How to CHURCH // God's Family Values

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. We are

starting a new series this morning called how to Church. And if you saw

the bumper online, our friends Christina and Stephen Huddo in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,

my home turf made this for us and hand drew this church with some

core and key words in it, and so this is their doing. But

we're in this series called how to Church. I'm going to tell you a

little bit about it first and then we'll dig into what we're talking about.

So it's weird to really think about this, but really, just only about

four or five months ago, this community of faith was known by a very

specific word. There was a word that defined us and it wasn't church.

The word that defined us was this word location. For a long time,

we were a location of a great church in Colorado Springs called Vanguard Church.

We were connected with them for nine years, and then in October of twenty

twenty three, we became our own church. We became the Movement Church.

We felt very called to that. We felt like the Lord was saying it

was time for us to no longer be a location, to be a church.

And so, but that word location has been a very interesting word for

us, especially over the last few months, because we've had several locations.

Right, we met at the TLCA, We met here at the Ponderosa,

We met outdoors for our first service. Who was here for the first outdoor

service? Who was here for that? Yeah, I mean it was incredible.

And then of course we just met at Chick fil A. There's John

Harris having a great time. Look at him, Look at that. Everybody's

having a good time. And so location is an interesting word because what we've

learned is that a church is really not its location. Even though we're now

here at Bear Creek Elementary and I'm praying that we're going to be here for

a long time and that we're going to fill up this place as the years

and days go on. But man, as soon as we got started,

as soon as we became the Movement Church, we got busy. We got

very busy doing all of this stuff, having worship services and growth groups,

discipleship groups, women's Bible studies Melanie Walger, right, come on, women's

Bible studies. Forming a governance model that we call the Wisdom Table, and

securing a location to have church in, and then doing it again and again

and hopefully not again. Somebody say amen. Right. In the meantime,

we clarified our outward facing vision statement, which is this God is for you,

and so are we. We want the community of the Trilakes to hear

and know from us that this church is for you. We want to know

how we can serve, how we can help, how we can bless This

church is for you. That's our outward facing vision statement. Now, this

is our inward facing mission statement. This is what we're all supposed to be

doing as individuals and as a community Monday through Saturday. This is the work

of our church earning the right to share the Gospel by loving and serving people.

Well, so we're not going to go knocking on doors and telling people

about Jesus until we first had a chance to earn the right to do that

through relationship, through serving, through caring for them, through making sure that

they hear and know from us that were for them. We also solidified our

core values. We just preached through these in our series called Let's Get Moving.

These are our sort of metrics. This is what we look at when

we think about what is this thing we call the Movement Church. What is

it that we're doing, What is it that we're trying to accomplish, What

is it that we're after. We're trying to grow in groups, Serve and

sincerity, give and generosity, live on mission. And last week we introduced

this one practicing His presence. Anybody remember what the Lord's favorite preposition is?

Anybody remember who said it? With? The Lord's favorite preposition is with?

So that was last week and in the middle of all this, we're kind

of building the plane as we fly it. I don't know if you've ever

had an experience like that where you're kind of doing but at the same time

that you're doing it, you're also figuring it out. Anybody ever have that

experience. That's what's happening in our leadership team. That's what's happening on our

staff, and so we're asking big questions. We're gonna go next week to

Nashville, a bunch of your leaders and myself. We're going to Nashville to

do a conference where we're going to talk about multiplication. We're going to talk

about what is our strategy, our process, our dream, our vision for

multiplication. Because and I know that I'm like a faith guy. I have

big faith all the time. I'm just pretty sure that you guys are on

the verge of being ready to multiply this experience. I believe that this space

in particular, and how much room we have in here is incredible. Look

at the empty seats right now, everybody, look at an empty seat.

Okay, there are empty seats in the room. I don't believe that we're

gonna have empty seats in the room this time next year. We're going to

have to buy more chairs. I genuinely believe that. And I'm not saying

that for the purpose of Rah Rah success. I'm saying it because I really

believe that we're on the verge of doing something with our church that's fresh and

real and genuine that people are longing for. Can somebody say amen? I

genuinely believe that that people are longing for this. So what are we going

to do when we get too big for this place? Are we gonna Are

we going to build a big, giant building or are we going to stay

small and plant churches? Are we gonna partner with other church planners? Are

we going to raise up leaders from amongst you and say we believe that you

can be the next leader of a movement church. We don't know. We

don't know the answers to any of those questions, but we're asking them right

now in real time, because what we've learned is that a church is not

its building, it's not its location. A church is a people and people

have power. Amen, people have power. We learn this in Spider Man.

This is important. With great power comes great responsibility. It's from the

prophet Uncle Ben. He's told us that with great power comes great responsibility.

You guys have incredible ability to do incredible things for God, and so you,

all of us, we have got to understand that with great power comes

great responsibility. And so the question that we as a leadership team are wrestling

with and asking is what does obedience look like for the movement church? What

does obedience look like for the movement Church. You've heard me say this one

hundred times. In fact, it's where we got the name for our church.

Even though we're kind of right smack dab in the middle of Monument Colorado.

God is not a monument. He's a movement and all of us get

to be a part of it. It's really really exciting. God is not

sitting still, he's not thinking about yesterday. He's moving forward. That's who

he is, and we get to be a part of that. And so

all of that leads me to a really important, really weighty, really in

these day and age, troublesome, quarrelsome maybe even offensive word, a word

that means so many things to so many people, and the word is church.

