How To CHURCH // Called to Order

Welcome to the Movement Church Podcast. We want you to know that God is

for you, and so are we. You're about to hear a sermon from

one of our weekend services in Palmer Lake, Colorado. We pray that your

faith is provoked, your mind is renewed, and your heart is awakened as

you engage the Word of God. Stay tuned after the message for ways to

get connected with us. God bless you. Thanks for tuning in. So

a couple of weeks ago, Judah got invited to a birthday party and Dana

dropped him off. So show up to this house and have you ever just

walked into a room and realized that nobody was in charge? You ever had

that experience? That's what this was. When I pulled up to the house

and opened my car door, I could hear the screams and the yelling from

the street. Okay, So I walked towards towards the house and thinking I

was gonna knock on the door. Nope, the door's just opened. Just

come on in. There's just chaos, Come on in. And so I

walked downstairs and the only thing I could think of was I remember when I

was in high school or middle school. When I was still in the comic

books, this guy named Todd McFarlane. He came up with a way to

tell a story in comic books that was a little different than had ever been

done. It was a thing called a splash page. And if you know

about comic books, you know that this is kind of super popular now.

But the idea, you know, comic books just to be kind of wardened

off little pieces of a story, kind of this block, this block,

well, McFarlane came up with this thing called splash pages. This is what

they look like. There's all of this action happening all at once, and

so you kind of stared this picture for like fifteen twenty minutes just to get

a full grasp of what it was. That's what this party was. Okay.

By the way, in the movie Endgame, the Avengers End Game,

the same thing happened. They did kind of a living splash page towards the

end of that movie where he says Avengers a symbol and then all of the

heroes show up through these little portals. That's kind of what it was.

There was a kid, I'll never forget this kid. There was a kid

in the corner of the party, and nobody was dealing with him, so

he just thought, I'm gonna have myself a moment. He got a piece

of pizza, and he got some recess pieces and some bubblegum and some other

candies and he was stacking it on this piece of pizza and he was like

his creation. Actually I didn't have my phone with me, so I didn't

take a picture of it, but I asked Ai to create one for us.

So this is the picture, okay, And that is the look in

the kid's eyes. He was like, I'm a diabolical genius, okay,

and I'll never forget. He picked this piece of pizza up and he took

a bite of it, and I think he thought I've messed up, Like

I think he really thought that. But then he was like just this huge

smile came on his face and he ate the rest of the pizza. And

I was like, this should be on National Geographic, Like this is crazy.

So I actually asked Ai to kind of build us a picture of what

was happening in that day. This is what I wrote. I wrote an

eight year old girl's birthday party in a basement with thirty other kids running around

like crazy, including three boys playing swords with glowsticks, two girls stacking cups

while staring at each other, and two parents sitting in the corner of the

room helpless and scared. This is what I've described, and this is the

picture they created. It's kind of got some of those elements. And I

said, I need a better picture. Can you make it a cartoon?

And when they made the cartoon, it really came to life. This is

like an amazing depiction of what I saw that day. In fact, in

the corner back back there you can see up by that painting, there's that's

kind of the mom and dad just sort of helpless. You see the kids

running around. Now, what I didn't write on here was that my son

Judah just decided this is a perfect experience for me to just parkour. So

Judah was just parkouring all around the whole basement and literally every time he did

a flip, Pete say parkour. And I was like, I don't think

that's how it works, Judah. But like, and nobody was anybody else

parkoring with you? No, just me Dad, Okay? Cool? So

anyway, so you know, it was just chaos. It was absolute chaos.

And I don't know about you. But when things are chaotic, I

kind of I get a little squaremy a little itchy. Are you that way?

Like when when when things don't seem to be like anybody's in charge,

like I start sweating, like I get really nervous. I like to feel

like I'm like somebody's in charge. It doesn't have to be me. I'm

happy to lead, but I need someone to be in charge. Which is

why I love, deeply, deeply love Cirque de solet have And if you

guys ever been to a Cirque de Sole show. Okay, so this was

about ten years ago. Dana and I went to a Cirq to Soley show.

We got given tickets. I didn't know what it was. I'd never

heard of it, I had no context for it. But we got there

ten minutes early, and when I walked in, it was this like really

strange looking stage. This was the Mystaire show in Las Vegas. If you've

ever been to that show, really strange looking stage was trying to make sense

of the layout of it. And when you walk in, there was no

music playing. It was just kind of like dark and hazy. And then

there was this one clown this like French clown and he was walking around the

room and he was harassing people, you know, like clowns do, but

he was speaking French, so nobody knew what he was saying. Like he

would try to say something to the people and they wouldn't be able to understand

what he was And my eyes were just drawn to him. I couldn't like

wherever he went, I was like I was with him. And then somewhere

about the five minute mark, people started doing things on the stage, things

like this, like climbing up a pole and just sitting there, and I

was like, Okay, that's what's happening right now, this is weird.

When the show started, they kind of brought out different people with different talents,

like this lady who you know is twirling all of these hula hoops.

