge of abortion.

You see this on social media.

People trumpeting how awesome it is to be a double-income, no-kid family.

Saying how great that is, as if not having kids is the new cool thing to do.

Fruitlessness.

It's less people getting married than ever before.

This is the first time in American history where more people don't get married than do.

And it's all the demonic strategy of fruitlessness.

You see this with the rampant rise of homosexuality.

Again, what is it doing?

Homosexual couples can't have kids.

It's fruitless.

It's all a strategy together.

The amount of people exalting career over fruitfulness and over family.

Exalting making money.

You see this even with the trans movement where we're literally, now it's to the point

where we're cutting off the actual parts of our body that were meant to bear fruit with

children.

I mean, think about this.

It's a demonic strategy.

It's a demonic strategy.

And it's crept into the church.

It's crept into the church as well.

Where the church just becomes attenders and observers.

I'm not bearing fruit myself.

I just consume the fruit of others.

I just attend.

I just observe.

I don't produce value.

I'm not expected to produce value.

I'm not expected to bear responsibility.

I just come to the dog and pony show, put my money in the plate and leave.

I consume things as products.

I'm getting to the next point.

Stay focused here.

Fruitless, right?

Not producing value.

People who can't be counted on.

Not having or valuing kids.

Not valuing marriage.

Not going after marriage.

It's just, it's crept into the church where fruitlessness is becoming more and more normal.

Becoming more and more normal.

And this is not okay.

We can't let this creep in.

We can't, we have to fight this with everything within us.

Okay?

He said to us in Genesis, he said, be fruitful and multiply.

He said, bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

The church should bear fruit.

The church should not be isolated.

The church should not be fruitless.

And the church should not be marked by consumption.

Okay?

We see this in our culture.

Number three, consumers.

Just the selfish, narcissistic kind of culture.

Some of you maybe heard me say this before, but there was literally someone, I think, in

Europe a couple years ago who married themself.

I mean, talk about in the last days, there will be lovers of themselves.

Like this woman literally married herself.

Don't even know how that is a thing, but it was a thing.

Like we've literally reached that point where someone married themself.

Okay?

This is the pinnacle of selfish, narcissistic behavior and thinking, but it's all demonic

strategy to just have consumption be what you exist for.

I exist to consume.

You exist to consume.

That's what the devil's trying to get into our hearts and minds.

Okay?

Where it's just, I don't exist for another person.

I don't even think about marriage.

I'm just thinking about what I can consume.

You have men, there's women who'd love to marry a guy and these guys are just like, what

in the world?

Like you literally just exist for yourself.

How in the world could I ever marry you because you're so full of yourself?

I would never trust you to be someone who could be in a family.

And it's the same thing with women as well, where there's men who would love to get married,

but women who just are living for their own narcissistic pleasure.

Okay?

Not thinking about what it means to be someone who gives of themselves.

It's kind of a culture of permanent adolescence.

We're living in Neverland.

Okay?

Where nobody grows up.

Everybody just continues to stay in this perpetual state of adolescence.

We've come up with this new phrase called adultalescence, where it's just basically another excuse for people to live like kids while on into their old age.

Right?

And this has become normative.

A culture basically drunk on entertainment and pornography.

Right?

We just consume entertainment, consume entertainment, consume pornography.

It's like, how many shows can I watch?

How many movies can I take in?

How many podcasts can I consume?

How much pornography can I consume?

Whatever.

It's just me, me, me.

Consume, consume, consume.

And it's corrupted in the church as well.

Basically where you have a primarily receiving, not partnering kind of mentality when it comes to the church.

I'm not bearing responsibility and I'm not partnering together.

Where it becomes normative to complain about the church, to beat up the church.

Everyone thinks it's so fun to say how bad the church is.

Well, how about making it better?

How about being a group of people that says, I'm not going to complain about the church.

I'm going to put my money where my mouth is, so to speak.

I'm actually going to get in the ring and do something about it.

It's very easy to criticize people from the stands.

It's very hard to get in the ring and actually do something about it.

Who are going to be the people who get in the ring when it comes to the church?

It's the kind of people in the church who are upset with change that makes them uncomfortable.

Where worship, preaching, and child care become commodities that you consume.

You know, kind of the Holy Trinity of church planting.

It's like you have this worship experience that I can consume.

And then we say things like, oh, how was worship?

Ah, it wasn't very good.

You know, it's just like, wait a second.

