Digging Ditches - Healthy Church

I know we didn't have a timer countdown thing, but uh probably not gonna have media tonight, and that's okay.

Um, so that wasn't there, but it is 706, so we'll get started real quick.

All right.

So, big idea tonight, again, continuing what we've talked about Sundays, bringing a Tuesday, okay.

How do we take this big idea of what we've what we're what we've seen through scripture and looking through the lens of the Lamb as and defining that so this idea of a healthy church and what church can culture consists of, how do we live that out in a practical basis?

And again, the big idea is that current church culture is simply discipleship practice together long enough that it becomes normal.

Um, oftentimes, like this is this is the content of all these books that we read from uh Christian authors and pastors and people who've grown large churches, and the simple boil-down truth of it is it's just a healthy church culture is just discipleship practice together long enough that it just becomes normal.

That just becomes the normal thing that happens.

Um there are si yes, there's systems and uh things in place, but whether those things were in place or not, it would just be the normal thing that happened.

And so we don't want to create a culture that just the slogans on the walls.

I'm for believe me, I'm a I'm a designer.

Um I'm all about visuals.

Uh I I've done huge, uh huge pieces in churches, you know, with with their mission statements and you know, art pieces and all that that have that on the walls.

And don't get me wrong, I love doing that stuff, but just because it's on the wall doesn't mean it's the true content of the church.

Uh, we want to create a catch through what we repeatedly practice, what we celebrate, what we correct, what we protect, and then what we reproduce.

So over the course of the Tuesdays, we've kind of talked in about a three-part phase, right?

Digging the ditch, cleaning it out, and then expanding it.

So in digging this one out is that we've got to practice devotion together.

Remember Acts 2 and 42, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, and in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

And again, notice the language steadfastly.

The early church wasn't built on occasional spiritual highs.

It wasn't just about the next conference, the next big event, the next big moment.

It was it was continuous.

It had rhythms.

They had doctrine they shared, um, they shared time together, fellowship.

They were breaking bread, so that means they were sharing meals together, and they were praying together.

And I'd like to emphasize that none of these were merely programs.

This was all organic.

It was all natural.

They were just practices of the people.

It was just practices that they had.

It wasn't that they had it uh super organized on here's the calendar of whose house we're gonna be at this day of this week and that, you know, so forth and so on.

But it was just what happened every day.

And so these were these practices of the people.

Um the doctrine is that they didn't just hear the word, is that they organized their life around it.

Fellowship became a thing where they don't do we is we don't merely just attend the same building, is that they knew one another.

Uh breaking bread is we make room at our tables for one another, and prayer is we don't only pray when something goes wrong, but prayer becomes the atmosphere of the house.

Talking about the church, but also our homes.

And then we got to bring it back to what what the focus of the dish is the church doesn't become healthy because we scheduled enough activities.

The church becomes healthy when God's people develop healthy rhythms together.

And out of those healthy rhythms, you'll have healthier activities, you'll have healthier events, you'll have more effective events, more effective ministries, more effective activities.

Um, that's not saying a healthy church culture, all that stuff is canceled.

I'm not saying that what I'm where I'm trying to get at is that when healthy church culture is in place and that becomes the just the regular DNA of the people, and that's the thought process of the people.

Before we ever plan an event, before we ever think about um putting on a conference or any of that kind of stuff, we we look at those four things.

How is doctrine involved?

How how is fellowship involved in this?

How are we breaking bread in this?

And how is prayer involved in this?

Because if that's becomes the normal of what our homes are run like and what our families are run like and and and our thought process, then everything that we produce out of that, it then hits that.

Does it make sense?

I don't there's there are there, I know in planning events there's there's a minutiae to get caught up in, there's details, you know, who's taking care of the food, who's taking care of logistics of parking, and this and that and another, and all that stuff's important, don't get me wrong.

But at the core root, if we if the culture is set in place, then everything we do flows out of that.

And that's that's where that's where that has to become the foundation and digging that ditch is out of.

And so second, we talked about so first we always talk about cleaning the uh digging the ditch, and then second we talk about cleaning it, is the idea of protecting the culture.

