URGENT SHARE // The Great Omission // Pastor Richie Fike

Welcome to the Movement Church podcast. We want you to

know that God is for you. So you're about to

hear a sermon from one of our weekend services in

the twilights of southern Colorado. God is not a monument,

He's a movement. So we're praying that this message will

move you in a meaningful way. Listen closely after the

message for ways to get connection with us.

God.

Bless you. Thanks for tuning in.

We're in this series called Urgent. We've been working through

Urgent care or of Prayer, and now we're in the

last stretch, the home stretch. Urgent share the idea that

you are responsible to share the gospel, to be an

evangelic Christian, and that that is God's great expectation on you.

We're going to talk about that today. When I was

living in Baton Rouge, which is where I'm from, there

was a restaurant called Calendars. And Calendars was a locally

owned restaurant that had been there a long time and

in my opinion, they had the very best chicken sandwich

in Baton Rouge. Okay, it was like after church on Sunday,

there was only one place to go. It was Calendars.

For the chicken sandwich. And I don't know what they

put in that batter, if it was like crack or

something that they put in that batter or love. There

was a lot of love in that batter. And one Sunday,

I will never forget it. We went to the Essen

Lane location. There were four locations of Calendars and this

sign was on the window. Calendars this location closed indefinitely.

If you want to see a grown man cry, I mean,

I was so excited about that sandwich. It was closed indefinitely.

Over the next three months, two more Calendar's locations closed indefinitely,

and then eventually the restaurant calendars went out of business

all together. Never again would I be able to eat

that chicken sandwich. Do you understand this is a tragedy

I'm telling you about this morning, like you're not with

me on this. The local newspaper, the Battery's Advocate, put

out an article Calendar's time is done in Baton Rouge,

and they talked about how this wasn't a matter of

embezzlement or tax fraud or rats in the kitchen. It

wasn't any of that. It was simply that the Baton

Rouge restaurant scene had surpassed calendars that what they had

tried to do since the nineteen seventies to be kind

of a locally owned, neighborhood restaurant wasn't working anymore. Because listen,

everybody talks about New Orleans and how great the food

is in New Orleans. Can I just tell you go

to Baton Rouge. It's like thirty percent cheaper, and I

think just as good or better. Okay, the food is incredible.

All we have in Baton Rouge is LSU football and food.

That's why I look like this. And so anyway, that

restaurant closed indefinitely. That sign, just a white piece of paper,

two pieces of tape, told what I think is a

pretty tragic story, a quiet tragedy. Something a lot more

meaningful over a long a much longer period of time

has happened to the church in the world, in many

different cultures and climates. People can live without a chicken sandwich,

But what happens when the church has to close its doors?

What happens when you walk up to Bear Creek Elementary

one Sunday and there's a sign that says Movement Church,

this location closed indefinitely. That would be a real tragedy

in menu with me? Wouldn't that be sad? What's missing?

If the doors are closed, beyond the sermons, beyond the songs.

If a church closes its doors, then who feeds the hungry?

Who mentors fatherless kids, Who who visits lonely widows, Who

makes space for recoverers, Who teaches forgiveness instead of revenge,

Who reminds people that every human being bears the image

of God, who fights for the voiceless, who stands up

against the powers of darkness, and for us who's shouting

from the rooftops about a God who's for them. What

happens when the church doors are closed? Last week we

looked at Matthew twenty eight, and this is Jesus's Great Commission.

And I told you that I don't want you to

ever read the Great Commission again as an invitation, but

rather read it as Jesus's expectation. This is what he

expects of you. If you follow Jesus as the Lord

of your life, than your life had better look like

Matthew twenty eight. Go make disciples, baptizing them in the

name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you, and remember

I'm with you to the end. Jesus was commissioning his

disciples to do what he came to the earth to do,

to continue in his mission to reunite God's children with

their father. That's what Jesus came to do, and it's

what he's asking us to do with our lives. So

think about this. What if we don't What happens if

Christians decide, instead of living out the Great Comission, that

we decide to live out the Great o Mission, that

we don't engage, that we don't live out God's expectation

for us? What happens? The absence of a Matthew twenty

eight church in a town and the presence of some

other lesser concoction means that what we don't get to

see is what the Great Commission produces. More disciples of

Jesus Christ means more obedience to his commands. If more

people become more like Jesus, what kind of impact would

it make on this community? Think about that, if more

people were concerned with justice and mercy, with love and kindness,

with grace and truth, with serving the weak and the needy,

with investing in the next generation, families and our community.