Worship doesn't exist for you.

Worship is for the Lord.

It's not a product that you consume and determine whether it's good or bad.

It's something you give of yourself.

Okay?

And so we determine whether or not I'm church shopping.

I'm looking for a good worship experience, good child care experience, and good preaching.

And basically, I'm always rating it to see how it is.

Instead of saying, the church is people, and I'm not meant to consume, I'm meant to be someone who bears fruit and provides things of value.

And essentially, the church ends up being drunk on the same entertainment and pornography that the world is.

This is a three-fold demonic vision.

These are schemes that we should not be unaware of.

Okay?

We're talking about the devil trying to get us isolated, trying to get us not bearing fruit, and trying to be consumers.

All right?

Basically, sacrificing fruitfulness for our own desires.

Don't be so naive as to think that none of this has touched us.

All right?

Don't be so naive.

It's touched all of us.

We are in this culture.

It affects us.

Okay?

And so you can't just say, oh, that's not me.

You're a fool if you say that.

You have to be wise enough to say, this has affected me in some way, and I need to make sure that I am on the offensive as the church.

In my own household and in the house of God.

All right?

Which is why our mission and vision is the kingdom of God and all of life together.

Okay?

This is basically an assault against these three things.

Right?

The kingdom of God is about bearing fruit and producing value.

All right?

Seeking first the kingdom of God, it will have the fruit of the spirit.

It will have...

When you're seeking first God's kingdom, fruit is normative.

Okay?

Producing value is normative.

The actual substance of Christ is normative.

All right?

When we seek first the kingdom of God.

If we don't seek first the kingdom of God, it won't be.

We have to seek God's kingdom first.

Secondly, we ought to seek his kingdom in all of life.

Which is the kind of combating the selfish kind of mindset.

Church gets really weird when Christ isn't all your life.

Okay?

It doesn't work.

It gets convoluted.

We start to kind of butt heads.

Because everything that God has built into church requires all your life.

When you try to function as if Christ isn't your life and that church is living for Jesus

is just a part of your life, it's never going to work the way it's supposed to.

It's never going to work the way it's supposed to.

Most problems in church can be pointed to that reality.

That we've made what's supposed to be an all of life thing into just a part of our life thing.

And we're just trying to make excuses for it.

Lastly, together.

The kingdom of God and all of life together.

Together.

Where we share vision.

We share priorities.

And we share responsibility.

Where we don't let people be alone and isolated.

Where we're literally saying, I'm not going to let you go through this alone.

I'm not going to let you go through hard times alone.

I'm going to seek to make sure that we are seeking the kingdom.

We're doing it all of life, but we're also doing it together.

It's not, we're seeking the kingdom.

We're doing it all of life.

But we kind of do it in our kind of compartmentalized separate little worlds.

No, we have to do it together.

And the language of togetherness is what you see in the book of Acts.

Right?

So, how do we build this?

How do we build a culture that combats the enemy's schemes?

Well, we have to take care of what we build.

You can build wood, hay, and stubble.

Or you can build gold, silver, and precious stones.

Right?

1 Corinthians 3 says,

Let each one take care how he builds upon the foundation of Christ.

For if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and straw,

each one's work will become manifest.

For the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire.

And the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive reward.

If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss.

Though he himself will be saved, but only as through the fire.

So, we have to ask ourselves, how are we going to build?

Okay?

How are we going to build?

It's a slower pace right now in this small little church plant.

Right?

It's a little more chill.

A little bit more relaxed.

Right?

Meeting in a...

What would you call this?

A shed.

Shed church.

Right?

We're meeting in a shed.

It's just a little bit more relaxed environment.

And there's things that are really beneficial about that.

But it's very important that we don't let that be...

Like, the...

We don't let that keep us from being on our spiritual toes.

And that we're not careful how we build.

We have to be careful how we build.

And we need to build with costly stones.

With gold and silver.

Not with wood, hay, and stubble.

And if we're not intentional in how we build,

we won't build things into the culture in these important days.

Like, it's not that what we build later won't be important.

It's that what you build on the front end

is what people are going to catch on the back end.

Okay?

And so what you're building now,

we have to be very careful how we build.

And this is the time when it's very easy not to be careful

because you think, well, there's just so much less at stake.

It's just this small group of believers

meeting in a shed and meeting in our homes.

It's like, no, you don't understand.

That's what the devil would want you to believe.

Actually, there's a ton at stake.