Church. What does that word mean? You may remember that last year,

in twenty twenty three, I started the year with this series In and

Out Churcher. We didn't get sued by In and Out Burger for this,

but In and Out at Churcher, and the question that we wrestled with was

in our culture, why is it that so many people are in on God

but they're out on church. How many of you would say that you can

think of a person in your life that that's true. Would you raise your

hand and say, I know somebody that's in on God but out on church.

This word church is a weighty, weighty word. I put a question

early January when I was I think it was late December, when I was

working on this first sermon for this series. And here's the question I put

on Facebook and Instagram. I said, what thought, memory, emotion,

or conviction comes to mind when you hear this word church. Something like eighty

comments on that post were posted, and it was incredible how the post ran

the gamut, the full spectrum of perspective. The answers to the question was

a wide spectrum of perspective. People were all over the place, like if

you think of a pendulum, right way over here is super positive, way

over here is I'm never going to darken the door of a church again.

And it was interesting because people would say things like one person said, when

I think of church, I think of healing, and another person said I

think of hurt. Interesting. One person would say I think of acceptance,

another person rejection. One person would say I think of humble people. Another

person would say I think of arrogant people. One person said I think of

identity. Another person said a loss of agency. I lost my individuality at

church. I had to be like everybody else. One person said care I

found care at church, and another person said I found abandonment. Nobody cared

about me. One person would say affirmation. People were so encouraging, and

one person would say opposition. What is that? How is it that the

same word can mean so many things to so many people? How is that

possible? You maybe have heard this phrase before the best part of church is

people, and the worst part of church is people. Have you ever heard

that before? Anybody? I would like to amend it and just say the

best part of church is Jesus. Can somebody say amen? And the worst

part of church is people? Right, that's the truth. But this word

church has so much weight to it. There's a term that we use in

theological circles. I'm in seminary and we talk about this word. People say

this word all the time. It's this word ecclesiology. And I ever heard

this word before? Ecclesiology. It's a fancy word that just means the study

of the church, the study of the church. What does the Bible have

to say about what the church is supposed to be. That's ecclesiology. And

that root word in that word is ecclesia. Ecclasia is a Greek word that

was used as far back as the septuagen and in later writings of the New

Testament, and all ecclacia means is assembly, some assembly required. The idea

is that when people come together, that's an eccleasea. When there is an

assembly of people like we have today here in Bear Creek Elementary, this is

an ecclesea. So the church of a community, of a city, of

a province, or of a region like Asia. There could be one church

in all of Asia. So there's a bunch of little sea churches, which

we are, We're a little S church. Then there's the big C Church

that's all of us. And one day the Big C Church is going to

assemble. The entire assembly of God's Church will gather together in eternity. This

is an actual picture of that moment. The church really really matters to God.

I heard it said once before that the church we you and I us

together, the ecclacea, the assembly. We are God's plan A, and

he doesn't have a plan B. It's us. He said, I want

you to go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them all that I've

taught you, and baptized them in the name of the Father, the Son,

and the Holy Spirit. And I'm with you. So he also said

this to a guy named Peter. So first time we ever hear Jesus talk

about church. He says, Peter, upon you this one man, I

will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.

That's probably what Peter thought this moment though, This moment is incredible, and

I want you to think about this phrase right here, the gates of Hell

will not prevail against it. What does a gate do? It keeps things

out. All the gate does is stand still. A gate's not on the

move, a gate standing still. So if you can imagine a gate losing

its power, losing its support at the weight of the Kingdom of God coming

at the gates of Hell, that's what he's saying right here. He saying,

I'm going to build something that will be on the move and it will

be unstoppable. Nothing can stop it. And so that's why it's important that

we talk about this how to church? How to church? Now, the

word church is a noun right, we understand it. Church is a noun.

English major is anybody I was an English major. Church is a noun.

It means the assembly of God's people. Now, my mom was an

English teacher her whole life, and she will not appreciate that I'm doing this

with this series, but she listens to the podcast. So hi, Mom,

We're going to use the word church in this series as a verb.

Okay, So when you think how to church? Think you know how to

how to swing a golf club like Tiger Woods, how to write an essay,

how to hit a one handed backhand like Roger Federer, which I've learned,

But how to church? What does it mean? How to church?

How? How to church the scriptural way? How to church? How to

operate as a little sea church? What should we be doing? Who should

we be becoming? What is the Bible's prescription for little sea churching? This

is what we're going to talk about in this series. I'm pretty excited about

it because we're new at this. Like we're a very young, very new

you know, we're a scrappy insurgency, right, come on movement church,

Like we're young, we got fresh legs. But that doesn't mean that we

necessarily know how to do it. I bet all of you at some point,

I don't think there's anybody in the room and tell me if this is

true. If this is but I don't think there's anybody in the room that

this is your first church. Is there anybody in the room that would say

this is the first church that I've ever been a part of. Anybody here,

perfect, nobody here is here because this is their first church. What

does that mean? It means that you're bringing with you into this experience the

last experience or two experiences ago, or two cities ago, or two community

groups ago. You're bringing with you good and bad, and you have shaped

in your mind what the word church is supposed to mean. So we're going

to do our best to wipe that clean. We're going to do our best

to get you to stop thinking the way that you have thought before or and

to re discover God's vision for what church is supposed to be. How will

we know if we're winning, How will we know for failing? What will

we celebrate? What will we measure? There's a great book called Measure What

Matters? Anybody ever read this book? Measure What Matters? It's a great

book, and the comment that he makes in the book is what we measure

is what matters most to us. What we measure is what matters most us.