What would a community look like if its population embraced

Jesus's command and more importantly, his expectation. Jesus Great Expectation

is not just about conversion. It's not just about salvation.

It's not just about putting more butts and more seats

in every church in monument. That's not the point. The

point is what does it produce? And so today we're

going to talk about two questions. The sermons called the

Great Omission, and I'm going to ask two questions and

try to answer them for us. What happens when jesus

expectations are met, when we actually live out the Great Expectation,

and what happens when they're not. Okay, So let's talk

big picture for a moment, because this wasn't a new idea,

Matthew twenty eight is not a brand new thought. It

really all started back in the garden of Eden. When

God looks upon Adam and Eve in their perfect form,

he says to them, he makes this incredible command of them.

This is Genesis one twenty eight. It says God blessed

them both of them, Adam and even said to both

of them, guys, be fruitful, multiply fill the earth and

subdue it. Be fruitful, multiply fill the earth and subdue it. See,

from the beginning of time, God has had the same

expectation on all of us. In their garden, he would say,

be fruit fulfilled the earth. Multiply, And in the Great

Commandment or the Great commission or the Great expectation, Jesus

would say, go and make disciples, multiply. That's the idea.

Your responsibility is to multiply. But I'll tell you the

word that stands out to me in Genesis One, it's

this one subdue. God blessed them, and God said to them,

be fruitful, multiply fill the earth and subdue the earth.

Subdue the earth. So let's talk about what that word means,

because I don't know if you've ever done a word

study on the word subdue. But it's easy to think

about subdue in the sense of like Charlemagne, like just

taking over the world and dominating the world. That's not

really what subdue means. Subdue the earth. What it means

is to cultivate, to develop, and to arrange the raw

creation to unlock its full potential for human flourishing. So

the idea there is that God wants his best for

the world, so he entrusts his people to produce it.

Do you see that that's what's subduing the earth? It

means everything you touch gets better, everything you put your

hand to improves, You bless everything that you are a

part of. When you subdue the earth, you're taking the

raw components of the world and you're turning them into

something that flourishes. Do you see that? It's beautiful? And

we see it all throughout the Bible. In Ezekiel forty seven.

If you've ever read Ezekiel, it's this wild eyed prophet

who's got these crazy prophecies about all of these things

that he's seeing in the heavenlys. It reminds me a

lot of revelation, just the wildness of it. And this

guy is Ekiel. In forty seven he talks about a

river that flows from the that the temple of God,

the House of God, the home of God, the residence

of God, where he lives and where his people live.

From it comes this river that blesses and heals and

touches everything that it touches, it makes it better. And

that's this river and it's the idea that we God's

people are supposed to do the same thing, that everything

we put our hand to we make better, we subdue it.

And what Ezekiel's trying to communicate to God's people is

that they weren't meant to hoard the glory of God

for themselves. They were meant to share it with the

world around them. Hide it under a bushel. No, you

got to let it shine man like. That's the idea, right.

We see this again God's heart for the nations, God's

desire for us to be impactful people in Jeremiah twenty nine.

And this is a hobby lobby hall of Famer verse

that we're going to look at. Okay, I bet some

of you have a pillow in your house that has

this verse Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven in your house,

for I know the plans I have for you. This

is the Lord's declaration, plans for your well being, not

for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Who wouldn't love this verse? Who wouldn't love this declaration?

I'll tell you who Jeremiah. Jeremiah hated hearing this because

of the context of what this talks about Jeremiah twenty

nine to eleven. Out of context, it's like, oh man,

this is awesome. If you love God, if you live

for God, He's got good plans for your future and

a hope. That's awesome. The context of that verse is crazy,

because what had happened to Jeremiah is that all of

his people had become exiles. They had been punished by God,

and they wanted desperately to get home. All they wanted

to do was get home. When you read Lamentations, Jeremiah

is begging God, can I please go home? I don't

want to be here. Where were they? They were in

Babylon and they wanted to make their way home. We

went and saw the Odyssey last night, and the whole

movie you know what it's about. It's about this guy,

Matt Damon's character, Odysseus, trying to make his way home.

I wish Homer or Christopher Nolan would make a movie

about Jeremiah because the context of this is incredible. It's incredible.

These people want to get home, and God says, I

know the plans I have for you. It's not for

you to go home. Instead, look at verse four of

Jeremiah twenty nine. This is what God says. This is

so powerful. This is what the Lord of Armies, the

God of Israel, says to all the exiles I deported

from Jerusalem to Babylon. You're not there by accident. I

did it. I'm the one who put you there, and

I did it for a reason. Jerusalem to Babylon. He says, this,

Build houses and live in them. Where in Babylon. I

don't want to do that, God, I don't like Babylon

too bad. Build houses and live in them. In Babylon,

plant gardens and eat their produce. Where in Babylon Verse six.