What you build into the foundation right now,

I mean, the church you guys were sent out of,

thinking of Bellicose 13 years later,

there are so many things that people catch now at that church

that were built intentionally in the beginning.

You guys are doing the hard work right now

of building into the culture

what you want to see later on,

what God wants to see later on.

And we have to be diligent to do those things.

So I got, don't worry, I'm going to fly through these,

but I got 13 things that I want us to,

things to avoid, wood, hay, and straw,

and then things to build, gold, silver, and precious stones.

Okay.

First one, avoid community without mission

and mission without community.

Avoid community without mission

and mission without community.

Okay.

Community without mission

is selfish, codependent, and complacent.

Okay.

It's not okay for us to just say,

oh, this is great.

We got our nice little group.

We got our little mission communities.

We're meeting in homes.

They're nice and small.

We got our small church.

Man, I love small church.

It's just nice and intimate and fun.

And then we forget that there's lost people out there.

It becomes selfish, codependent, and complacent.

We cannot have community without mission.

All right.

That's very important.

But also mission without community

forfeits one of the greatest apologetics for the gospel.

Jesus said, I want to make you fishers of men.

What's the net that you're catching those men into?

It's community.

It's deeper the community.

It's the family of God.

So we can't just say, oh, yeah, let's be on mission.

Let's be on mission.

And forget that to be diligent,

to cultivate a sense of family in the church

so that there's something to adopt them into.

God is a father who adopted us into his family

through the son, right?

And we need to be that family that people are adopted into.

Otherwise, we betray the gospel with our very existence.

Okay?

Got to be both.

We need to build mission and community.

Mission and community that goes deeper

than just community, but it's family.

All right?

We have to build both.

And we have to make sure that some of you

are going to be better than others

at detecting where we're missing that.

And you can't just say, well, oh, someone else will get it.

No.

If God is putting, if you're seeing that,

you have to speak up.

You're saying, oh, we have mission,

but we're lacking community.

We have to, you have to speak up and help insert that.

If we have a sense of community,

but we're not on mission,

and you're kind of angsty about that,

maybe that's because God has put that in your heart

to make sure that that's there.

Don't assume someone else has that.

Right?

Samir?

Avoid community without mission

and mission without community

and build missional community.

Build both.

Number two.

Okay?

Avoid inviting people to your missional community.

Avoid inviting people to your missional community.

What do I mean by that?

All right?

You can't invite someone to your missional community.

It's not possible.

Okay?

Because it's not a weekly meeting.

Right?

It's not a weekly meeting.

You can't go to it,

and it's not a night of the week.

You can invite people to a dinner.

You can invite people to a hangout.

You can invite people to a bonfire,

a men's or ladies get-together,

a game night,

a Bible or book study,

a kids' sports game.

You can invite people to play a sport.

You can invite people to a park night,

a movie night,

a camp out,

a weekend getaway,

a party,

a celebration,

a missional outreach,

but you cannot invite someone

to a missional community

because

a missional community is people.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Like you should,

as a church,

we should,

we function,

the smaller groups of people

in our church,

the way we organize the life

of our church,

where we do counseling,

where we do discipleship,

where we do the everyday stuff of life

with our church together,

where we share meals together,

where we watch each other's kids,

where we pray together.

Missional communities

are the small family believers

where we're doing mission together,

all these things.

Okay?

But you should never invite someone

to a missional community.

It's not possible.

You can invite people

to the life of the missional community,

and it could be all those things

that I just said.

Do you understand the difference?

It becomes really weird

when you say,

hey,

come to my MC.

First of all,

you have that weird,

like,

acronym language

that people are like,

why are you talking in acronyms?

That's weird.

Okay?

Just talk normal.

Why can't,

the church just needs to be normal

and just say,

hey,

we're having dinner

with some people from my church.

You want to come over?

Hey,

we're all getting together

in a park

and hanging out together

with some friends of ours

or some people from the church.

Would you like to come?

Hey,

we're going to hang out

and have a bonfire house,

make some s'mores.

Would you like to come?

Or we're going to go,

for the next eight weeks,

we're going to go through

this book of the Bible

or we're going to go through

this book

that someone else wrote

with some people from our church.

We'd love for you to come.

Do you see the difference?

You can build this

into the culture

of our church right away.

It's hard for people

to get around that.

I don't know at what point in time

the church became

all about inviting people

to meetings.

Like,

look at your,

read your Bible.