And um I've seen this done right and I've seen it done wrong, and I'm sure all of you have as well.

Um, because sometimes people are again don't protect the culture enough, and we talked about Sunday.

You can you can you can either create culture or culture create itself and you'll show up one day at church and you won't like what's created, or people take it too far and micromanage every little thing.

There's a healthy balance.

There's a healthy balance of letting people make mistakes.

There's a healthy balance of also correcting in those and drawing it back to the vision, the mission, and the purpose.

And I think where that happens, it's constant small conversations rather than big corrections.

But also it's easier to have those constant calls, small conversations if you've already established that rhythm of fellowship and breaking bread.

If you're sitting at my table at least once a month, once a week, we're catching coffee, something like that, it's easier to sit down and say, hey, this week I saw that you were, you, you were, you were very sharp with people.

Uh I heard I overheard you how you were you were coaching some of your serve team members.

Boom, quick, short, done conversation.

That's not who we are.

Move on to the next week.

But it what happens is that when we don't have for have we don't have those first things established as what what our doctrine is, our belief and that kind of stuff, and then that fellowship and that breaking bread, those conversations then become super hard.

And that's where people are callous because they're like, they don't know me, they don't know all that stuff.

But if you're already doing life together and you're already breaking bread together and you already know each other, then you know that our hearts are the heartbeat is the same.

We're going after the same thing, the mission is the same, the purpose the same, that I just had a bad day, and you know what?

I need somebody to check my blind spots because at the end of the day, I need somebody to check my blind spots.

Um, so that's what this one of those things about protecting culture is that if we don't first have that in place of knowing each other and doing life together outside of this building, then building a proper church culture and then protecting it becomes honestly nearly impossible because a fence will come in.

And we know we know from time and time again in scripture, a fence pulls people apart and and and honestly breaks up what God is trying to do in churches and in areas.

And so protecting culture, again, it could be one of the strongest portions of what we talk about, but also it could be one of the toughest things that we talk about.

Every irrigation ditch eventually collects debris.

There's leaves, there's mud, there's branches, there's trash.

And if nobody removes it, eventually what happens is the water dams up and it stops flowing.

And churches act the same, are working the same way.

And so, what are the things that clog what clogs up the church?

Gossip, offense.

We just talked about it a little bit, clicks, and that's not saying friend groups.

Again, you don't have to be BFFs with everybody in this building.

There, we are all people.

There are gonna be some people that you naturally just share more with.

Um your background, uh, your age, um, your families, ties, all that kind of stuff.

And so there's gonna be some people that are just naturally closer to each other, but where the click thing comes in, and and just to just be a little more specific with that, is that there's never entrance or never uh then the people coming in never have access to you.

If you're so locked into that group of people that you can't greet anybody new outside of it, it comes out to becoming just a natural friend group to a click.

Comparison, uh unresolved conflict, competition, consumerism, bitterness, uh, territorialism, the idea of this is my ministry.

There's a difference in owning what you serve and owning your responsibility and saying this is my ministry.

This is my at the end of the day, none of this is our ministry.

Remember that ultimately everything is delegated from authority from him.

And we are, we have, it is our privilege, every one of us from the top down, from from this being the honor of a lifetime to serve as a pastor here, to whether we're we're vacuuming the floors in here or running sound, anything.

All of that, we have it is a privilege to serve as a part of his church and his bride.

And that has to be always our perspective when we come in.

It is never our ministry.

It is the ministry that we serve in.

We have to, we yes, we will own our responsibility in it.

So every win and every mistake will own that in it, but we have to be careful because if we get that idea mentality of this is my ministry, then we start, then we start, we start pushing people out who God may be calling into it.

We may be blocking off disciples that that can be birthed out of that ministry.

And honestly, we might push away who God is bringing in next to raise that ministry up.

Things like that's my seat.

They're chairs.

Okay, they're they're just chairs.

We've seen it.

Uh churches in time, we've uh, you know, people, oh, I'll always sit there.

It's so funny because it's like even in classrooms, I I don't do the assigned seat thing in classes.