You know. I don't know when you learn that you can do something like

this. I don't know what age you are that you go. I think

this is my future. But she figured it out. And then these three

ladies come out and they start balancing each other and doing crazy tricks and like

standing on each other, and I was like, WHOA, Like this is

next level. Now what you need to know is I'm a verbal processor,

okay, so like I'm the guy that talks in the movie. I'm sorry.

So I'm like i'm watching this, I'm like, oh snap, Like

I'm like really loudly. Everybody else is like hushed and quiet, and I'm

like, do y'all see this? This is crazy? That lady is balancing

on another lady's head. Do you see this? Like I was losing my

mind. And then then I thought we had seen the most of it until

these two giant men I'm talking like, wwe like heavyweight champion size dude six

five muscles ripped and they start balancing each other against their body weight. And

I was like totally quiet because I was like, oh my god, do

y'all see this? Like it was crazy? They started doing things that I

mean, I don't know how you learn how to do this or like why

I don't get it? You know, hey, what if we tried this

one, Bob, I don't know. I don't think I would try it.

And then the piece of resistance was this move right here where you got

a guy doing like like handstands on another dude's head. Okay, and I'm

freaking out, like and Dana's like if you say another word, we are

leaving. Okay, Like it was that kind of a thing. Was amazing,

and I thought that was gonna be the best part. Then they start

bringing out hundreds of people on the stage and they're all doing all these crazy

things, and like it was a living splash page. It was everybody on

the stage doing all of their tricks all at once, and I'm trying to

process it all. Like I was just like amazed by it. At the

end of it, they did a big finale and then they came out and

they you know, did a final kind of moment, and I just remember

sitting there thinking about God. I just began to think about like the intricacy

of the world that we live in and all of the details that are happening

on the splash page of the earth at all times, that God is seeing

all of it and is aware of all of it. The Bible says that

God never sleeps and he never slumbers. That's in Psalm one twenty one.

That he's always engaged, he's always involved. When scientists do their best to

make sense of the world, you know, they start talking about things like

photosynthesis, like how light and how water and how reproduction happens in the world.

You think about things like gravity. God created gravity and he absolutely enforces

it and instills it on us all the time. Think about things like wind,

currents and waves and how that operates and how that changes the world,

and how God thought about all of that stuff. You think about the fact

that in the known universe, and as far as we know, in the

unknown universes, this planet is the only one that's close enough to a star

that it can provide light. You just think about the structure of that,

the beauty of that, the power of that, and if you were to

take a telescope and look to the furthest expanses of the universe and just sort

of be in awe of what God in control of, what he has the

power over. And then if you think about the intricacy of you and how

you were made, your unique DNA, and how that there has never been

in all of creation, in all of history, there has never been anyone

exactly like you. Come on, tell the person next to you you are

one of one. Tell them you are one of one. There has never

been anyone like you. There has never been anyone like you. So you

think about that, and then of course, what we're talking about in this

series is we're talking about the intricacy of the church, God's people, God's

chosen method to spread the message of the Bible. Us. Of course,

we are called to order. I'm not going to bang my gabble again,

but we're called to order. We're called to represent the very nature of God

in every aspect of our being and are doing church. We're not called to

disorder. We're not called to distraction, we're not called to dysfunction. And

somebody should say, amen, right, We're not called to this, but

to this. Okay, So next week we're all going to wear costumes.

No just kidding, but less circus and more cirque, you know, less

mess and more majesty, more splash page, more of a picture of God

in action. We are called to order, and so today I'm going to

give you five ways that we are called to order. Now, this is

kind of a behind the scenes conversation about kind of how the sausage is made

at the Movement Church a little bit. I'm going to talk a little bit

about some of what we believe when we come to polity and governance and structure.

We're going to talk about some of that, but this really is about

the fact that God really, really deeply wants for us as a community of

faith to work well together and to be structured and to be ordered, because

that's who He is, out of order, and so we should be a

church of order. We're called to order. We are called to order,

and that's important. We are called to order because inside of that we's a

whole lot of mes, a whole lot of you know. It's like they

say in football, it's not about the ex'es and the o's, it's about

the Jimmy's and the Joe's. Right, it's about the people. Open it

up. That's the church. So we are called to order. And again,

there's never been anyone like you. There's never, in all of human

history been someone with your exact experiences, your exact gift mix, your exact

talents, your exact fears, your exact everything. There's never been anyone like

you. And you're a part of this church, and so we have to

figure out how to make sense of that. Because God loves human individuality.

He loves it. He made each and every one of us with great specificity,

great specificity. One of my favorite things in the world to get to

know someone who is not afraid to be who they are. You know,

my favorite people are the people without pretense, the people who aren't trying to

make me think that they're one thing when they're actually another. But people who

are just like, this is who I am. You know, Miss Lynn,

you're one of those people. John Cressman, you're one of those people.

Jeff Rudder, you're one of those people. People who just Dave Walner,

my man, you are one of those people, like people who just

are like, this is who I am, and this is who God made

me to be, And I like who God made me to be. Man,

there's nothing better than that. There's nothing better of that. Because when

God made the heavens and the earth, and the fish of the sea,

and the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field, and

the vegetation and mountains and seas, he made all of these things, and

he said, this is good. It's good, there's order, it's beautiful.