Read the book of Acts.

Is there ever a time

when someone is inviting

someone to a meeting

and that,

that's what,

that's like what the sum total

of churches become.

Hey,

come to a Sunday morning gathering.

It's just,

it's like we're,

we're basically

trading personal discipleship,

personal hospitality,

and personal evangelism

for a meeting invite.

At what point in time

did Christianity

just become about

meeting invites?

What we should be doing

is sharing our lives

with one another.

Paul said,

I share with you

not,

not only the gospel,

but our very lives.

And so we invite people

into our lives,

not to just a meeting

so that someone else

can do the work.

You can build that

into this culture

right from the get-go,

or we can get weird

and goofy

and invite people

to acronym language

and people are like,

what is this?

You guys are kind of weird.

Like,

how about we just be normal

and just invite things,

people into our lives

and get to know people.

And then when they do come,

and then maybe

when they show interest

or when they get saved

or whatever happens,

and then they want to come

on a Sunday morning,

we can say,

oh yeah,

come on Sunday morning.

You know,

so-and-so and so-and-so

and so-and-so.

You're not,

it's not going to be weird

and intimidating for you.

Does that make sense?

Build the people.

Don't just build meetings,

build the people.

This is what we need to do.

Number three,

avoid a one-home-centric

missional community.

Okay?

It's not a house church.

Missional communities

are not house churches.

Build a happy,

joyful hosting

among all or most.

A community that meets

in multiple homes.

Not just one,

sharing the load with everyone.

Not just one homeowner,

always willing to go

where the people

that it's on mission to are.

Okay?

We don't just want,

these missional communities

aren't house churches,

so it shouldn't just be

one home-centric.

And you might say,

well,

my home's not big enough.

Think of how weird

that would sound

to someone

who's meeting in the church

in some third world country

who meets in their home

that only is one room.

Like,

the whole house

is one room.

Think of how goofy

you would sound

when you say,

I can't meet in my,

you know,

1800 square foot home

because it's too small

and because my bathroom's outdated.

And their bathroom's

in a hole behind the house

out,

you know,

wherever.

That's goofy.

But that's how we as Americans talk.

Don't talk like that.

Open up your home.

Don't just let one person

be the one

who's doing that.

And by all means,

don't say,

well,

by all means too,

be able to meet in multiple homes

and train your children

to do as well.

Sometimes we've trained

our children

to only be able to meet

in our home

because we've childproof

our home.

We haven't taught our kids

how to function

in someone else's home.

That's not good.

Again,

this is something

you can build into the culture.

If you can only host people

in your home

because your kids

can only handle your home,

you're not training

your kids well.

You're not training

your kids for church

and you're not training

your kids for hospitality.

It's an important thing

to get into our kids.

And please don't use the excuse

while I'm not just hospitable.

Romans 12, 13.

Okay?

Contribute to the needs

of the saints

and seek to show hospitality.

1 Peter 4, 9.

Show hospitality

to one another

without grumbling.

This isn't an optional thing.

This is for all Christians.

We're all supposed

to show hospitality.

Yes, there's some people

with a gift of hospitality,

but everybody's supposed

to show hospitality.

Number four.

Avoid study-centric

missional community.

It's not primarily

a Bible or book study.

Okay?

You can and should do

studies in the Bible

or in other books,

but it can't just be that.

Okay?

We have to build discipleship

in all of life.

Deuteronomy 6, 6-9

is a great way

of thinking about this,

which it's talking

about the family,

but it should be

about the family

of God as well.

It says,

All these words

that I command you today

shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them

diligently to your children.

You shall talk of them

when you sit in your house

and when you walk by the way

and when you lie down

and when you rise.

You shall bind them

as a sign on your hand

and they shall be

as frontlets between your eyes.

You shall write them

on the doorposts

of your house

and on your gates.

Essentially,

it's saying

discipleship should be

an all of life thing.

It's not just,

you know,

well,

we have this little study

here and there.

We should be looking

for opportunities

to speak the truth

into people's life

in the everyday stuff

of life.

And that's where

it's most normal, right?

You're going through

something and say,

Hey, how are you handling that?

How's this going?

And if that becomes

a normative culture,

then our church,

when people come into the church,

they catch that.

Oh,

you don't just do

discipleship in official meetings.

You do do discipleship

in official meetings,

but you're also doing

it in the everyday stuff

of life.