And it's funny, even if you don't do assigned seats, they all end up sitting in the same seat and moving around.

So I was and I I I kind of messed around in college with people because again, they don't do the assigned seat thing.

I would move around intentionally in the room just to see what it would do to people.

And some people would get absolutely irate.

And I'm talking about not just in like your your your upper level uh your upper level uh college courses that you are in a smaller room, but like even in the big symposiums, you know, uh people would get upset because like this is the area that I sit in, and that's the one I sit in.

Um, and it's just people, it's a habitual thing.

Like people, people are ha uh creatures of habit.

We hate to admit it, and it's sometimes it's uncomfortable.

We like sitting in an area because the AC hits the spot just right, you know.

I don't have to be a front row Pentecostal.

And if I get a second row, I can, you know, I can lift my hands and stuff.

But if I'm, you know, I don't super feel it, I can kind of bring it down to like 75% on Sunday.

Because if I sit in the front row, I gotta be on it all the time because everybody can see me.

We all we all been there.

But the the idea of like that's my seat, that's my area to sit in.

Man, if a guest walks in and they sit in that area, let them have it.

I want to greet them, obviously.

Um, and and you know, welcome to the church, and I'll find a seat somewhere else in the building.

It's okay.

Um, the idea that we've always done it this way.

Let me just say it plainly, the message will never change, but the method will change over time organically.

The message will never change.

What we preach, the doctrine, who we are, a holiness, all that stuff, that doesn't change.

But the the method in which that's communicated will change over time, and it has changed over time naturally.

But this idea that we've always done it this way can't be the thing.

Why?

Because if it worked in the early 2000s, it's probably not gonna work in 2026, and we can revisit the same conversation in just four or five years down the road in 2030 and 2035.

It has to change things naturally change over the time.

Why?

Because people change the time, society changes over time, language changes over time.

So in the way in which we communicate the gospel, in the way in which we reach people, um, that all that all changes.

Again, we don't forsake, we don't forsake our elders, we don't forsake the things that have been done before, but we we take those things in mind and we take those practices in mind, we take the established pillars of who we are as a church, and then we just we we tactfully and we very prayerfully and specifically, all right, we're gonna reach forward, but we might have to try a new way to reach people.

And and then this is probably the most dangerous thing, is talking about people instead of talking to people.

One of the biggest things that will destroy culture is talking about people instead of talking to people.

Um can you I know I know I didn't get all the scriptures in um Ephesians 4, 29 through 32.

I'm gonna catch that one real quick.

So here's the idea, and I want to make this intensely practical before we read it.

If there's a problem between two believers, the first biblical step is in finding a third believer.

If there, if there is a problem between two believers, the first bib the biblical first step is in finding a third believer.

And so watch watch what Paul writes here to the church at Ephesus.

Let no corrupting c talk come out of your mouths, but only such as it is good for building up, and as it fits the occasion that you may give grace to those who hear.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you are sealed for the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

Be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.

We have to keep this mindset that if somebody, somebody because here's the thing.

Guys, we're all human.

We're all gonna make mistakes.

I'm gonna offend you at some point.

So I'm gonna go ahead and apologize in advance.

I'm gonna say something wrong.

I'm gonna express an idea wrong.

I might sound too aggressive one day, protecting culture.

I'm just letting you know I'm not gonna get it perfect because I'm a human.

And all the same with you, we're gonna have bad days when we serve.

I mean, Sunday, oh my gosh, guys, I'm sorry.

I set my alarm three or four, I set three or four different alarms, put the phone across the room so I would make sure I'd have to get up to get it.

And so one or two things happened.

My alarms did not go off, or I slept walked, turned my alarms off, and got back in bed just from being so tired.

Everybody has mistakes in everybody's days.

But nobody, nobody, you know, we apologize, nobody grilled us for it and we're coming in and we we got things done.

Everybody's gonna have off days.

Everybody's gonna have days where where things aren't always going right and get in, but that's the thing.

It's not gonna be like, hey, did you see how how they were acting today, how they were talking to people?