Find wives for yourselves Babylonian wives, Yes, Babylonian wives, and

have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons, and

give your daughters to men in marriage, so that they

may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there, do not decrease.

You are not allowed to wither away. Multiply. And look

at this verse seven. This is so amazing. Pursue the

well being of the city. I have deported you too.

We don't like this city, God too bad. This is

where I've placed you. So pursue the well being of

the city. I have deported you to pray to the

Lord on its behalf. Listen to this, for when it thrives,

you will thrive. What God you want to see Babylon.

These people who hate you, who despise you, who worship

other gods, you want to see Babylon thrive. Yes, I do,

And that's partly why I deported you to go there.

Look at verse eight, for this is what the Lord

of Armies, the God of Israel, says. Don't let your

prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you,

and don't listen to the dreams you elicit from them.

What kind of dreams do you think they're listening from

their prophets. We want to go home. We're gonna go home.

God's like, I didn't say that. Look at verse nine,

for they are prophesying falsely to you in my name.

I did not send them. This is the Lord's declaration.

This is what the Lord says. When seventy years, seventy years,

that's a lifetime for these people, seventy years. I underline

this on purpose. Four Babylon are complete, I will attend

to you and will confirm my promise concerning you to

restore you to this place, for I know the plans

I have for you, and they're good plans, their plans

for a future and a hope. You see the difference

in verse eleven when you read it in context. This

was not good news to them, but it was absolutely

God's expectation upon them. God had sent them into exile

and had a purpose for their life. They felt displaced,

but God was saying, no, this is your place. This

is where you belong. Pursue the well being of the city.

I have deported you to pray to the Lord on

its behalf or when it thrives, you thrive. So let

me just ask you a question. Do you think about

the Trilakes that way? Some of you live in Colorado Springs.

Do you think about Colorado Springs that way that when

it thrives, you thrive. That's God's great expectation. They want

to go home. God wants to use this exile to

build and bless Babylon better. He's given them construction hats,

and he's saying, go make it better. Your job is

to bless everything you touch. Go bring the glory of Yahweh,

the glory of God into these Babylonian neighborhoods. Let them

see and experience and taste and see what life is

like for people who worship me. Go, let them experience it,

make it better. And this isn't an anomaly. This is

the heart of God. It's consistent with his expectations all

throughout the Bible. He wants you, he wants me, He

wants us to subdue the earth to make it better.

We spend some time in the spring talking about this guy,

which is us, the resident alien in this Trilaates area,

and we listen to Peter tell us that the idea

of Christianity is to live out your faith in a

world where people don't agree with you, and to expect suffering,

to expect condemnation, to expect judgment, to expect people to

go I don't agree with what you're saying, to expect hostility,

and even still to walk in faith towards the goal

of your life, which is to know Jesus and to

make him known. This is incredible. All of this tells

the narrative of the Bible, the narrative of the heart

of our God. I've got a friend, Pastor Trey Kent,

down in Austin, Texas, and he told me a story

about Lake Travis. Anybody here ever been to Lake Travis

in Texas. I think it's the prettiest part of Texas.

It's this beautiful lake that is the water source tech

for Austin, Texas. It is where they get their water from.

And in twenty fourteen, there was a serious and kind

of unexpected, unbelievable world record drought in Lake Travis. The

waters had gotten to a level where people were having

to ration their usage of water, like only one shower

a day type of vibes. And it's hot in Texas,

so that means it was smelly, you know, like it

was bad news down there. They were in a lot

of trouble. And this guy, pastor Trey Kent, he wrote

this book, by the Way, the City of Prayer, which

is a great book for you to read. Trey started

to hear about this drought because it was getting more

and more serious and there was no insight. They were

saying that it was going to go we were going

to go another two weeks without rain, and that meant

less and less water. So Trey got a bunch of

pastors and Christians together at the state Capitol and they

had a night of prayer, a citywide night of prayer,

and they prayed for rain. And the news came and

they covered it, and they were like, look at what

these ridiculous Christians are doing. They're praying for rain. I mean,

can you believe Austin is one of the least Christian

towns in Texas. If you know Texas, they want to

keep it weird, that's their vibe. And so the idea

that these people would gather together and pray for rain

was wild to them. But this is what Trey Kent said.