I know I can count

on rich conversation

in discipleship

even when I'm not

at an official

Sunday morning meeting

or such.

And that should be normative.

You have the opportunity

to build that.

Will you build that?

Will you build discipleship

in all of life?

Number five,

avoid leader-centric

missional community.

Okay,

what I mean by this is

missional communities

where all the leadership

falls on one person

or one couple,

just the lead partners,

where you're almost

treating them like

mini elders

or they're viewing

themselves as that,

but rather building

partnership.

Partner-led

missional community

where multiple people

are bearing responsibility,

sharing the leadership

weight of responsibility

among all its partners.

Okay,

the lead partner

is the first among equals,

but all the partners

carry the weight together.

Okay,

Philippians 1,

3 to 5,

I thank my God

in all my remembrance

of you,

always in every prayer

of mine for you

all making my prayer

with joy because

of your partnership

in the gospel

from the first day

until now.

It should be partnership.

Okay,

it's so easy to just

have a couple leaders

leading the church

and having all the

responsibility on them.

And then it's saying,

oh,

I want community.

There is no such thing

as community

without responsibility

and accountability.

There's no such thing.

You cannot have

true accountability

or true family life

together

without shared responsibility

and accountability.

That has to be there.

That's absolutely necessary.

What are you going to build?

Are we going to build it

so we just farm it in?

We go to a gathering

together with our

missional community

and we go with

nothing to bring,

nothing on our hearts,

nothing,

not spirit-led.

We're just consumed

with our day

and we just show up

tired,

disinterested

and unengaged.

We show up on a Sunday morning.

It's just,

it's the worship team's job

and the preacher's job

to kind of do everything.

I'm just here.

I'm just consuming.

Are you coming?

Led by the Spirit saying,

hey,

I'm going to cultivate

a culture of giving,

a culture of shared responsibility,

a culture of partnership

so that everybody

who's in this church

going forward

will understand

this is how you do church.

This is normal.

For those of you

who have never experienced

church like that as normal,

you can.

You can.

I've seen it multiple times.

I'm not talking about

some unicorn here.

I'm talking about

normal Christianity.

This is what it's supposed

to be like.

Number six,

avoid one-person-centric

discipleship,

primarily one-on-one

discipleship,

but instead build

discipleship for

multiple people.

Okay?

Multiple people

through multiple gifts

who are in multiple

different stages of life.

That's how discipleship

should be.

Now,

does that mean you can't

do anything one-on-one?

No.

But it should never

just be that.

Because 1 Corinthians 12

says all the parts

of the body

are indispensable.

If you only have

this one person

who's quote-unquote

discipling you,

and you're not

gleaning from the rest

of the body,

you are missing out

from things.

And if you think

that your part of the body

is not that important,

and you think,

well,

I don't have the same role

as so-and-so

who's really good

at speaking,

but I'm not good

at speaking,

you don't understand

your gift is indispensable,

and who you are

needs to bear upon

other people

in the context

of discipleship.

It can't just be

one-on-one.

It has to be

a shared responsibility.

You need to build

discipleship

from multiple people

through multiple gifts

who are in multiple

different stages of life.

It can't just be

young people

with young people

and old people

with old people.

You've got to mix

it up together.

There's much to glean

from one another,

and it goes both ways.

Number seven,

avoid meeting

without meals.

That doesn't mean

you can't ever meet

without a meal,

but I'm talking about

building a meal-sharing

familial culture.

It takes more work

to share meals together,

but you know what?

That's what families do.

Healthy families

eat meals together.

There's been study

after study done

of the difference

between a family

that eats meals together

and ones who don't.

That used to be

a normative part

of our culture.

It's something

that's going away,

and it's something

that's gone away

from church culture

as well.

We should eat

meals together.

Families eat meals together.

Jesus ate meals

with people.

The disciples

ate meals together.

Acts chapter 2,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

46 to 47

in the CSB

says,

Every day they devoted

themselves to meeting

together in the temple

and broke bread

from house to house.

They ate their food

with joyful

and sincere hearts,

praising God

and enjoying the favor

of all the people.

Every day the Lord

added to their number

those who were being saved.

I know it's work

to do meals together.

I know it's work

to share the responsibility

of planning a meal.

I know it's work

to do our once-a-month meals

that we're doing

on Sunday mornings

like today.

I know it's work

to do meals

in your home.

I know it's work

to feed people.

I know it's work

to feed people

when sometimes

they don't clean up

after,

help clean up

and help with

the responsibility.