Again, when we have the basis of the relationships that we do life together, we approach that person, hey, are you okay?

Everything going okay today?

That's not your normal.

Is it what what's going on?

You see how big big of a change in conversation that is?

Instead of going around talking to other people about it.

No, if if if that's it, we're a brother's keeper, right?

And so we're gonna put away all clamor, wrath, bitterness, all that way of stuff simply by going to the going to that person, just hey, everything at home okay, everything going on in your world okay.

And if we have that, we already have that backlog of relationship established, then then it's gonna be an easy conversation.

Man, it has just been a really bad day.

You know what?

I did.

I was kind of edgy today, and I need to go apologize to that person.

Thank you for checking in on me.

Um, and a lot of times we uh I've seen you know teams that serve teams uh that have been built and work don't don't really work on that principle.

And so when something has to get corrected, when something gets talked about, because you're right, there especially so say you're like on the you're you're you know, you're greeting people at the door and you're not as smiley as you normally are, and you you know you miss you miss a whole bunch of uh opening the door for people on that day, it it we don't want that to become a normal.

And so it's okay, church culture-wise, to talk about it and talk to that person, but again, all transact all all relationships are transactions, not to see people as objects, but what what requires first for you to ever make correction or have talked to somebody like that, you've got to put a lot of deposit in first before you can ever make a withdrawal.

You've got to put a lot of deposit into somebody first before you ever can make that kind of withdrawal.

And over the course of years and time and repeated transactions, it doesn't always take more to putting in than taking out.

Some people it does, but also as you move up in leaderships, um those transactions should be able to happen frequently and fast without any anything going on.

And so, but again, I'm gonna keep going back to it.

That goes on and having life outside of this building and going and breaking bread, making sure you're doing dinner together, you're doing life together, you know what's going on in other people's worlds.

Um and so if we can if we can keep it between two believers, you don't need a third party in and you don't need the telephone game going on.

We know how that goes.

Quickly one small thing turns into um, you know, they're they're they're they're they're they're living a life of sin and burning the town down, and which is really it's it's not it.

And so that the that alone will tell you.

So Matthew 18 gives us that, and I think we we've all we've all heard that before.

Matthew 18 gives us that formula is that if you have if you have aught against your brother, you go straight to them.

If it's not solved there, oh cool, God you got that one for me.

So uh if if your brother has sins against you, go and you tell him it's fault between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you have gained another brother.

So if you go to that person and you talk to it and they you they ask for forgiveness, you forgive them, you know what?

You've actually bonded more.

That account actually grows greater between you two, and then you can move on, and then you that you have that, and it actually becomes a building block, not a stumbling block.

That's what we're talking about, Matthew.

But here's the alternate if he doesn't listen, take one or two that are along with you, that every every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

And let me say it does matter who those witnesses are.

It does matter that they're established Christians, they're established believers.

It does matter that they have a good track record of conflict resolution.

Do not go get your homies or your homegirls or your BFFs or people you know who are gonna stay on your side.

Get people on in that conversation who knows that they they they will correct you when you are dead wrong and it will have will go into any of those kind of situations with prayer.

Um and so if you're easy to listen to you, then you bring them to the church and let them be as a Gentile tax collector.

So it it talks about progression here, but usually, usually, usually, 90% of stuff gets handled in the first part, and the if situations become a small 10% moving on, if you have that first established breaking bread and knowing people.

And so a healthy church, culture, discipline, and so before I say anything about someone, ask, have I said it to them first?

If it's not, there's no need to say until you set some time to do it.

And probably on Sunday in front of God and everybody is not the time.

Go talk to them over coffee, go talk to them over dinner, go talk to them in a one-on-one conversation and not in the room.

Even though the people here may not hear about it or know what you're talking about, you don't even want that to be a concept in their mind.

Again, that's cleaning the ditch.

We want to make sure that constantly we are constantly protecting our culture and keeping those things away.

We've all probably seen it happen before.

Many of us, unfortunately, have been on the receiving end of bad conversations like that.

There's, I know, I know there's I know the idea of what church hurt is, but if we're honest, it's really people hurt.