Anybody got an Apple Watch? Anybody here rock the Apple Watch? Yeah?

Cool, I'm an Apple Watch guy, and there's all kinds of incredible

features on the Apple Watch. It'll tell you your calorie count, which I

don't appreciate. It'll tell you how many steps you've walked, which I don't

appreciate. Your heart rate. I do appreciate that, your workouts, your

oxygen level. And I'm intermittent fasting. That's the season I'm in right now,

so I can only eat for certain times of the day. And my

watch tells me when it's time for my next meal. And appreciate that.

Like it'll just say boop boop, time to eat. I'm like, oh,

that's wonderful. So but we measure what matters to us. I'm doing

all this because I want to be healthy. This matters to me. I

want to get healthier. So this is what I'm measuring. How about this?

Anybody ever look at your screen time report at the end of a week.

Anybody here ever read it and go, oh, man, I spent

a lot of time doing nothing this week. Anybody ever ever have that experience?

Screen time, your appointments, your productivity. We measure what matters.

How about your bank account, how about your trade portfolio? How about your

retirement fund? We measure what matters. We make time for the things that

matter most to us. People say I don't have any I don't have any

time, right, I don't have any time. I'm just I'm squeezed at

all ends. Is this is more true than it's not? Right? We

make time what matters the most to us. So this word church, We're

going to ask the question. We're going to answer the question, what are

the proper metrics? How do we know if we're winning? How do we

know if we're losing? How do we know if we're doing well. I'll

tell you I've been a pastor, like a lead pastor now senior pastor for

almost three years. It would be three years in August, and I've been

to I don't know seven or eight different pastor's gatherings where it's a bunch of

senior pastors in a room together, and they gross me out, man like,

they absolutely frustrate me because there is this incredible polaric pull, this magnetic

pull on a pastor to measure our worth using really the wrong metrics. And

the polarity that pulls at pastors is this. It's the three bees, butts,

bucks and buildings, Butts, bucks and buildings, How many people,

how much money? How big is you're building now? For us? I

mean, goodness, we don't have a building. We're renting a space.

But I love this space and I will brag about this space. It's awesome.

And you guys are an incredibly generous group of people, and we're growing

every single week. But this can't be the only way that we should measure

the worth of our congregation, the worth of our eccleusea. This should not

be the way that we decide if we're doing well or not. But it's

just incredible that pull, that pull on us. It's amazing. I've been

talking a lot about church growth. I've been talking a lot about measuring the

right things that matter. And I don't know if you know this, but

our phones are listening to us. Are you aware of this? Do you

know that our phones are like listening to us? Nobody agrees it's happening.

They're listening to us. I saw this picture online the other day. Stop

showing me ads for things us talked about and he's not saying it, he's

just showing it. I love this picture. Stop showing me ads for things

I just talked about. I was talking about a year and a half ago

with a friend and I was encouraging them. Listen. I really think it's

time for you to walk by faith and not by fear. Walk by faith

and not by fear. That afternoon, this shirt that I'm wearing appeared to

me on Instagram and it said do you know about this shirt? And I

said no, I don't, and it said would you like to have this

shirt? Yes? I would. The phones are listening to us, and

the reason I know that they're listening to us is because I've been getting this

kind of message now on Instagram since we became a church. This one right

here, Seven ways to build your congregation. I bet none of you are

getting this kind of ad on your phone. I'm getting three hundred of these

a day, different different companies. This company is called Pushbay. Seven Ways

to build your Congregation. One starts in your parking lot. This was free,

so I did download it, and I have some new ideas. But

pastor, do you want to grow your church by forty percent this month?

Yes? I do? Okay, Pastor, don't you know that your job

is to put more butts in the seats? Don't you know that? Okay,

I'm getting the message. Pastor. Don't you realize that everyone is judging

you by these three bees? Yeah? I do know that, And so

the weight of that is unbelievable. Because if all you care about is growing

a church, there's some ways you can do that. We could put fluff

on the stage, we could have meaningless songs. I could preach a twenty

two minute sermon about how God's going to give you everything you've ever asked for.

You could grow a church that way. But it's not about growing a

church. It's the job of a pastor is not to build a growing church.

It's to cultivate a healthy church. And this is an amen moment,

just so you know, that was an amen moment. Cultivate a healthy church.

You know why, because healthy things grow, right, Dying things die,

Healthy things grow. That's what we're fighting for behind the scenes at the

Movement Church. My buddy Trace, who's the manager at Chick fil A,

this is the only picture I could find of him online. He's like dark

online. That's that's why it's all pixelated. But Trace is the manager at

Chick fil A. And the day I was writing this sermon at Chick fil

A, Terrace walked up and said, Hey, can I talk to you

for a second. This was before we knew we were homeless. This was

before any of that stuff had happened, right, And so he sat down.

Here is I got a I got a tough situation I'm dealing with.

Can I get your can I get your counsel on this? I was like,

Trace, anything I can do for you? Like, I love this

guy, you know, he gives me like all kinds of free stuff all

the time. He's a good dude. So anyway, so Trace said,

But he and two other Chick fil as, one in Arizona, and I

forget where the other one was. Maybe Alabama got selected in their corporate gathering.

And they're in a competition, not against each other, but with each

other. And their job is to raise their feedback positivity survey by two percent

in the next year. They have to raise their productivity survey by two percent

in the next year. And here's what's interesting, about Chick fil A.