He said on the news. He said, this drought is

the fault of the church, and we're going to do

something about it. So they got on their knees and

they prayed Second Chronicles seven fourteen, which says, if my

people who bear my name humble themself else, pray and

seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then

I will hear from Heaven forgive their sin and heal

their land. So they started with repentance. That night, all

of the Christians that came together, over a thousand people

came together at the state capitol and got on their

knees and prayed. And so the Lord, we repent. We

haven't been thinking about the betterment of the city. We

have not been attempting to subdue it. We've not been

attempting to make it better. In fact, we've been thinking

about how this drought affects us instead of thinking about

how it affects everybody else. And we haven't done enough.

And so tonight we're making a change. And they prayed

for hours that night, and something crazy happened. The next day.

It started raining, and it rained for four days straight, NonStop,

never stopping. Rain. In one weekend, the lake filled up

thirty feet of depth, six inches worth of rain that

would cover the whole state of Texas. Is that not amazing?

You're not hooping and hollering, and you should be. God

is incredible. In fact, Lake Travis filled to the point

where it was actually there was a new problem. It's

too much water. The mayor called Trey Kent back. They

had gotten to about six hundred and eighty one feet,

which was alarming, and so he said to Pastor Trey Kent,

He said, can you tell the people to please stop

praying now? And maybe asked them to pray that the

rain would stop. He also told Trey that if the

water got to seven hundred and fourteen feet, it would

be a catastrophe in their town. And Trey, thinking about

what they prayed that night, thought about Second Chronicles seven fourteen,

and so they started praying that the rain would stop,

and it did. But what's incredible about the story is

that when Austin found itself in crisis, the church wasn't

asking how does this affect us? The church was asking,

how can we seek the welfare of our city? That

is what a church who is living out the Great

Expectation looks like. That's Jeremiah twenty nine, that's Ezekiel forty seven,

that's Genesis one. That's first and second Peter. That's the

picture of it. So the question I told you we

were going to answer, what happens when jesus expectations are met?

When we live out the Great Expectation. Here's what happens.

Disciple makers subdue the earth. Everything they touch flourishes. That's

what happens. Think about it. Disciples of Jesus Christ. They forgive,

they adopt children, They tell the truth, They care for widows,

They love enemies, They build healthy marriages, They invest in

the next generation. They build ethical businesses, They serve their neighbors.

This is what a disciple of Jesus Christ does in

a community, for a community. What is the result of

that flourishing joy, love, grace everywhere you look. That's what

it's supposed to look like. That's the first question. Let's

talk about the alternative. What happens when we don't meet

Jesus' expectations? What happens when we say, nah, I'm good.

I'm not going to think about the betterment of the community.

I'm not going to subdue anything. I'm just going to

kind of go us for no more in our house.

I'm going to pull into my house, hit the garage door,

never talk to my neighbors, never try to be an

improvement to my neighborhood, to my community. I'm just going

to worry about me. What happens when that happens. What

happens when the church becomes insular, an island unto itself.

When we're known for naval gazing, Come on, somebody, I

love that picture. When we're known for this, just thinking

about me, just me, me, me. When we stop thinking

beyond ourselves, we stop advancing, we stop subduing our cities.

When instead of being salt and light, we are dark

and tasteless when we see non believers as opposition instead

of opportunity. What happens when that happens. The clearest example

of this in your Bible comes out of Veggietails. It's

the Book of Jonah. Anybody a big fan of Veggietails

in the house. Anybody read or seen the the Jonah movie?

Come on, somebody there, you go my man? Okay? Or

maybe you've just read the Book of Jonah. It's just

four chapters. Can I just encourage you this week? Let

that be part of your quiet time this week. Go

read all of the Book of Jonah, all four chapters.

It's really good reading. Here's what happens. Jonah gets sent

to the Ninovites. The Ninavites are a group of people

who he does not like. He is not a fan.

He thinks they're awful, terrible, no good, horrible, very bad people.

And God says, cool, I want you to go preach

to them, and he's like, no, thanks, I don't want

to do it because I don't like them and they

don't deserve you God. And God says, no, no, I

want you to go preach to them. And Jonah runs

and he gets swallowed up in the belly of a whale,

and he's in that whale for three days. Because Jonah

doesn't like his assignment, he doesn't like the expectation that

God has placed on him. He runs, he gets swallowed up,

and then finally he goes, fine, I'll do it, and

God spits him out on dry land, dry ninevite land,

and he has no other opportunity than just to do

what God told him to do. So Jonah, this was

his favorite part of the whole story. He gets to

preach damnation upon the Ninovite nation. You're gonna burn like

bacon because you're a bunch of pagans, you know. He

gets to yell at him and tell him everything that's

wrong with them, and something incredible happens. They agree with

him and they go, I think he's right. I think

we need to turn from our sin and turn our

hearts to God. And he doesn't like that part. Jonah's

not a big fan of that. He's not pleased that

these people would hear this message of damnation and go, yeah,

you're right about that. And then God does what God does.