There's been leaders who've made bad decisions, and there's leaders who's also just made genuine mistakes in our lives, um, but never owned up to it.

And so we've all experienced that stuff.

We've all done it.

And so take that experience, take that stuff that you've you've been through before and apply it to your life.

I want to be the kind of leader that does speak life into people.

I want to kind of be the kind of leader that leads by relationships.

I want to be the kind of leader that is able to correct things and it not cause the whole team to fall apart.

I know what it feels like to not have a leader deposited into my life and it just be like a managerial role.

Guys, we're not managers in the church.

We may manage and protect the resources that God has given us and steward well what He's given us, but we are not managers of people.

It's not, it's not, it's not corporate culture.

You know, these people aren't showing up for a paycheck.

And, you know, you do it, you do what I say because I'm supposed to manage these resources role, this department, yada yada yada.

It doesn't work like that.

And in God's kingdom, people are people are the greatest resource.

And if we do not manage that resource well, what does scripture say?

He who can be faithful with little, God can trust with much.

And if he can only if he can't trust us with his greatest resource, he'll never pour it out.

He'll never pour in the people because he has to worry about eternal impact here.

And I know that seems like it would put a lot of pressure, but we have to keep that in mind.

The the breaking of bread at your houses is one of the most spiritual things you can do.

Having people at your house and at your table is one of the most spiritual things you can do.

Not saying you don't need to speak in tongues and all that other stuff.

That needs to happen.

That needs to happen in your prayer time.

But if we're not sitting down with people and we're not we're not getting to know them and doing life together, we are missing one of the most spiritual components and one of the most cornerstone components of the apostolic church that was built in Acts 2.

And so we have to make sure we make that a part of our everyday lives.

And so, number three, don't just attend a house.

You've got to carry the house.

Consumer Christianity asks this what did I get out of church?

And all of us should get something out of church, but there comes a point in your maturity as a Christian, a covenant eventually leads you to ask, What did I bring to the body today?

At some point in your Christian walk, it goes from what do I what did I get out of?

Church, then what did I get bring to the body today?

Um, do you have 1 Corinthians 12?

She'll get that in a second, but we gotta thinking about what did I get out of church and what I bring to church today.

Church normally only happens again, the big our biggest gathering happens on Sunday.

And so if I'm only concerned about what happens that one day of the week, you gotta think you're bringing in the building what happened the other six days.

Sunday, if Sunday is our time of worship together, it is you know 90 minutes, right, or 120, somewhere somewhere in between there.

And you got all those other minutes in the week, you're bringing what happens in all those other six days into the building on Sunday.

But but watch how Paul writes it.

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each of those as he chose.

Again, this is we're talking about those, those, those members.

If all were a single member, uh, what would the body be?

And again, as it is, there's many parts, yet one body.

And again, the eye can say to the hand, I have no need of you, head to the feet.

And so we we read this Sunday.

I'm not gonna go through the full thing.

He doesn't describe an audience.

Again, go home and read this.

He doesn't describe an audience, he describes a body.

The eye contributes, the hand contributes, the feet contribute, every part of the body contributes, every part carries something.

We all can't be a hand, and we all can't be a foot, we all can't be a certain thing.

Your body needs every organ that you have in your body, God specifically designed it, right?

We are the most complex biological machine in the universe.

And if God designed our bodies like that, every part of this of this body, his bride, is important as well.

And so we have to make sure that A, we carry value in that, we carry value in people, and we have to help them to see the value in that and that glorify one thing over another.

So Sunday attendance isn't just the finish line of church participation.

I we want people to be here on Sunday.

It matters.

The gathering, the assembly matters, right?

But it's the gathering with the family that matters.

So if everyone participated in church exactly the way that I participate, ask yourself this.

What kind of church will we have?

Again, a lot of what we've talked about the last couple weeks, we're not we're not looking at anybody else.

I don't I don't want us evaluating anybody else.

I want us evaluating ourselves.

Why?

Because if I start with personal responsibility, it'll pour out into my family, it'll pour out into the people around me.