Anything below a five star review four and a half stars, four and three

quarter stars, three stars is considered a negative review and it lowers their rate.

So they're doing sixteen hundred transactions every day at the Northgate Chick fil A,

and they get one hundred and sixty on average surveys filled out in a

month. Now, they're up against some things because I don't know if you've

been to the north Gate Chick fil A, of course many of us have,

which it's a church, but they're doing construction all around there, and

it's actually kind of hard to get to the Chick fil A they're doing construction.

And then also they're up against this thing when you go to Chick fil

A, at least I do. Maybe you don't feel this way, but

listen, you should. You probably shouldn't be a part of this church if

you don't agree with this. But like Chick fil A, when you walk

in, they have raised the level of expectation because of their incredible customer service,

not good customer service, not media great customer service. So when you

walk in now they've raised the bar so high that when you get great service,

you're like, well, yeah, it's Chick fil A. That's what's

supposed to happen. So you don't think in your mind I should write out

how great this experience was, because it's always great. So the only people

that ever fill out any kind of surveys are people like McKenzie Rudder, who

the other day I asked her, I said, hey, can you fill

out a survey and talk to you know, like big the Chick fil A.

And here's what she said. She said, I feel like they're not

giving me as many fries as they used to. I said, well,

maybe leave that. Leave that off the survey. Maybe leave that off the

survey. You should see Mackenzie eat a bucket of French fries. It's incredible.

So they have really really high standards. You have really really high expectations,

and they're just up against it. Not to mention, there's this guy

that's camped out all the time at Chick fil A, Like he won't leave.

He's there all the time and he only gets breakfast in lunch. I

mean, what's the deal, right, trace is up against him. So

I told I told him that I would tell you because of all of the

great things that they've done about this story and this is what I told him.

I said, you can't control growth. You can only attend to health

because healthy things grow. And so, you know, he poor thing.

He wants to get this two percent, you know, up, and it's

now three percent down on the year. And he's like, we're doing everything

we know how to do. And I'm like, Trace, I'm going to

talk to my church and they're going to go fill out a www dot MYCFA,

visit dot com, and you guys are going to big up Trace in

the North Kate Chick fil A, and you ought to say, Okay,

come on, let's help my man out. All right. This word church,

by the way, is the same thing. We're up against, the

same level of expectations. You have brought into this service with you, a

level of expectation about what this thing is supposed to be. Some of you

have brought super low expectations, and you don't want those expectations to be raised.

Some of you brought super high expectations, and the moment that we don't

meet up to your standards, you're out of here. That's the business that

I'm in. That's the struggle of a senior pastor. And my job,

our job together is to reclaim the high ground of this incredible, powerful,

meaningful, weighty word word church. We need to know what we mean when

we say it. We need to all be on the same page. We

need to know how to church. So the way we're going to do this

series is we're going to do three sets of three. So there's three week

sections. The first section is what we are called? What does the Bible

call the church? The second section is what are we called? Two?

In other words, what does it look like for us to operate as a

church. And the third section is what are we called to do? What

is our work on the earth. So that's going to be the next nine

weeks of your life as we come to church together. We're going to just

define how to church through this lens. So let's get into it. What

are we called? There may be only one word heavier than the word church.

There may be only one word that can bring people to that same level

of polarity, to that same spectrum, and it's a word that all of

us when we hear the word, it means different things to us. What

are we called? We're called the family of God, the family of God.

That is a polaric word, that is a word that divides. It's

a word that unites. It's a word that many of us. We grew

up in a great family, and we go I love my family. I

get to be part of the family of God. This is great. Some

of you say, I hate my family. I don't want to be a

part of another family ever. Right, you may add some adjectives to this

word family. Dysfunctional family, anybody grew up in a dysfunctional family. Don't

raise your hand. A broken family, a blended family. Dana has step

brother steph hat brothers like a sister and like an adopted brother like her family

is blended, which makes for a messy family. Anybody got a messy family.

Nobody wants to admit it. Okay. How about a healthy family?

Anybody say I grew up in a healthy family culture. Anybody want to raise

your hand? No one's raising your hand. Amazing. How about a growing

family? Some of you fit this bill right now. You are a growing

family. You're you're still in the process of having kids. Come on,

you can still do it, Kessler's come on, let's have some more.

Your hearts are full, all right, you have such you have great kids.

I'd like to see more of them growing family. How about the perfect

family? Anybody say I grew up in the perfect family. Nobody would say

it because if you said it, you'd be really lying, because you would

have an artificial family. How about an estranged family. Maybe there's people that

used to be really close with you, a brother or a sister, or

maybe a mom or a dad, a stepmom, and you're estranged, you're

divided. When we dropped Justice off to college and met his roommate, his

name is Zach and Zach I said, Zach, I'm a pastor. He

goes, oh, okay. I said, well, so what about you

did you grow Did you grow up in the church? And he said,

yeah, we're Protestant? And I was like Protestant? Who says that?

What does that mean? He goes, I don't really know? Okay.

So a Protestant family. Family is a weighty word, a heavy concept,

a loaded responsibility, and it's a beautiful invitation because maybe you grew up in

a home that you don't wish to repeat. Maybe you grew up in a

culture of your family where you go, man, I just I don't ever

want to be a part of anything like that. Again, well, God

wants you to, and God wants to invite you into his family. It's

an indispensable identity. You become a part of this family of God. I'm

gonna show you some scriptures about this and just kind of prove it out for

you. This is Romans eight, Paul says this, for all who are

led by the spirit of God are children of God. So you have not

received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's spirit

when he adopted you as his own children. So now we call him Abbah

father. It's very intimate. You're supposed to have an intimate father son father

daughter relationship with God. For his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that

we are God's children. And since we are his children, we are his

heirs. In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God's glory.