God forgives them, He heals them, he restores them. It's

this beautiful story. And then chapter four of Jonah starts

like this, Jonah was greatly displeased. I love it. I

love that Jonah is a curmudgeon. I mean, he is

the Larry David of our Bible. He is just absolutely

a grumpy gus. He's greatly displeased, and he becomes furious.

He prayed to the Lord, Please, Lord, isn't this what

I said while I was still in my country. This

is why I fled towards Tarsius in the first place,

because listen to what he says about God. Because I

knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God, slow

to anger, abounding. I knew you were going to do

this abounding and faithful love, and one who relents from

sending disaster. It's not what I would do if I

were in charge. God, You're just flat out wrong for this.

But I know this is who you are. And now, Lord,

just take my life from me. I don't even want

to live. If these people know you, I don't even

want to know them. I don't want to know them.

If they know you, I'm out for It's better for

me to die than to live. I mean, talk about grumpy, right,

and listen to how God eventually answers him. In verse ten,

he says, you cared about the plant which you did

not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in

a night and perished in a night. So may I

not care about the great city of Nineveh? Can I

not care about these people, which has, by the way,

more than one hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot

distinguish between their right and there left, as well as

many animals. Can you just let me be God? Jonah?

Would you do what I'm asking you to do? It's

this beautiful story of Jonah resisting God's great expectation. He

didn't like the Ninavites. He didn't want good for the Ninovites.

He knew that God was gracious, and he didn't like

that either. So this moment happens where God does what

God does and he redeems people. God's great expectation is

that we would multiply his kingdom, and so do his cities.

Now listen, don't go tell in your neighbors. This week

my pastor said we're going to subdue the city. Like

I know that sounds real, Agro. I don't want you

to do that. I want you to understand what that

word means. That we bless the city, that we make

it better, that everything we touch gets better because we

are connected to the Lord. I did a lot of

research and thought a lot about how we can see

a real time example of what it looks like when

people don't live out the great expectation, and honestly, we

don't have to look a whole lot further than the

Nation of England. I don't know if you know this

or not, but every historian, sociologist, anthropologist and theologian would

tell you that the Nation of England is officially post

Christian post Christian. You know, they argue about when it happened,

why it happened, how it happened, but nobody argues that

it happened for centuries. The local church of England wasn't

simply where people worshiped. The Christian church was where they

learned to read. It's where they received charity, where they

buried their dead, celebrated marriages, cared for widows, educated children,

and gathered as a community. It was the hub of

the community. The local church. Christianity was central to English culture,

cultivating and clarifying a communal true North I don't know

how to think about this issue. I'm going to go

talk to my priests. I'm going to go talk to

my pastor. It was the hub of the community. And

today many of those same churches where that was happening

have become tourist attractions. In fact, last year in twenty

twenty five, more churches were visited by tourists than attended

by worshippers in England by a large degree. Think about that.

The buildings remained, but the mission faded. That ought to

haunt you, that ought to haunt us. In nineteen twenty five,

the population of England was thirty nine million, and about

thirty percent of the of the population attended Christian church

services weekly. In twenty twenty five, one hundred years later,

the population is fifty eight million. What percentage do you

think on a weekly basis are attending church. We'll say

it loud, seven five eight. The answer is five five

percent of that fifty eight million people are connected to

a local church that ought to haunt you, that haunt us,

at ought to haunt them. How did it happen, When

did it happen, Why did it happen. There's a lot

of reasons a lot of sociological, anthropological reasons, but it happened.

It happened. Now, let's talk about America. In twenty twenty five,

the population of America's three hundred and forty million, of

which around twenty six percent are attending Christian church services weekly.

So we are today roughly about where they were about

one hundred years ago. They were at thirty we're at

twenty six percent, and the percentages are diving. America is

becoming more and more decidedly post Christian. How about the Trilakes.

Listen to this. Estimated weekly Christian church attendance in the

Trilakes is around thirty five percent thirty five percent. Our

population in the Trilakes is twenty six thousand people today ish.