That's all work,

but meal sharing

is a way

that helps people

feel comfortable

and where people

can open up their hearts

to one another.

Very important.

It battles

that isolation culture.

Right?

Number eight,

avoid heavy,

burdensome,

missional community.

Instead,

building joy,

comfort,

refreshing,

and rest.

Okay?

Oftentimes with church

we think,

oh,

I'm part of a church,

that means I've got to

add a bunch of things

to my life.

Rather,

what about just

actually taking inventory?

What are we already doing?

What am I already involved with?

Like,

what are the neighbors

I'm already involved with?

What are the things

I'm already doing

with my kids?

What are the relationships

I already have?

What do we already have

and how can I just

show more gospel intentionality

with those things

that we have?

Instead of adding

a bunch of things,

are we being intentional

to do what we're doing

right now

with a missional mindset

and then doing it together

with other people?

So often,

the church says,

well,

we've got to add this,

we've got to add this program,

this program.

No.

We don't need to do that.

We just need to

get on mission together

in the everyday stuff of life,

the stuff we're already doing.

You already have neighbors.

You already have a job.

Your kids might already

be involved with certain things,

sports or this or that

or school stuff.

You already have

all these things.

Why not do them

with more missional

gospel intentionality

and then do it together?

That's what the church should be.

We need to build that

and that's a lot more restful

instead of constantly

adding more stuff.

Philemon verse 7 says,

I've derived much joy

and comfort

from your love,

my brother,

because the hearts

of the saints

have been refreshed

through you.

What if we focused

on being a refreshment

to one another?

Not constantly placing

more burdens

on one another

but just saying,

how can we do stuff together?

How can we do stuff

where we refresh

one another?

Where we're carrying the load

and we're saying,

you know what?

We already have a lot going on.

We don't need to

overwhelm people

with all kinds of stuff.

Let's just be intentional

with what we have.

Let's be good stewards

of what we have.

Number nine,

avoid a busy life.

Okay?

Lazy, indiscriminate,

unintentional,

the tyranny of the urgent,

always busy

but never getting done

what you want

or need to get done.

You know what I'm saying?

Some of us,

this is how we feel.

We feel like

we're on a hill

and we're constantly

riding the brakes.

Our life is constantly busy.

We are constantly

doing things

and people say,

what's going on?

It's like,

oh, just so busy.

Just really busy.

What are you busy with?

Ah,

I don't know.

And you can't even say

what it is

because you're not doing,

your life is busy

but it's not filled

with the things

that you,

that are your priorities.

You go to bed at night

thinking,

I'm so busy,

I'm so tired

but I'm constantly

feeling guilty

that I'm not doing

what I should be doing.

We need to leave that behind.

Okay?

We need to leave

a busy life behind

and instead build

a full life.

It's not a difference

about how much you do

but what you do.

Not about how much you do

but what you do.

Doing,

being in divine order

and doing what God

says to do.

Tim Ferriss says,

lack of time

is actually

lack of priorities.

Being busy

is a form of laziness,

lazy thinking

and indiscriminate action.

Being overwhelmed

is often as unproductive

as doing nothing

and is far more unpleasant.

In other words,

a full life

plans priorities

so priorities

are prioritized

and accomplished.

Right?

A full life

plans priorities

so priorities

are prioritized

and accomplished.

Right?

The Bible

asks us

commands us

to find out

what pleases the Lord.

Ephesians 5,

15-17.

Look carefully

then how you walk.

Not as unwise

but as wise

making the best use

of the time

because the days

are evil.

Therefore do not

be foolish

but understand

what the will

of the Lord is.

It's very easy.

The last thing

we want to do

we might say,

oh,

new church plan.

It's easy to just be busy.

There's not as many people

to do the work.

So we're just

being busy

and being with people

and trying to get

a mission to this person.

Busy and overwhelmed

and constantly

and your life

is flying by.

Your kids are getting older.

Your life is passing you by

and all of a sudden

you realize

am I even doing

what I'm supposed

to be doing?

Am I doing the priorities?

Do I have a busy life

or a full life?

A full life plans

your priorities.

The priorities

that God says

are priorities.

Making the best use

of the time.

Okay?

That's the difference.

It's very important

for us

not to just be

busy consuming

but rather

be

have a full life

of planning priorities

of how can I

be someone

who refreshes others

gives to others

and is intentional

with my life

so that when I go to bed

and I hit the pillow

I can say

you know what?