What have what if everyone prayed like me?

What if everybody served like me?

What if everybody gave like I gave?

What if everybody invited people like I invite people?

What if everybody forgave like I've been forgiving this week?

What if everybody encouraged like I uh I've been uh like I've been encouraging people?

What if everybody discipled like I've been discipling people?

Again, it's not condemnation, it's ownership.

It's ownership.

Again, not saying it's my ministry, but it's owning my responsibility as being a member of the body uh in this house.

And so we have to practice that one another.

The New Testament repeatedly out describes church life with two words, one another.

And we see it all throughout scripture.

Love one another, honor one another, forgive one another, bear one another's burdens, pray for one another, encourage one another, serve one another, submit to one another, be hospitable to one another.

Do you need another to see how many anothers there are that Paul and Peter and the apostles write about in the New Testament?

And so if there's that's just a small example, a small list of those anothers, and oftentimes those are repeated, this has to tell us something important.

You cannot practice New Testament Christianity by yourself.

It's a lie straight from the pit of hell.

You cannot practice New Testament Christianity by yourself.

Church isn't merely where I receive ministry, church is where I learn to minister to someone else.

Sunday is the opportunity to help learn to minister to someone else, and we go home Monday through Saturday and we complete that assignment.

We minister them to our homes, we minister them to restaurants may go together, go into the park together, go into their their kids' sporting event together, whatever that it is that you do live with somebody else, whether it's hunting together, fishing together, girls shopping together, whatever you ladies do.

Um, because I I have no idea half the time when my wife goes out goes out with ladies and I'm watching the kids what they do, but I'll but I know it's important.

And so she does she does the same thing.

If we go out as a guy's group, she doesn't always question what we do, but she knows it's important because of the so whatever the it is that you do together, and whatever that hobby or passion or whatever it is, um there I I I've I've I've I've seen I've seen guys who go to the range together and they have they they have they have they have time together and you grow by it.

Um and so what again, whatever the it is, that's the cool thing about ministry.

It doesn't just have to be in the capacity of the four walls of this church.

You can do fun stuff and still have to ministry.

Ministry does not have to be suffering all the time.

You can go have fun stuff, and so if it's a cooking class or it's um again, um, I mean, even like I got down to teenagers, like you can you can have you can have a video game party and and and still and still talk about Jesus.

Like you can still grow people in it.

That's that's what New Testament Christianity is.

It's bringing it into the home, it's making it a part of your everyday life.

Again, this isn't where the church isn't where I receive ministry, but it's where I learned to minister someone else.

And so, again, think about this.

Who is your one another right now?

Think about it as a personal assignment.

Who is God telling you that one another is right now?

Who are you encouraging?

Who are you praying for?

Who would you notice if they weren't there on Sunday?

Who would who are you helping carry some of the burden in their life?

Who are you discipling?

That's what church is.

Not just the program that we have on Sunday, that's what church is, is who that one another is and what we're doing with it.

And so now the idea of of expanding that ditch.

So now that we've we've talked about what it what it takes to start carving that out, what it takes to keep clean, but what does it look like in expansion and growing?

We have to make room for people before they arrive.

And that's not just talk about physically making sure this room is ready or you know, just the idea of uh make sure we're we're at that 80% capacity thing.

You know, uh it's because church principle holds that like once once about eight your 80% of your chairs are regularly filled, your church really won't grow anymore because people are like, oh man, there's no seats in the building.

Not just talking about that, it's talking about hell like that healthy church culture and community where people are coming in.

The church practice healthy community, and this is and this is from Acts uh 2, 46 to 47.

We see we see what the the scripture says is that the Lord added to the church daily as should be saved.

They practiced the breaking of bread, they practiced prayer, they practiced worship, they did those things uh in their homes and all around.

Notice that is that they weren't obsessed with growth, they were just practicing a healthy church life, and the Lord added to the church daily.

Daily.

It wasn't weekly in their gatherings, he added daily.

And so I think I think maybe that's one of the ideas that Western culture has gotten so wrong.