So if you say thirty five percent, that means ninety

one hundred of our fellow Trilakers are in church right

now somewhere in the Trilakes. Or maybe they're driving the

Colorado Springs. We don't know, maybe some people are driving

the Castle Rock. But ninety one hundred people, that means

seventeen thousand of our residents, of your neighbors, of the

people that you do life with, the people that you

spend time with the people that you see on a

daily basis. Seventeen thousand of them are not in church

every week. That's the reality. So what happens when we

don't meet Jesus' expectation? Here's the reality. Here's what happens

if Christians don't make disciples someone or will someone or

something will. Every person you know is a disciple of

something or someone. In our culture, we see people turning

to humanism, consumerism, wealth accumulation, the worship of self, chasing comfort,

political tribalism, sexual autonomy, or just the pursuit of pleasure.

Come on, you see this? Everyone you know is if

they're not pursuing Jesus, if they're not following Jesus, they're

pursuing something on this list, and it is discipling them.

This last couple of weeks, I've been doing worship at

the Ponderosa with a bunch of middle school and high schoolers,

and my favorite part of the week is going to

breakfast and sitting at different tables with the different groups. Now,

these are youth groups from all over Colorado, Texas and Missouri.

A lot of them don't know each other. But what's

wild is I sat with every single table and asked

them a simple question. I said, put me up on

some game. I said, tell me some of the things.

The phrases that you're using that I'm too old to

know about, Like, tell me some of the phrases that

you're using every week that I don't know about. Slang phrases,

words like chud and huzz and have ever heard of

chud or huzz? My man? Okay, chud and huzz are big.

Chopped and cooked are big. You've heard chopped and cooked.

That's kind of making it into old people language. We're

kind of getting there. If you're a parent of a

middle schooler, there's a guy I would deeply encourage you

to follow on Instagram or TikTok, this guy, Phil Lindsay.

If you don't know about him, he's a middle school

teacher and he will put you up on game. Okay,

because every week, at the end of the week he

does something like this. Watch this video.

This week we upate on where the kids are saying

most this week.

I wrote down the words that I heard most of

class from this week, and here we go, coming in

at number one by far, we have lead a.

Beata Boada butt, lead a beat a Boaha butt. It's

this old dog. It is trending.

Lead to beat a.

Bodha butt, em j green ball shit be be dopey

duck and gimmy gimmy don okay, look into it.

It's this old dog. It's been everywhere. Lead a beat

a bota butt. Kay. Coming in at number two, we

have the sun stickers. Now there's the meme. Where's the

guy's face And it's just like sun.

Now they're using AI to turn this sun mean into

all kinds of different puns with the word sun.

So we've got capri sun, we've got.

Sunburn, we have sun rise, we have sunny side up egg,

we have all kind of sun memes.

Now coming in at number third, it's not even a word.

It's a dance. It's this AI cat dance.

Where they do this weird thing and then they go

like this. Kay, they got the AI Cat dance. They

will not stop the Ai Cat dance. And then number four,

we have brounk. Okay, I got called a bronk.

Now.

Unk means either old or uncool. It depends on what

the kid's saying.

And Bra is bra. So I don't know if it means.

That I am an uncool young person, or if I'm

a kind of cool old person.

But that is what I'm hearing most in the classrooms

this week.

Okay, how many bronks in the house. Any broncs? Come on?

I like to think of myself as a bronc. I

don't know what it means. The point I'm making is

that middle schoolers and high schoolers are being discipled. They're

being discipled by their phones, by their algorithms, by their feeds.

By the way, a lot of us are too. A

lot of us in the room are being fed by

our feeds. Your feed is feeding you, it's discipling you.

Your algorithm has studied you. Isn't that creepy that it's

listening to you like it knows what you want. It's

filling you up with what it thinks you want. It's

giving you. It's feeding you what it thinks what it

actually knows that you desire. By the amount of time

you spend on each reel that you fly through, if

you spend more time on one, they're like, Ooh, he

likes that. I'm going to give him more of those.

It's feeding you, it's discipling you. It's how every middle

schooler knows what's gibbety toilet means. By the way, it

doesn't mean anything, okay. It's how every soccer mom knows

where to get the best price on a Stanley cup. Right.

And it's why every man in this room knows what

to do when a bear shows up in your driveway.

This is what you're supposed to do. Here we go.

You just randomly clap at it and walk away. Don't

worry about it. If it charges you just keep clapping.

And then, oh, don't forget to close your back door

of your car, because we don't want the bear to

get in. And by the way, you forgot that the

bear has a brother. You're actually outnumbered. Check this out.