But then in Genesis one, it says this, let us make man

in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish

of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the

livestock, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on

the earth. Each of us were made in the image of God, and

hidden in our unique DNA is the water mark of God, the Father.

Each of us were made like him. Does that mean that God has ten

fingers and tintoes? Does that mean that God has a receding hairline? Probably

not, right, Like, that's not how it works. But what it

means is that our sort of composition is reflective of His composition soul, spirit,

body, That's the idea. And so in fact, all of us

were created in His image. Now here's what I think is so cool.

God is a creator God. And the trend in church culture right now,

and this is the trend that we're aiming really hard to buck up against and

push against. The trend in church culture is to be very mindful and willing

for consumers to find a home in the church. So people come into the

church and the question that they're asking of themselves is what does this church have

to offer me? Right, what does this church have for me? I'm

coming here to receive many people church shop with that perspective, and I think

that God very much wants for us if we're going to be in his image,

not to think what can we get out of this, but what can

we offer to it? What can we bring to it? Because he's a

creator. Yes, he's an all consuming fire, and that's good, but

he's a creator God, and I believe that we are most like God when

we create. So don't just consume. Create. When you create a culture

in your home, you're reflecting the image of God. And this family,

we dinner three nights a week together, no matter what's happening, we all

go to bed at eight o'clock, whatever it is. I know people that

the husband and wife refuse to go to bed at different times. They always

go to bed at the same time. You're creating a culture, you're reflecting

the image of God. When you create goods and services in your job,

you're reflecting the image of God. I was talking with Josh yesterday and he

works in the military in this base force, and all of the things that

he does is reflecting the image of God. Wherever you serve, if you

are creating and contributing to the world, you are reflecting the image of God.

When you create a pathway to a career high school students, when you

start thinking about where am I going to go to college? And who am

I going to be when I'm twenty five, and what kind of a person

do I want to marry? Those kinds of questions. What you're doing is

you're creating. You're creating a culture, a pathway. You're reflecting the image

of God. Now you could argue with me, but when you create a

Pinterest board, you are reflecting the image of God. Any Pinterest people here

today, okay, you are reflecting the image of God. Good for you.

God is a god of order. He's a god of order. He

created order. And unless you're like the Joker and like you know, an

anarchist and you just want chaos, your job is to help him in that

process of creating order. All of us, at some point in our lives

we end up asking a question like this, who am I? Lord?

Help me to make sense of why you made me this way? Why am

I drawn to these kinds of behaviors? Why am I drawn to this kind

of activity? Why did you make me the way that I am? All

of us have to reckon with that, And that same concept is true of

the Little Sea Church that you're a part of, the Movement Church. We

have to reckon with who God made you to be because we are in this

together, the unique blend of gifts and passions and burdens and boundaries that come

to the surface when multiple people work together. That's what a church is,

and a church is called to order. So I'm going to give you five

of these five ways that we're called to order. The first way is this,

we're called to order in our listening. We're called to order in our

listening. I'm a big believer that before we start making decisions, before we

start casting judgments, before we start deciding where we're going, we need to

be great listeners together, listening to the voice of the Lord, listening to

what he has to say. You know, every leader that is going to

be a part of the Movement Church. And by the way, when I

say leader, I'm talking about you, Just so you know, I don't

think leadership is this like tiered thing. When I think of leader, I

think influencer. And so if you're in high school and you have friends,

you're a leader. If you're a realistic agent, you're a leader. If

you are an engineer, you're a leader. You're a stay at home mom,

you're a leader, you have influence, Okay, And so when we

think about leaders, there's some kind of non negotiables that we're all going to

have to agree to. Jesus Christ is Lord, the Bible is our ultimate

authority, the Great Commission is for all believers, and ministry is not just

for the professionals. Those are core to what we believe about leadership. Also

that our core values are your core values. You've heard us preach about it

this year. Growing in groups, living on mission, giving in generosity,

serving in sincerity, practicing His presence. Those are our core values. And

so if you're going to kind of be of us and with us, then

these things need to resonate in your heart. And then we need to be

listening. We need to be listening. You know. One of the spookiest

things that we say very commonly, we say it all the time. Many

people say it just sort of haphazardly, is they say things like this,

you know, the Lord said to me, or the Lord spoke to me,

or I heard the Lord say, or you know what I'm saying.

Things like this. These are things that in Christianity we tend to just throw

those things out there. Imagine how a non believer, A secular person would

respond to you saying, I heard from God. The Lord spoke to me.

Now I'm not saying he didn't, but I'm just saying, think about

how that language, how it affects someone who's not in on Christianity. They

might think that you're taking advantage of some of the medical opportunities that we have

in the state of Colorado. They might think that maybe something's going on,

and they might want you to puff puff pass right. But these questions,

do you hear from God? Do you hear the voice of God? Those

are powerful questions. Now, of course, in my opinion, there are

two beautiful, clear, appropriate ways for you to hear from God. The

first is the Bible. Sorry to be a preacher, but the Bible.

If you want to hear from God, he wrote you a love letter.