But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his

suffering. So again you see that spectrum. If you're going to be a

part of this thing, you're gonna get all of it. In Romans twelve,

Paul says, this love one another with brotherly affection, Love one another

with brotherly affection reminds me of that Tommy boy scene where he says, brothers,

don't shake hands, brothers gott a hug right. I love that outdo

one another and showing honor. Ephesians two says, so then you are no

longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members

of the household of God. And I love this. In Galatians, if

you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring heirs according to promise, he

says, So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone,

and especially everybody, say especially especially to those who are of the household

of faith. That was all, Paul. Here's what Jesus said. Stretching

out his hand toward his disciples, he said, here are my mother and

my brothers. For whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my

brother and sister and mother. So here's the good news bad news situation.

I like the members of your biological family, you have not chosen them for

yourself. You did not get to choose who was going to be a part

of this church. I don't even get to choose who's going to be a

part of this church. I love our feasts with the fights we're having one

today with Harry and Katrina at lunch. It because I love to get to

know who the Lord has decided needs to be a part of this family.

I love finding that out. I don't get to pick, I don't get

to hand select. God does that. That's what he does. So,

just like in our regular family, he chooses for us. But they've been

chosen and we are inseparably bound to them because we belong to Christ. We

belong to his family. Tell the person next to you, just tell him

right now, I belong to you. Just tell him, come on,

I belong to you. Come on now, tell the other person that you

didn't want to talk to, tell them you belong to me. That's more

fun to say, come on, you belong to me. We belong to

each other. That's the idea. So what are we called. We're called

the Family of God. Now here's the deal. The Family of God.

That means that we have to sort of shift the way we think because all

of us grew up in really distinct cultures. In your family, maybe you're

the kind of people that ate dinner with the TV on and your family.

Maybe you're the kind of people that you had dinner as a family, four

nights a week, five nights a week, maybe only once a week,

whatever. Maybe maybe pizza night is sacred, maybe taco Tuesday is sacred.

Right? What are the house rules? What does it look like? Each

one of our family cultures shape us in distinct and discriminate ways. But God's

family is made of a billions of other families cultures, all of these different

cultures and ideas, some biblical, some anti biblical, some are just weird,

you know, like just weird things that we all grow up doing that

we don't realize it until we get married and our wife says, why do

you do that? Like don't do that right? And so, you know,

we think about these things and it's no wonder why all of these people,

with all of these values can provide us with all of these spectrum of

answers when I ask a question like that, because all of you are bringing

in your culture to this culture, and if you don't check your culture at

the door, then you're going to hurt somebody. You're going to change the

level of expectation, You're going to affect the way people experience ECLASEA. And

that's a big deal, because how does this spectrum happen, healing and hurt.

How could a church and eclasea hurt somebody. That's not what we're supposed

to be about. Right acceptance. Yes, we're supposed to accept rejection.

How do we get there? How do people know us for our rejection?

New identity? You get to become like Christ, loss of agency. We

don't care anything about you. You have to assimilate. We're at war with

our own cultural influences, and that's why it's important that we figure this out.

What do we called the family of God? And if we're going to

be the family of God, then we've got to live by God's family values.

God's family values. You guys, ever seen signs like this at like

hobby lobby, right, stay, humble, show kindness, count, blessings,

Hug often that's not in the Bible. Hug often. I don't know

where you get that. Forgive, always, laugh, daily, work hard,

love forever. That's beautiful. That's hanging up in someone's home, that's

the culture of their home. It's great. I love this one. I'll

read it to you because it's kind of small, but it says if you

open it, close it, if you turn it on turn it off.

If you unlock it, lock it. If you break it, fix it.

If you can't fix it, call someone who can. If you borrow

it, return it. If you use it, take care of it.

If you make a mess, clean it up. If you move it,

put it back. If it belongs to someone else and you want to use

it, get permission. That sounds like it came from a wounded place to

me. If you don't know how to operate it, leave it alone.

If it doesn't concern you, don't mess with it. This is someone else's

family values, and what's happened is someone has desperately hurt this person and then

put together boundaries to make sure it never ever happens again. Right. I

saw this one the other day. I thought it was hysterical. It just

says, my house, my rules. It's that simple, My house,

my rules. What are God's family values. I'm going to give you about

five or six of these and then we'll be out of here. What are

God's family values? Here's the first one, the very first family value,

and it's probably the one that trumps everything else. We have to trade in

our values for his values. We just have to. You have to decide

if you're going to be a part of an eclacea, if you're going to

be part of the movement church, you're going to have to trade in your

values. I like the air conditioning at seventy four. Okay, that's not

on the table. Okay, we're not going to deal with those kinds of

things, right. We have to trade in our values for His values.

I think God is saying, Hey, it's my house, and it's my

rules, and it's that simple. And by the way, you've heard me

say this a thousand times, because you know I love prepositions. God's rules

are there for you. His rules are there to protect you from harm.

His rules are there to set you up to win, to set you up

for a bountiful life. My house, my rules. Look at what he

says in Romans twelve. This is so amazing. He says, don't copy

your mama's rules, don't copy the behavior and customs of this world. But

let God transform you into a new person by changing the way that you think,

and then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is

good and pleasing and perfect. Don't copy any other culture's way of thinking.