Oh there's two bears, so just hank at him. This

is how every man knows what to do in a

situation like that, right, And that what we do, Andrew,

we just clap at it. Right. Andrew's a resident bear man.

He knows all about them. The point I'm making is

this human beings were built to be discipled. Do you

know that about yourself? That there's a part of you

inside of you that's looking for meaning. It's why you're

here at church today. That's why you've made Christianity a

part of your life. It's because you want to be discipled.

You're looking for someone to show you where meaning can

be found. You're looking for someone to communicate to you

that your windshield's bigger than your rear view, that there's

purpose and value in your life. And the good news

is that God made you that way. And if you

don't fill up that part of yourself with discipleship to Jesus,

if you don't follow after Jesus, you're going to fill

it up with something. And so is your neighbor, and

so is your uncle, and so is your friend. You're

going to fill it up with something. So Christians, you're

not allowed to not care about your community. You're simply

not allowed to be indifferent. We're simply not allowed to

live like that. God plants churches in cities the way

he does. It's why God planted the Movement church in

the Trics for this reason. It's why he gave us

the big vision that God is for you and so

are we, This idea that we would live our lives

in such a way that people would believe that there

is a God who is for them, who's not against them,

And that there are people in this community who love

Jesus and are not jerks who love Jesus. And make

sure you know that you're welcome in this place, even

if all you're trying to do is investigate whether Jesus

is the real thing. You're welcome. So I just want

to give you today a few suggestions. Because God is

the same God who was for Nineveh, who was for Babylon,

who was for Philippi and Ephesus and Corinth and the Trilcs.

But what are we supposed to do? So let me

give you three of these three kind of suggestions for

this week. Number one, Pray for one place where God

has planted you, whether it be your neighborhood, your school,

your workplace, a team you're on, got some football players

in the house. Think about how you can influence the

people that you rub shoulders with. Think about the way

that you can influence your neighbors, your family members. Pray

for one place where you have influence. Number two, pursue

one person outside of your Christian circle this week. It's

really easy to talk to Christians because we believe the

same things. It's really hard to talk to people that

don't believe what we believe, and to love them and

to make space for them in our lives. Do it anyway.

Do it anyway, because when the city thrives, you thrive.

That's the idea. And then number three, practice one act

of welfare seeking. What do I mean, serve somebody, Encourage somebody,

invite somebody, reconcile, give mentor help. Find a way to

extend yourself to someone else this week, just for the

sake of making them better. Try that this week those

three things. If you do that, man, I'm telling you

you'll be living out God's great expectation. I want to

close by answering your questquestion that I've been receiving from

many of you over the last few months, and the

question is when is the Movement Church going to get

a building of its own? People have been asking me

that question lately, and I'm like, I love your faith,

I love the audaciousness of that question. Would you like

to write a check? We will gladly receive it. Christine

knows right where to put it, Okay, she's our accountant.

The way I would want to answer that question is

just by saying that I desperately want for us to

have a place of our own. I desperately want for

us to be a lighthouse in this community. I really

want to see that. Many of you are already inviters,

and not just to church on Sunday, but to your life.

You're inviting people over for dinner. You're inviting people over

just to have wings with them, just to hang out

with them, and you're hoping that a conversation will come

up where you can mention Jesus. That's awesome. Keep doing that.

Many of you, you are all in on the idea

that church is not something that it happens exclusively on

Sunday mornings, but that it's the way that we live

our lives Monday through Saturday. You're in on the forward

that we pray at the end of every one of

our services. You're in on the idea that Monday through

Saturday is where the game is played. Monday through Saturday

is where the fight is fought, and Sundays or where

we come together and encourage one another and have a

pep rally. Because when we leave this place, we're going

to go live on mission to tell people in this

community that God is for them and so are we

we are building something here at the Movement Church that

I'm really really proud of. I've decided to give my

whole life to this. Everything that I am is invested

in the success of what we are doing together as

the Movement Church. I desperately believe it. Many of you

do too. We're building something that's more substantial than a

worship service, better than sermons, bigger than songs. And when

we build a building. When we have a building, I

don't know when it's going to be twelve years, five years.

There's a church in town that did church at the

YMCA for eighteen years, set up and tear down eighteen years.