I did what God

wanted me to do.

Today was a good day.

Number 10

avoiding

low bar partnership.

Partnership is what

we call membership

in this church.

Instead building

a high standard

of partnership

with accountability

and shared responsibility.

The strength

of our church

is very much

in the quality

of our partnership

together.

Okay?

The partners

are the people

we count on.

If we build that

into our church now

it's going to have

benefit

that will reap fruit

for years and years

and years

to say hey

it's important

that I partner

well with the church.

That I can be someone

that people count on.

And the quality

of our church

so many people think

oh no the quality

of the church

that's in

how good their

worship team is

and how good

their child care is

and how good

the preacher is.

Those things matter

but that's not

where the true

quality of the church

is.

Because the church

isn't a worship team

a preacher

and a child care

program.

The church

is the people.

And so the quality

of the people

the quality

of the members

of the church

and their partnership

together

will determine

the quality

of the church

as a whole.

And if you're someone

and everyone

is someone

who can be counted on

now we're talking

about a church

that is going

to bear a lot

of fruit together.

Number 11

avoid the illusion

of the kingdom

of God

as part of your life.

Instead build

an all of life

church

okay

an all of life

life

where you're

saying

I'm going

to give

God everything

I got.

Right?

I said it before

church gets weird

when Christ

isn't your whole life.

Colossians 3 verse 4

Colossians 3:4

says Christ

who is your life.

Okay if you ever

some of you

have had maybe

a bad experience

of church

you've got to

ask the question

was my bad

experience of church

because the church

was bad?

Which could be true.

Or was it because

Christ wasn't my life

and I tried to

fit Jesus

into my life

instead of losing

my life for Jesus

and therefore

the filter

with which

I determined

what church was

and how it was

supposed to function

was off

from the get go.

Therefore

all my church

expression

and experience

was goofy

and off

because

at the end

of the day

it wasn't

maybe as much

as that the church

was messed up

although that

can be part of it

but that I

wasn't believing

and living

as if Christ

was my life.

When Christ

is your life

and the group

of people

you're meeting

with as church

Christ is their

life as well

it changes

everything.

Things are cohesive

things flow together

things function

the way they're

supposed to

when you're

just trying

to fit Christ

into your life

and you're

holding on

to your life

you lose it

you lose it

and you got

a bunch of people

gathering together

in the name of church

when their life

is lost

because they don't

truly believe

and act as if

Christ is their life

who they've lost

their life for

then church gets

weird really fast.

You can determine

what that's going

to be like

in this church

you can build it

into the foundation

1 Corinthians

15 58

says

always

give yourselves

fully

to the work

of the Lord

how often?

Always

how much?

Fully

to what?

The work

of the Lord

1 Corinthians

15 58

always give

yourselves

fully

to the work

of the Lord

because

you know

that your

labor

in the Lord

is not

in vain

that's why

we always

give ourselves

that's why

we give

ourselves

fully

that's why

we give

ourselves

fully

to the work

of the Lord

why?

Because your labor in the Lord won't be in vain.

It is labor.

It is work.

But if we give ourselves fully,

always to the work of the Lord,

it won't be in vain.

There's a lot of work in the name of the Lord

that is vain because it's not always

and it's not fully.

And at the end of the day,

it's not really the work of the Lord

because it's just trying to fit Jesus into our life.

And God never meant it that way.

And we blame God for that.

We say, God, your church is a joke.

God, church sucks.

And God, you haven't been faithful.

When all along what it is is,

no, Christianity hasn't been tried and found wanting,

but wanted and not tried,

as Chesterton said.

All right?

That's the problem.

Well, I tried Christianity.

No, you didn't.

No, you didn't.

You tried some selfish, consumeristic version of Christianity

that was not Christianity at all.

It's not that Christianity was tried

and it was found wanting.

It was wanted, but it was never tried

because it wasn't your life.

Number 12.

Two more.

Avoid closed hearts, closed homes,

and closed schedules.

Build open hearts, open homes,

and open schedules.

1 Timothy 6, 17-19 says,

As for the rich in this present age,

charge them not to be haughty

nor to set their hopes on uncertainty of riches,

but on God.

Through rich he provides us with everything to enjoy.

They are to do good,

to be rich in good works,

to be generous and ready to share,

thus storing up treasure for themselves

as a good foundation for the future,

so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

How do you take hold of that which is truly life?