You've got to adopt the culture of the Kingdom. God can transform you into

a new person by just changing the way you think, but you have to

let him. It's a Jerry Maguire situation, right, Jerry's on the phone

and he's yelling at rod Tidwell, help me help you, Like I feel

like this exasperated look is how God feels about us very often. Help me

to help you keep making the same mistakes. Would you just trust me?

These are good for you. You keep falling in the ditch. Help me

help you. You have to give him full access to all that makes you

you and ask him to show you all that makes him him. Ask him,

Lord, who are you? Show me your heart, show me your

character, show me what you want for me. What are God's family values?

Number one? We trade in our values for his. Here's the second

one, and we're about to get all up in your business. I'm so

excited about this. I actually get pumped up about these moments when I get

to like make you squirm. It makes me happy because I get to watch

your faces. It's great anyway. The second one is this, we apologize

and we forgive. Anybody here want to raise their hand and say that they

have a hard time forgiving how about anybody here when to raise their hand and

say they have a hard time apologizing? Chuck, I appreciate that, buddy.

Look what Luke said, But this is Jesus speaking to his disciples.

Watch yourselves. If another believer sins, rebuke that person. Then if there's

repentance, forgive. There's no wiggle there. You notice that there's no wiggle.

If there's repentance, just think about consider it, maybe try to be

nice. No, it says, if there's repentance, forgive even if that

person wrongs you how many times? Seven times a day? Good Lord,

that's a lot of wrongs, And each time turns again and asks forgiveness.

You ooh, I don't like that word. Do you? Guys like that

word? You must forgive? You must forgive. Now. The disciples heard

this. One of my favorite moments in the Gospels. The disciples hear this,

and they're going, huh, seven times a day, I must forgive.

Look at how they responded. The apostles said to the Lord, show

us how to increase our faith. I don't have faith for that, Lord,

I don't have faith for forgiveness seven times a day? What are you

talking about? Right? But it was seven times that this person made a

mistake. Hopefully not the same mistake all seven times, but it's seven times

that this person made a mistake. Seven times this person looked in the mirror

and said I'm wrong. Seven times that person said I'm sorry. Will you

forgive me? So seven times you're supposed to forgive him? Anybody have kids

and have this moment. Apologize to your brother. Nobody ever have that.

Apologize to your sister, apologize. You have to tell kids to do this,

because we, in our nature, do not want to apologize, nor

do we want to forgive. Forgive your brother, forgive him. You can't

tell me to forget forgive your brother. That's how it works that you have

to tell us both. You know why, because holding a grudge, clinging

to a debt that you feel is owed to you, or refusing to release

people from the wrongs they've done, that's not hurting them. It's hurting you,

you know that, right, Like that weight that you're carrying around of

bitterness and unforgiveness. The other person's not even thinking about it. It's just

you tied up in knots all day long, and God says, I have

this for you to release you from that experience, forgive, forgive them.

That's what it means to church. Colossian says, this bearing with one another,

and if one has a complain against another, forgiving each other. As

the Lord has forgiven you. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you

must forgive. Now. I want you to think about how the Lord forgives

you. How does he forgive you. The Bible says that our sins are

cast as far as the east is from the west. God's not up in

heaven holding an account of your wrong. He chooses to dispense of it.

He chooses to let go of it. And we are told that we're supposed

to forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven you. There's this common sentiment

in our culture that says, I'll forgive you, but I won't forget.

I'll forgive you, but I'm gonna hold I'm gonna hold this. Any husbands

and wives have a moment where you thought that you were forgiven. You thought

that you actually thought that you had forgiven. But something happens and that bitterness

roots itself out right. God says, you need to learn how to forgive

the way the Lord has forgiven you. Boy, give us more faith.

I need more faith for that. I think it's a perfectly adequate, perfectly

appropriate response. Or you're gonna have to give me more faith. It's hard.

Apologizing and forgiving is part of knowing how to church. We must not

be prideful. We must practice humility and accept responsibility for the mistakes that we

make. I saw this sign and I loved it. It says in this

house we do second chances, and that cool. In this house we do

second chances, We do grace, we do mistakes. You can expect somebody's

gonna do you wrong in this house. I love that, Like, let's

have some clear expectations. Somebody's gonna step on your toe. It's gonna happen,

and not that it might happen, it will happen. We do mistakes,

we do real we do I'm sorries. We do loud really well.

That sounds like the fight house. We do hugs, we do love,

we do family. I love this sign. I love that idea. What

are God's family values? We apologize and we forgive. Here's the next one.

We speak the truth in love even when it hurts. We speak the

truth in love even when it hurts. We don't do it so that we

hurt. We do it even if it's hard, is what I mean by

that. Look at this. This is Ephesians four. It's a famous passage

where Paul lines up the whole idea of what the pastor for to equip the

saints to do the work of the ministry, so that you won't be tossed

to and fro by every new teaching. He says, instead, we will

speak the truth and love, growing in every way more and more like Christ,

who is the head of his body the church. Now, I don't

know if you noticed this or not, but I showed you this passage in

Luke. It says, watch yourselves, if another believer sins. Did you

catch this word when we read it the first time? If another believer sins,

rebuke that person. How many people love to rebuke somebody? Anybody in

the house love to rebuke anybody. Y'all are not being honest in this church.