Can we please not do that? Right? Like I kind

of feel like the people of Jeremiah. I don't want

to be here for eighteen years, Lord, right, But maybe

that's what it is. For sure, While we're here in

this building, we're gonna make Bear Creek better. You with me,

We're gonna bless the teachers, bless the students, do whatever

we can to make sure that they know that we're

for them. But when we have a building, I want

you to know that our attitude cannot be insular. When

we have a building of our own. I want the

town of Monument. I want the Trelaks area to feel

like that's their building. I want them to feel like

that it's open for business all day. I think the

most depressing thing you could ever see is when you

drive by an empty church parking lot on a Tuesday afternoon, Like,

what is the point of having a church building if

we're not open to the community. Do you know what

I'm saying? So, Yeah, of course we're going to build

a place where we're happens, where community deepens, and where

discipleship multiplies. But I also want to build a place

that tells our attitude that from beginning to end, it

must be to make the Trylakes better, to subdue the Trilakes,

to make it better, to bless it. We'll want it

to be a hub for community connection, relationships, conversation, recreation,

and for betterment, where people are having AA meetings, where

people are getting tutored, where there is a foster parenting

co op, where there's a place where people can engage

in this community and make it better. And even though

I would like for us to have tennis courts, if

it means that it makes the community better, yes we

can have pickleball courts at our future building. I will

never play at that place because I can't be seen

in public playing pickleball. And you know why. Okay, But

whatever God touches gets better, and that's what we're trying

to do. That's the great expectation. God is the river

that flows from the temple, and we are His people

that make this town better. That's what I want a

reputation to be. The great commission Jesus great expectation of

us isn't just that we make converts, but that we

make disciples who make their community better. It's about making

actual disciples of Jesus Christ who make an actual impact

on our community, in the school system, in the lives

of lonely and isolated people, that we would make a difference.

And we're not there yet. Can I just be honest

with you, We're not there yet. We're just scratching the

surface of this. But the question that haunts me is

if we were to have to put this sign up

on our doors next week, who would miss us? Who

would miss us? Who would think? Wow, what happened to

the movement church? Where'd they go? I think some of

the teachers here at the school would miss us, some

of the students would some of the people whose homes

we help on the first Sunday in June would miss us.

And the pastors in our town would miss us. But

would they miss you if you left your neighborhood? Are

you making your neighborhood better? Think about these questions. What

would it look like for you to make your neighborhood better,

your workplace, your area of influence, and by the way,

how can we help One of the big visions of

the Movement church is not just that you help us

do ministry, but that you tell us what it looks

like for us to help you do ministry. You want

to throw a block party for your neighborhood just to

bless them, tell us about it. We'll help you. We'll

buy the kool aid, we'll buy the hot dogs. That's

about as much as we can afford. But we want

to help you. I heard a great sermon once at

this church planning convention. This guy stood up in front

of a thousand church planners and he said this your

church is going to die. Your church is going to die,

and so is mine, and eventually so is every church

that's operational today. And he's right. There's not a single

local church in the history of the world it's going

to last forever, not one. The question is what are

we do in the meantime When TMC, eventually, years and

years from now, come on in Jesus' name, closes its doors,

Who's gonna notice With the tri Lakes miss Us, would

they mourn the loss of the Movement Church. I desperately

want them to. I desperately want them to. I want

when there is tragedy in our town, when tragedy befalls

Monument or Palmer Lake, I want these two guys, the

mayors of those two towns, to have me on speed dial.

I want them to call me. I want to be

in the first five or seven phone calls. Not because

our church is so big, but because our heart is

and because they know that if they call us, we're

going to do something. We're going to make the town better,

We're going to step up. That is the reputation of

a town, not just saying God is for you, but's

live in it. Because guys, people aren't gonna miss sermons.

I mean, my sermons are okay, They're not gonna miss

the sermons. They're not gonna miss our songs and uh,

you know, shout out to John and Sue Crestman. They're

not gonna miss our pancakes either. Those are all good things.

But what they're gonna miss is the impact we make

on this community. I want for people to feel like this,

that people can't imagine the Trilaks without the Movement Church. Oh,

that people go what is monument without the Movement Church.

Now we're not there yet, but that is my dream

for us, for you, that we make such an impact

on this community, that people go that place. Those people,

they're the real thing, and they make our town better.

You with me, that is the great expectation. And I'm

telling you it's urgent.

So what's God leading you to do next? And how

come me help? Send us an email to info at

Movementchurch dot co and tell us how we can pray

for you and help you to take the next step

in your spiritual journey.

If you'd like to contribute financially to our ministry, you

can text the amount you'd like to get to this

number A three three seven two five zero one three two.

That's A three three seven two five zero one three two,

or just look us up online at Movementchurch dot com.

You can find the Movement Church on all social media platforms.

And we hope that you'll give us a follow. God

bless you, and remember God is for you, and so

are we.