You're generous and willing to share.

And if you're saying,

well, that's not for me

because I'm not the rich in this world.

No.

If you're in this country,

you're wealthy beyond measure,

and if you live in the time you do,

which you do because I see you

and I know you're alive,

this is the richest time in all.

Kings weren't as rich as we are.

Okay?

2 Corinthians 6, 11-13 says,

We've spoken to you freely, Corinthians.

Our heart is wide open.

You are not restricted by us,

but you are restricted in your own affections.

In return, I speak as to children.

This is Paul speaking.

Widen your hearts also.

And then in verse 2 he says,

Make room in your hearts for us.

The life, wisdom, and power of God

is exchanged through open hearts.

Open hearts.

Jesus dwells in your heart through faith.

How do you experience Jesus together?

It has to be through open hearts.

And some of us have closed our hearts

because we've been burned by church

and we've been burned by other Christians,

and we want to get help,

but you can't open your...

The same openness that allows you to be helped

is the same openness that creates the possibility

of being hurt.

You can't open yourself to be helped

if you don't first open yourself to be hurt.

And know that when you close your heart

to other people,

it's not just the other people

you're closing your heart to.

You're also closing your heart to God.

Because Jesus lives inside of other people

and his love, wisdom, and power

is exchanged through open hearts.

And when you close your heart to people,

you're also closing your heart to God.

And at the end of the day,

you have to ask the question,

can Jesus be trusted?

And can he be trusted in his people?

And you don't get one without the other.

That's not how it works.

You can't say,

well, I just want...

Just give me Jesus.

I don't want the church.

Just give me Jesus.

I don't need the church.

Take the church out of the New Testament

and what do you have?

You got nothing.

There's no context for all of these epistles

and for the life of God

in the New Testament without the church.

You can't say,

I just have Jesus.

I'm fine.

I've been wounded.

I've been hurt.

I got Jesus.

That's good enough.

You can't say that.

That's not biblical.

It's not right.

It's not in any way, shape, or form

what God wanted.

Lastly, number 13.

I actually think this is a strength

of this church right from the get-go.

And I encourage you to keep it that way.

I actually rebuked

Bellicose Church last week

because I've noticed that

ever since you guys got sent out,

the prayer meeting on Sunday morning

has gotten really skimpy.

I showed up there the other day.

I'm like, where the heck is everybody?

And I realized that all the people

who were coming

are the people who got sent out

for this church.

And I was like, good grief.

These guys need to get praying.

Those Christchurch people

were the ones who were doing

all the prayer work

and now they're gone.

Who's going to pray?

Okay.

So I'm saying,

avoid low-priority prayer

and build high-priority prayer.

Which I think you guys are doing.

You guys value prayer.

And there's many ways

that Bellicose has felt

the loss of you guys.

But one of the things

I didn't anticipate

and didn't see

but I've noticed it

on those Sunday mornings is,

where'd everybody go?

And it's because it's you guys.

And that's encouraging.

Please keep that.

Keep prayer as a priority.

Jim Symbolus says,

Prayer cannot be taught

by principles and seminars

and symposiums.

It has to be born

out of a whole environment

of felt need.

If I say I ought to pray,

I will soon run out

of motivation and quit.

The flesh is too strong.

I have to be driven to pray.

Essentially what he's saying

is Matthew 5, 3,

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

You have to be poor in spirit.

You have to see that you're needy.

You don't pray

because you ought to.

You pray because

you know that you need to.

And so, Christchurch,

keep your neediness.

Let's build into the culture

a neediness in prayer.

People say,

I need God.

We sing our songs

and say, I need God.

We seek counsel and say,

I need God.

And then we don't show up

at the prayer meeting.

Let's not be a people like that.

Let's have prayer

always as a high priority.

Let's make sure that

his church is a house of prayer.

Okay?

And you might have been,

and especially all the more so,

living in a city

where all the weirdness

with IHOP

and all the stuff

that's happened there.

Listen,

don't let that keep you

from praying.

Don't let that burn you out

from praying.

Don't let that make it

less of a priority

because some sinful behavior

happened in a prominent ministry

in our city.

Don't do that.

It needs to be a priority.

Amen?

Amen.

This is our opportunity

to build into the culture

of this church.

Some of this stuff

you've heard me say before,

I'm going to keep saying it

over and over again

because it's so important now

to build into the culture

of our church.

Amen?

Amen.

Amen.