Come on, I know there's some people in this room that really like,

Hey, it's gonna be an awesome day. I get to rebuke six

people. It's gonna be amazing, Right, rebuke that person. Then,

if there is repentance forget what's he saying. He's saying what we say in

the fight house. This is the way we say it. Don't swallow the

grenade. Don't swallow the grenade. Here's what happened in a relationship. In

all relationships, the person that you love and care for, that you think

is so great and so awesome, they're going to do something, say something,

or not do something or not say something. They're going to forget about

you. They're going to do too much. Whatever it is, it's going

to bother you. It's gonna happen in every relationship. You have an opportunity

that moment, that wrong is a grenade. You have an opportunity in that

moment to swallow the grenade and just go I'm not gonna deal with it.

I'm just gonna swallow it. And now you got live ammo in your belly.

By the way, this is an actual X ray of a person who

swallowed a grenade. This is the inside of a person's stomach who swallowed a

grenade. I don't advise it, but that's what happens. Don't swallow the

grenade. Why because I didn't tell you that that bothered me. I didn't

tell you that that upset me. So now the second time you do it,

now I have two offenses. Okay, I'm gonna swallow that one too,

because I don't want to deal with it. Let that third thing happen.

Boom, and now we're fighting not about today or yesterday, but three

years and you said, and your mama said, and I can't right,

and our next get involved. Right, it gets real ugly, right,

So don't swallow the grenade. You're not encouraged to pretend like it didn't happen.

Rebuke, speak up. You're not encouraged, even though Disney and ELSA

might tell you to. You're not encouraged to let it go. You're not

encouraged to let it go. You're not encouraged to let somebody else deal with

it. That's somebody else's problem. No, they hurt you, they wronged

you, they upset you. Now, it may be small, it may

be petty, you might be making too much of it, but it's in

your heart and you gotta let it out. Your responsibility is to speak up

for the sake of the person that you're wrong, because you know what happens

in relationships when those grenades start happening. What do we do, we start

drifting from each other because if I can't be real with you, if I

can't tell you what's really going on in my heart towards you, man,

we got nothing to talk about. And then that's how divorce happens. And

that's how church, you know, falls and fails because people stop doing this,

they stop speaking up what are God's fendly values. We speak the truth

and love even when it hurts, and that means that we're fighting for each

other and not against each other. I love this passage and Second Corinthians it

says, finally, brothers rejoice, aim for restoration, comfort one another,

agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and

peace will be oh favorite preposition with you. Love that. I love that

he's saying, I want you to fight for each other, not against each

other. And as you're doing that, I'm gonna be with you. Fight

for each other, not against How about this one, we encourage each other

towards good works. You know, the devil on the shoulder and the angel

on the shoulder, right, you've seen that before. We're never supposed to

be the devil on the shoulder. Okay, don't be the kind of person

that causes someone else to fall into sin. Look at this, Let us

not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if

we do not give up. There was a famous quote by this guy named

Howard Hendrix. I heard him speak one time to a room full of pastors,

and the name of the breakout session that he was leading was called truly

Great Leadership. And it was a day where a pastor in America had had

a moral failure, and the story had come out that day, and it

had happened that morning. And then in that morning he walked in and he

slammed his Bible down hard. We were all kind of murmuring. He walked

in, slammed his Bible down, and we all went like three hundred pastors

in a room, and he said, men, do you want to be

great? We're old, like, yeah, do you want to be truly

good? R for God? Yes? We do always supposed to answer.

It was like it was weird, you know. He said this, don't

quit and don't fornicate. You'll be the only one left. He picked up

his Bible and he walked out of the room. End of seminar, more

people quit than fornicate. More people fall off, more people lose sight,

more people lose energy, more people lose passion for God. Then go chasing

some terrible sin. Don't quit, don't fornicate. You'll be the only one

left. What's he doing. He's prodding us to do the right thing.

He's doing exactly what the writer of Hebrews said. Let us think of ways

to motivate one another to acts of love and good works, and let us

not neglect our meeting together. This is kind of messy, as some people

do. I think that's so funny. Like I love the Bible, and

I love that he's just talking a little smack in the middle of the word.

It's great, as some people do. But encourage one another, especially

now that the day of his return is drawing near. Let us think of

ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. Our job

is to be encouraging the people that are close to us to do more,

to do good, to do good things in life, and we're supposed to

be creative. Let us think of ways to do it. To motivate people

to do good works. We encourage each other towards good works. And here's

the last one. We're supposed to serve one another like Jesus served us.

We're supposed to serve one another like Jesus served us. There's a moment in

the Gospels where Jesus is hanging out with his guys. It's the night before

he's going to be betrayed, and he pulls out a basin of water and

he washes his guy's feet and they're like, no, no, we're supposed

to wash yours, and he says, I'm going to wash your feet.

And then in John thirteen fourteen it says, and since I you're a lord

and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other's feet.

I've given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to

you. Anybody watched the Super Bowl this week? Did you see the Super

Bowl? Did you see the commercial he washed feet? Did you see this?

All these beautiful pictures of us sort of dying to ourself. This was

a picture of church. It was about Jesus, but it was really about

people who have decided that they're going to be about what God's about. It

was a great commercial. It was about people crossing barriers and boundaries and saying,

look, I'm not going to tell you about anything that's wrong with you.

I'm just gonna love you. I'm just going to serve you. But

it's not just about the foot washing. It's really about the humility it takes

to think of someone else's needs even while you're dealing with your own. I've

heard this excuse. I've heard this so many times, Fike. I would

serve, but I've just got so much going on. I'm in such a

hard season in my life. I'm grieving, I'm going through all this stuff.