He wrote you his heart, he wrote you his thoughts. He has written

down everything that you need on this side of heaven to live the life that

He's prescribed for you. So, if you want to hear from God,

open up his word. The voice of the Lord is loud and clear in

the living pages of our Bible. In fact, the Bible talks about the

Bible. It's very meta and one Timothy it says this all scripture, how

much all scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting,

training, and righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly

equipped for every good work. So before you go and do a good work,

listen to what the Word has to say. And by the way,

Jesus lived by the same principle, he was always listening for God. Jesus

said this in John. He said, I can do nothing on my own.

As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I

seek not my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.

So we need to listen to the Word, listen to the Lord through the

Word. But also there's another piece, And I find that this is one

of the ways that I most often hear from God is from other people,

from other brothers and sisters who are in relationship with God. We start every

one of our staff meetings and every one of our wisdom table meetings with this

question. Sometimes it flumences us, but most times it offers us an opportunity

to get a greater perspective. This is the question where do you see God

at work in your life? Just for a moment, I'll just give you

like ten seconds and I'll be quiet. But think about how you might answer

that question. Where do you right now, in this moment in your life?

Where do you see God at work in your life? The answers to

that question reset our sensitivity to the Lord and to His movement in our lives.

Very often, either at wisdom table or at staff, someone will share

something about how they see the Lord moving in their life, where they see

the Lord at work, and then it reminds me, oh, yeah,

I saw the Lord work in this way in my life. Oh yeah,

Oh that was God right. So this question is crucial. I would ask

you to practice this question. I would ask you, husbands and wives,

have this be a part of your date night rhythm. Ask that question,

where do you see God at work in your life? Let's talk about our

kids, Let's talk about how they're growing in their faith. Let's talk about

your opportunities at work and where you've had chances to talk about Jesus. Where

do you see God at work in your life? Don't miss the miraculous for

the mundane. See I think very often God's moving in ways that we don't

really make sense of it until after He already moved. Have you ever noticed

that? It's like the whole footprints thing, Like you go, I don't

see God, Where is he? What's he doing? Look at all that

God did? That's amazing, Like that's kind of how it is. But

if we could train ourselves to be sensitive to the voice of the Lord in

our everyday life, man, it will change the way you interact with him.

We are called to order in our listening, and we are called to

order. This is number two in our leading. We're called to order in

our leading. Jeff did a great job talking about this a few weeks ago

where we talked about the big, beautiful sexy word governance. That was a

tough sermon to preach, and you did it great, Jeff. But we

are called to governance. What does that mean? It means that there has

to be someone who is responsible for the decisions that are made on our behalf.

Okay, so, like we're having a good Friday service at Holy Trinity

Anglican Church. Who made that decision? We're going to have an Easter egg

hunt out here on the next Saturday. Who made that decision? We're gonna

have nine bap on Easter Sunday next week. Who made that decision? Those

are the kinds of things like a church has to have a level of governance.

That's how God set it up. I love these three words plurality,

humility, and intentionality that the leaders that are leading our church exhibit a desire

for those three things. Paul talks about the requirements for an overseer in one

Timothy three. I'm going to read it to you here. It says this,

The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer,

he desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach,

the husband of one wife, sober minded, self controlled, respectable, hospitable,

able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle,

not quarrelsome, and not a lover of money. He 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 care for God's

Church. He must not be a recent convert or he may be become puffed

up with conceit and fall into the combination of the devil. Moreover, he

must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace,

into a snare of the devil. Man. That's a pretty high bar,

right, That's a pretty high bar for one person to be all of

those things. That's a pretty impressive person. That's a person who is totally

yielded to the Lord and who is giving all that they have to surrender to

him and to follow him. And I'll tell you the guys that are on

our Elder team fit that Bill. That's who these men are, except for

John Crestman. So I tease John because he's the best of us. He's

amazing. But this word pastor elder, those words, when you get into

like, you know, really looking at the original languages, some of those

words get kind of soupy, like they're kind of one means the same,

one means other. So I just want to clarify a little bit today about

this idea. I mean, you heard the you heard the description a husband

of one wife. Then that's important. Husband of one wife. Okay,

so how can you be a husband? You have to be a man?

How you doing sober minded, not a drunkard, not violent, quarrelsome a

man who's leading his home and family will a man who is above reproach and

has great reputation. So that's what our elders look like. Now, there's

a lot of debate in the in the church world today about the conversation about

females and where they fit in regards to ministry, and what I believe that

the Scripture is making so clear in this passage is that men are responsible to

lead over women, and that men are the ones who carry the title and

the responsibility of overseer and pastor. So here at the Movement Church, we've

decided that we're only going to have one pastor on staff. You're looking at

them, I'm the pastor. Everybody else on our staff like Dana is our

children's ministry coordinator, Jeremiah is the worship director. We use words like director

and coordinator that we do that kind of stuff just to sort of we don't

want to fight because here's what we believe. That women are capable more than

capable of doing the work that you might use to describe the job title of

pastor. But we're just not going to fight about that. If they want

to do that work and they want to serve and love and bless in the

way that they're gifted. We want them to do that. So that's how

we've set it up now. When we were a location of Vanguard Church back

in the day, we didn't have an elder team. We had a Strategic

Leadership Team. We call it the SLT. And what was cool, My

favorite thing about the Strategic Leadership Team was that we didn't have to live by

these emathy rules for eldership. We could have women on that SLT. And

desperately I wanted for there to be more than just the male perspective at the

highest level of governance in our church. I wanted for there to be women

who are just as bought in as these men are to share with us their

perspective because how many of you know that men and women think differently? Do

you know that? Come on, okay, husbands, you should have said

it quiet, women, you should have said it loud. Okay, that's

the way that works. Men and women think differently. And so anyway,

so what we did was we put our elders and we put our Strategic Leadership

Team, and we put them together. There's three spots on the SLT and

there's four spots on the elder team, five with me, and we get

together and we talk, and we call that our wisdom table. That is

our highest level of governance here at the Movement Church, the Wisdom Table.

The people at the table who are obviously about this picture, excited about the

great things that God is doing. I wish that that were an actual picture

of our meetings. It's not, it's aspirational, but anyway, our elders

have a vote and the slt have a voice. And that's the way that

we have sort of approached this thing to be a hybrid. We want to

be obedient to the Word of God, but we also want to kind of

be modern and think about how can we involve more than just the male perspective

at the highest level of governance. So once decisions are made at that level,

I lead our staff to execute the plan, and the staff leads their

ministry teams and volunteer ministry teams of the Movement Church are then empowered to make

real Kingdom impact. And guys, that's what we want. We want to

see you living out your faith in mighty and powerful and real, tangible,

sticky, portable ways. We want you to be involved in ministry at our

church. So we're called to listening, we're called to leading. What else

we're called to listing? Are you noticing what I'm doing? Anybody notice?

Come on, I'm a preacher. I gotta give you something that make it

stick, right, We're called to order in our listing. In week one

of this series, I talked about this the Three Bees. But I remember

this, Butts bucks and buildings. Butts bucks and buildings. This, unfortunately,

is the most common way that churches evaluate themselves. How we doing financially,

how we doing with the amount of people in the room, how we

doing with our buildings. These are the questions that we ask. And I

said to you, I don't like that metric. I also said to you

that we measure what matters most to us. And I can tell you right

now that Butts bucks and buildings is not what matters most to me. It's

not what matters most to our wisdom table. That's just not where we are.

This is pretty cool. The next Tuesday, after I preached that sermon,

Jeremy Roderick, who's on spring break right now, why is not here?

But he sent me this text that was so cool. I was like,

so encouraged by it. That's what he said. He said, I

was thinking about the three bees for church growth measurements last night. I agree

that the butch, bucks and buildings shouldn't necessarily be the only measurements that churches

used to monitor growth. Sure those are great from a business aspect, but

not a spiritual one. How about a different set of bees for growth?

My man's thinking like a preacher. He says, Bible increasing sound, biblical

and theological doctrine that points believers to the Creator, baptism, new believers gaining

residency in heaven, and breeding. That's the only one. I didn't like,

developing disciples that eventually multiply exponentially. It seems to me Jesus cares more

about the latter three bees than the former, so shouldn't we. I say,

amen, Jeremy, I think if we focus on the latter three bees

like TMC appears to be doing, the former will follow suit. And then

he said, these are deep thoughts in the shallow end of my mind at

midnight last night. Thank you, Jeremy, And so I love that.

I just tweaked it a little bit and I made it Bible, baptisms and

building because what is it that we're doing. We're building the Kingdom of God.

Right, We're building the Kingdom of God. So I love that.

That's a cool That's a good three bs. Our metrics must reflect what matters

most of us. One of my favorite quotes I've ever heard about church growth

is this one. A friend of mine said this. I'm much less concerned

with how many people we can get in here than I am with how many

people that can go out there. So what's he's saying? We should be

more attentive to our sending capacity than to our seating capacity. We are called

to order in our listing what matters most. There must be structure, There

must be something that we're aiming for, something that we're fighting for, because

if you don't stand for anything, you'll fall for everything, right, And

that's the idea. We're called to order in our two more. And I

will admit that this word was forced because I couldn't find another word that started

with L, so you'll have to forgive me, okay, But we are

called to order in our lingering. And what I mean by that is in

our gathering, in our time, that we come together to linger in the

presence of God, we're called to order in the way that we do that.

There's all sorts of scriptures, a lot of them are in First Corinthians

and in Timothy about what happens when we gather, and why it matters that

they're structure to it, why it matters that it's not a giant splash page

right, that it's not this chaotic moment. Their biblical instructions about how to

prophesy, how to teach, how to preach, how to worship, how

to speak in tongues, how to interpret tongues, how to dress, how

to behave, how to make space for non believers. And what's cool about

that is that God is trying to tell us that order matters on all levels.