You know, the best way out is not around, but through,

And the best way to get your mind off of all of your troubles is

to serve someone else's. Now, if we're all doing that for each other,

what's going to happen? Then we all get that experience of being loved

the way Jesus loved. John thirteen says, So now I'm giving you a

new commitment love each other, just as I have loved you. You should

love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that

you are my disciples. There are a few fringe cultures or communities in our

culture that are very known for the way they love each other, the way

they accept each other the way they don't intrude upon each other's convictions. There

are several communities in the world, secular communities in the world that value things

that God doesn't value. But one thing that they have made very clear is

in this community you will be loved and served, accepted and appreciated. Why

can't we do that? Why can't we be that we're supposed to. We're

supposed to love each other just as I have loved you. It's powerful,

and that's how the world is going to know that you are part of God's

plan. A It's not by the mighty works that you do. It's not

by the sermons you preach. It's not by the songs you sing. It's

by your willingness to love and serve somebody else. If we church correctly,

nobody in this Ecclacia will be isolated or lonely or destitute or hungry or homeless

or forgotten. There won't be anybody here if we do it right. That

would say, I tell you what I was abandoned. I tell you what

I was hurt. I tell you what I was rejected. I tell you

what I lost my agency. I tell you what nobody cared about me.

If we do it right. Nobody says that this is my commandment. Love

each other the same way I have. There is no greater love than to

lay down your life for your friends. You're my friends if you do what

I command. And so if every ecclacea that assembles in the name of God,

the Father, Christ, the Sun, the Holy Spirit was marked by

those values and nothing else, how would my Facebook posts have been responded to.

It wouldn't have been all over here on this spectrum. It would have

been mad. I love the church. It's a great place. I've never

been to a bad one. Everybody I've ever met that's a part of a

church. They're my favorite people. They serve their selfless, they care about

everybody else. It's incredible who these people are that are the church. If

everybody lived by God's family values, you wouldn't have this wild pendulum swing on

the other side. If we just get busy churching like that, would people

experience rejection, a loss of agency, judgmentalism, hurt or anything else on

that wide end of the spectrum. I just don't think that they would.

So, guys, listen, movement church, Let's be the kind of church.

Let's be the kind of eclasia. Let's be the kind of community that

God wants us to be. Let's be the kind of people that this culture.

You know, this school, for example, has nine hundred and fifty

students in it that I don't know how many families that is, because I'm

sure it's doubled up. But that's a lot of families in this community that

we can love, serve, support, and show kindness to and let them

see a different kind of church. Maybe there's people in this neighborhood, in

the Monument area that go I will never darken the door of a church because

I'm over here on this spectrum. What if you God's plan a lived out

his vision for the church. What if you loved well, served well,

and showed off the Father's family values. The burden, the way, the

responsibility that we bear is to represent his values to a watching world. Because

we're not a building. We're a people or God's people, and it's our

job to reclaim the proper weight of the word church by living out God's family

values. Each of us has a choice to make in regards to how we

treat each other, and this is really important. I want you to understand,

Yes, we're supposed to be loving serving the world, but first we're

supposed to be loving and serving each other. There should be nobody in this

room that, if you're a part of this church that ever swings to that

side of the spectrum. There should be nobody here that would say, I

don't know those people at the Movement Church. They don't care about me.

I don't know those people at the Movement Church. They just they abandoned me.

Now, every testimony that comes out of this community of faith needs to

be I'll tell you what. I was going through a hard season and eleven

people showed up to my house with a meal. I don't even know some

of these people. They just brought me food. I didn't even ask for

it. They just showed up and took care of me. I had a

flat tire. I didn't have the money to pay for it. Somebody paid

for it. I was going through a hard season. Somebody just stepped in

from our church. I don't even know who they were. That should be

the testimony, and you ought to say amen to that. Right, that's

what we're doing here. Your family values or the father's family values, which

is it going to be, Because if you're going to choose the father's family

values. Then apologize, apologize when you've done something wrong and mean it.

No fake apology, No I'm sorry that you were upset. No, no,

I'm not the problem. You made a mistake right, Apologize and mean

it. Forgive when you've been hurt and mean it. Speak only truth and

only ever in love to your brothers and sisters and mean it. Look,

I need to tell you something. The other day you said this thing where

at lunch you said this thing, and it really hurt me. It really

bothered me. It really irritated me. It really affected me, and I

just want to talk to you about it. What's up with that? Where

did that come from? Can we make a way together? Can we be

four each other? You have to speak up, don't swallow the grenade.

Fight for your family, not against it, and mean it. Serve one

another like Jesus served you, and mean it and abandon anything outside of God's

family values and mean it. I really believe this guy is a church that

lives like that is irresistible. When people walk into these doors and they see

us, and they see the way that we interact with each other, they

see the way we love each other. They come to your growth group and

they see the way you talk to each other, they see the way you

pray for each other. When people who don't understand Christianity walk into this thing

and they go, whoa, it is irresistible. Irresistible. But the other

side of the spectrum, the rogue recipe built on a pinion tradition and conjecture

that's easy to resist. It's happening every day. People every day in your

neighborhood, in your family are going Now, I'm never doing church again.

Why because I had a bad experience. Right, it's easy to resist that.

All of those competing values make for a culture filled with neglect and rejection

and judgment and abuse and confusion. And our God is not the author of

confusion. So choose to live exclusively by God's family values and mean it.

And if we do that, then we're on our way to understanding how to

church. Amen. 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 Movementchurch 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