If every week you came into this worship service and it was just chaos,

some of you go might really like that, and I think you're weird,

but most of us would want for there to be some sense of Okay,

I kind of know the elements of the service. I kind of understand

what we're gonna do. We take communion after the sermon, and you know,

there's a meet and greet. We flipped up the meet and greet today

that Plummet's Melissa more than you. But you know things like that, like

we need to have order in the way we do it, and we need

to do that because the Bible told us to. And this is an important

truth. I want you to hear me say. The Bible is in errant,

in errant, and that means that it tells no lives and it doesn't

contradict itself. It doesn't contradict itself. That's really important. I bet you

that there are some passages of scripture that you could think of right now that

you wish weren't in the Bible. I bet you could think of some things

that you go, yeah, but what about this thing? What about that

thing? We have to look at the whole of the Bible. I took

a hermeneutics class in seminary. Hermautics is a word that means the study of

the study of the Bible. It's a really weird word. But how to

study the Bible, how to approach it? And what was so funny?

It's like, have you ever been to like a Sinday school class and you

ask a group of like second graders, who was it that was alive in

the belly of the whale, and kids always answer was it Jesus? Like,

have you ever noticed that the answer to every question from a second grader

is Jesus? And you're like, yes, it was Jesus. You can't

tell them that they're wrong, right. This guy approached this word, not

Jesus, but this word context context like it was the answer to every question

any of us ever answered about the Bible. And I think he's onto something

because we have to used context to make sense of it. Now, contextualization

can be dangerous because if you read one passage of scripture and wave it off

because of cultural concerns or because of our evolved thinking, then we run the

risk of invalidating the rest of scripture. Because if I can point out one

verse in the Bible and say this one is wrong, it's factually wrong.

This is not what God believes. Well, now I've just opened up conjecture

about every verse in the whole Bible to see what I'm saying. So we

have to hold to this idea that the Bible is God breed, that it

is from the Lord. But we have to understand what we're saying when we

say that. Like, for example, when you read the Bible, an

immature question to ask when you read the Bible is what does this mean to

me? What does this mean to me when I read this? What does

this passage mean to me? That's a really dangerous, really immature question.

It's a really self involved question. Now what does this mean for me is

a different question because you're not thinking about yourself. You're asking what is the

author's intent? What did this mean to the author? And what did it

mean to the author's audience. And also, my friend Brian Poppy, he's

really big on this next one. He says this, we have to ask

ourselves what have theologians learned from this passage throughout the generations? So it's not

just how we understand it in our modern language today in twenty twenty four,

but what did Augustine think of this? What did Tertullian think of this?

What did Martin Luther think of this passage? Because that can help to shape

our understanding of what it actually meant. The Bible is completely true, completely

free of contradiction, but it's not the complete picture of the essence of God.

The Bible can't contain all that God is. It just can't do it.

Sixty six books is not enough. There is more to God than it

could be contained in those books. In fact, the Bible actually says this

about itself, because Paul says this in one Corinthians thirteen. He says,

now we see things imperfectly. I love this, like puzzling reflections. Anybody

ever looked in the mirror and be puzzled by what you see? Nobody want

to admit it, That's what they say, puzzling reflections in a mirror.

But then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now

is partial and incomplete. But then in heaven, in eternity, I will

know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. This is beautiful.

I love this. And so again context is crucial, and I'm heading

towards something. That's why I'm saying all this. So, for example,

where Paul is writing a letter to a leader or a community of faith,

and he's addressing specific issues that were prevalent in that specific gatherings culture. So

this gets us into what I think is one of the hottest debated issues in

all of theological church life right now, the most debated issue right now,

and that is the proper biblical way to approach the subject of women personally,

I'm for them. Just want you to know I'm for women. If you're

against them, I'm not on your team. I'm pro women. Love them,

big fan, love my wife, all the women in the room,

love you deeply. Glad you're here. Okay, good, So, but

questions like what should women wear, what hairstyle is appropriate, and what isn't.

Personally, I'm out on the beehive. I think that should be gone.

I wish it was in the Bible. I want to see the whole

movie, not just have to like lean the whole way. Okay, So,

when women can speak and when they should stay silent? Is anybody feeling

squarey right now? Anybody feeling a little uncomfortable and awkward right now? Me

too? I got to preach this. Here's the deal. What's clear is

it God has set up a construct from the beginning of time where men are

and I really want you to focus on this word. Men are responsible to

lead women and not the other way around. When you look through your Bible,

women are not responsible to lead over men. Men are responsible to lead

over women. This is why the title and the responsibility of the overseer must

be male exclusively. But there are so many moments in our Bible that we

go, man, what do I do with that passage? Like? For

example, look at this in one Timothy too, it says likewise also that

women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, so Nike, with modesty and self

control, not with braided hair, owning body, braided hair in the house.

Not with braided hair and gold or pearl or costly attire, but with

what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works. Now, let's

use our model that I just gave you. What did this mean to the

author? What did it mean to the author's audience? Okay, Paul is

communicating to a very specific congregation in ephesis, and he's saying that the women

are making a show of themselves in that location. They are trying to be

noticed. They are trying to be seen. They're trying for all the men

in the room to notice them. And Paul is saying that is improper.

What did it mean to the author's audience. He was saying directly to Timothy,

Timothy, it is your responsibility to pasture these people and to help them

to understand what right and what wrong is? What is the idea that holds

true for us in our context today. So is the real issue the gold,

the pearls, and the brains. No, those were just examples.

The issue is modesty, right, The issue is self control. Women should

be adorned in their love for God that bears the fruit of good works.

If you want me to notice you, then serve God. Love God,

be adorned with Him, not with gold or any other thing that's going to

draw attention to yourself. That's the point of this passage. I think that's

pretty clear and pretty easy. But then you get into a passage like this,

and I promise you I'm stepping on a landmine and I know it.

Verse eleven of verse Timothy two, Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a

man. Rather, she is to remain quiet. Same group of people Ephesus,

same author same intent. What's happening in this context in Timothy is that

the women in the Church of Ephesus, and this is the key word,

they are attempting another passage, another version of this says they are attempting to

usurp authority over the men. They are attempting to kind of have a coup

amongst that group of people. They want to have authority over the men.

And Paul is saying, do not allow that. Why because that's not how

God designed it. God doesn't want for these women, for any women,

to exert authority over men. That's the issue here. And you know what's

interesting when you read the rest of what Paul has to say about men and

women, it gives you context. Like, for example, in Galatians III,

he says this, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither

slave nor free. There is no male and no female. For you are

all one in Christ Jesus. We're equals in this. Males aren't dominant over

women. We just have different roles. We're one in Christ Jesus. By

the way, listen to what God says about this in Acts chapter two in

the Last Days, God says, I will pour out my spirit upon how

many people, all people, your sons and your daughters will prophesy. So

it's not to say that women aren't allowed to speak in church. It's to

say that women aren't allowed to usurp. They aren't allowed to sort of rest

control from the order and the structure of what's supposed to be happening in the

moment, and that's what was happening in Ephesus. So I believe that this

is true. God is more concerned with our responsibility than he is with our

authority. I think somewhere along the way, over the course of two thousand

years, there has been some chauvinism. There has been some ego involved in

the way that men think about the word authority. I have authority, and

I think we kind of let it go to our heads. I really believe

that God is concerned with responsibility. I've asked you to care for her.

I've asked you to serve her. I've asked you to make sure she's good.

I've asked you to love her. In fact, I've asked you to

love her and lead her the way Christ led the Church. He gave himself

up for her. That's what God is interested in. Listen to what Jesus

said. This is where to me, This is the bottom line in the

Great Commission. Jesus says this, all authority in heaven and on earth has

been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing

them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Oh, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And

behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. How much

authority does Jesus have all authority? He didn't say most authority is given to

me, and I'm going to give to you a little bit of it.

No, No, it's all mine. And since I have all the authority,

I'm going to tell you what to do. And the Great Commission is

not gender specific, It's for all of us. So there's this phrase that's

been going around in the midst of all these arguments that people are having about

the role of women in church, and this is the phrase authoritative preaching.

Authoritative preaching. The idea is that a pastor, when he stands up on

this platform, that he is responsible to tell you what you ought to do

with your life, that he is responsible to give his thoughts on your life.

And I just can't get down with that, guys, I can't.

I just can't get there, because if all authority was given to Jesus,

then that means I don't have any My job is not to tell you what

I think you ought to do. I don't have any authority. My job

is to love you, to serve you, to bless you, and to

do my best to make the Bible real to you. Right, I'm not

instructing you to obey my counsel. I'm just informing you of what God's counsel

truly is. My job is to convey his counsel in ways that are portable,

memorable, and impactful. And that's why all the points start with the

letter L today. Okay, that's what I'm trying to do. I want

it to be portable. I want you to think about it on Wednesday afternoon.

What were those el's I wrote them down? What was that? Oh?

That's cool? Right, I'm trying to lead you to an impasse each

week where you ask yourself if you believe what the Bible is trying to impress

upon you. I'm not exerting any of my own authority. I don't have

any I'm pointing to the one who has all of it. Amen, And

guess what that principle holds true for anyone that would stand on this platform.

They're not exerting their authority. They're not exhorting even a piece of authority.

All they're doing is telling you what the one who has all authority has to

say. Back in ancient times, there would be a guy who would come

through the town with a you know, a trumpet, and he would say,

hear ye, hear ye, the king has spoken. Right. That's

this. It's called a herald. By the way, it's a herald,

not harald's. Okay, you're with me. You can be a female herald

in this church, in the in the economy of God. You can be

a male man in the economy of God. That's the way that he is

cool with it. He's good with it. So I just you know,

I'm dancing on a fine line. But I just want you to hear me.

That's what we mean when we talk about order. So in order for

gatherings to be orderly, we must apply the whole of Scripture to live in

accordance to it. And we really got to be better. We're going to

be hearing about this in the next four weeks or so. We've got to

be better at the one another's. The one another has mattered a lot to

Jesus. Do you know what I mean when I say to one another's like

love one another, forgive one another serve one another. We got to be

better at those. The writer of Hebrews said it like this in chapter ten.

He said, and let us consider how to stir up one another.

I love that. I love just that image that just by being around each

other, that we can stir up one another to do what to love,

and to do good works, not neglecting meeting together as some have done today,

sorry, as is the habit of some spring breakers. But encourage one

another, and all the more as you see the day drawing drawing near.

We're called to order in our lingering. And here's the last one. We're

called to order in our launching. We're called to order in our launching.

What do we mean by that? Every week, every time we gather,

we do the forward, right, we say the forward together. Some of

you love it, some of you are learning to love it. That's fine,

I'm okay. But we do that because we're launching into the world.

We're being sent as missionaries. See a lot of churches spend most of their

time and effort trying to convince you how to help them do ministry. I'm

going to say that again. A lot of churches spend most of their time

and effort trying to convince you to help them do ministry. Come and serve

in this ministry, Come and do this, Come and do this. We'll

organize it all. You just come be the manpower. And that's good.

We're going to do some of that as a church. But I got to

tell you, I'm way more passionate about trying to help you figure out what

God's calling you to do. What is your ministry? What is the Lord

asking you to do? And how can we help? Yes, we want

you to help us do some things, but I promise you not nearly as

much as we want to help you. We want to see you live on

mission in a way. So should we gather together, yes, Should we

share stories about God at work? Of course? Should we practice all to

one another's with one another, yes, But God's intent was never for us

only to linger together in the sanctuary. We are the living temple. We

have to go and bring God wherever we go. And that's why we say

God is not a monument. He's a movement and we get to be a

part of it. That's why we say this. And so every week when

we're when we're saying that prayer, the forward, those prepositions are so important.

Move in me, Oh God, Move for me, Oh God,

Move through me, Oh God, Move with me, Oh God. We're

asking the Lord to prepare us to launch. Every week and our church,

moms and dads are choosing to make disciples of their kids. They're being launched

out of this place to do that. Every week, students are choosing not

to fit in, but to stand out. They're being launched into their high

school. Ordinary citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven are shining the light of God

in the dark corners of our world. And our job, the orderly process

of a church is to launch you into your mission field. The church is

called to order, and that's awesome. But just before we leave, I

just want to say one thing about you. Yes, we are called to

order, but so are you. You in your living and your day to

day life, are called to order. Some of you need rigid schedules,

like okay, six forty two, am I do this? Six forty seven.

I saw one incredible leader's like TikTok of his day and the way he

structures his day, and it's like meticulous. At six' oh nine I

shower, I was like, oh okay, that's very orderly. It's very

intense. Some of you need very intense order. Some of you need less

intense order. But you need order. And here's why. Because Paul says

this about your life and about the proper response to what God has done for

you. He says this, Therefore, I a prisoner for serving the Lord.

I beg you to live a life that's worthy of your calling, for

you have been called by God. Listen to these explanations. Always be humble

and be gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's

faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the

spirit, binding yourselves together with peace, for there is one body and one

spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.

He's saying, we have a mission together, but you got to help.

You got to participate, and you got to do that Monday through Saturday.

You gotta find ways to be orderly in your living so that when we

come together there's harmony and there's peace in that. See, every week people

walk into worship services across the world. People are going to walk in even

next week, even on Easter, some people are gonna walk in limping.

Some people are going to walk in dancing. Some people are gonna walk in

having one of the hardest weeks of their life, and they're coming to church

and they're going, God, where are you. I'm desperate for you.

I can't make it another day unless you show up, speak to me Lord.

And some people are going to be like I saw Jesus every day this

week. It was amazing, right, So, and it's beautiful because that

balance is so important. Why because we're stirring each other up towards good work.

So just being around one another is so important, and particularly next week

on Easter because and I know, I know Melissa said this earlier, but

there is not an easier invitation that you're gonna have all year to invite someone

to come to church the next Sunday. That person that you've been praying for,

that person that you've been wondering where are they with God, that person

in your family, that person at your job, that person in your neighborhood.

It is time this week invite them to come to church. I'm going

to preach next week a sermon called when did the Gospel Become Bad News?

When did the Gospel become Bad News? And the thought of that is,

if the gospel is good news, then why doesn't everybody celebrate it? If

the gospel is such good news, then how come everybody's not a Christian?

And so we're going to kind of fight that a little bit, and I'm

going to present the gospel of Jesus Christ. Next week. I'm going to

present salvation in a very clear, very simple way. And so listen,

bring your friends who don't know the Lord. At least we know that they'll

hear it clear and simply. Next week, Amen, you with me.

Plus, we get to celebrate nine people getting baptized. Nine people. There's

gonna be a tub. Yeah, we can celebrate that. Come I'm going

to celebrate that. There'd be a tub right there on the floor. And

you'll see videos and you'll hear these people's stories as they've given their life to

Jesus. It's going to be so good next week. The local church is

God's plan A, and he doesn't have a plan B. And his plan

is a plan of order. God's church is called to order and that's how

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

we help? Would you send us an email to info at Movementchurch dot co

and tell us how we can pray for you and help you take the next

step in your spiritual journey. If you'd like to contribute financially to our ministry,

text the amount you like to give to the number eight four three two

one, or look us up online at Movement Church dot c. 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.