I am for excellent church services, I am for excellence in this building and doing the best that we can always, but I wonder what the mindset would be is if we care truly carry that in our Monday through Saturdays.

If the Lord's added daily, this building would never be big enough.

And that would be a good issue to have.

That would be a good problem to have.

Why?

Because if it just exists on Sunday, if the if the congregation, the local body, the assembly, the ecclesia only existed on Sunday in this community, where's the impact every other day of the week?

Again, these people weren't obsessed with growth, they were just practicing what they were taught.

They were practicing what healthy church life looked like.

God gives the increase when that happens.

And that's where this fits back into 2 Kings 3, where we've been talking about digging these ditches out beautifully.

The people prepared the channel because Elisha gave the word.

They trusted the prophet that when he said the rain was coming, because God said it was coming, they did the hard work of digging out the irrigation ditches to their to their homes, to their livestock, to their fields, even though there was no rain and there was no sign of rain coming.

It works the same with us.

We we prepare it and God will send it.

So here's the question we we've got to ask.

If God sent us the people we've been praying for, are we prepared to receive them?

Not just, again, the the simple fact of it, do we have enough chairs?

Do we have the right, you know, enough programs, this, that, another?

But do we have enough disciplers?

Do we have enough children, not do we do we have enough children's workers?

Do we have enough people willing to sit down with someone new?

Are there enough homes that are willing up to open their tables uh to new families, to new believers, to new converts?

Do we have enough mature believers?

Do we have enough willing to walk patiently with spiritual babies?

Do we have enough leaders who are willing to multiply themselves, to work with the headache of working with people that will make mistakes, and then also trusting them when they prove themselves and handing off responsibility.

That's what digging this looks out.

Now we're digging.

Now we're establishing that.

That's what it looks like digging out those channels.

And here's something that's uncomfortable to think about.

Guys, we have to make room for mess.

We have to make room for mess.

Healthy families aren't clean because nobody makes a mess.

Healthy families know how to clean up messes without throwing away family members in the process.

Spiritual babies will make messes.

New believers won't know all of our expectations.

They're gonna ask us uncomfortable questions, they're gonna misunderstand things, they're gonna they'll need patience, they'll fall, and they will need correction.

But Galatians 6, 1 through 2 says, says, 1 through 2 says this restore such one in the spirit of meekness, bear ye one another's burdens.

And that's what fulfills the law of Christ.

You know what righteousness is?

It's taking on someone else's issue as your own.

That's what Christ's righteousness was.

He took on our issue of sin as his own.

And so when we bear one another's burdens, when we get in the muck in the mire with people, um, that's when we begin to bear one another's burdens.

It's not always gonna be fun having a couple sit down in your house that you know that they're going through some mess and you're you you are a healthy, established marriage that you're trying to help them out.

It's not always gonna look pretty, it's not always gonna feel good, but as we bear one another's burdens, as they see that there are people that are here that truly care about them and care about their marriage and care about what happened, that that they go home healed and and delivered and and restored, then they'll start to see the true love of Christ.

And so whatever that looks like, whether it's in marriages, it's in teenagers, it's in young adults, um, it it's in in whatever, whatever that the area the specific particular area is, people are going to start to see that that there is something real and there's something true and there's something honest there.

A healthy church doesn't lower biblical standards, but neither does it demand maturity from someone who has never been discipled.

We can't hold someone, we can't we can't hold everybody to to the same level and the same the same the same standard.

Why?

Because everybody's at a different walk spiritually.

That is not to say that there's not a standard for leadership.

That's a different conversation.

We're not talking about new believers, right?

We're talking about we're talking about people who have voluntarily said, I feel like God has called me to more.

And if God's called me to more, there can be more asked.

But of spiritual babies, no.

We we can't ask that.

Why?

Because people will develop and mature at different rates than the person sitting next to them.

You may have you may have two new families that walk into the church, and one developed mature in maturity faster than the other.

Does that make the other family any less no?

Because think about your kids.

All of our kids are different, every one of their personalities are different.

My gosh.

Um Zane and Maverick and and Hazel are three completely different people, and they've all matured and and things differently.

There's things that Zane has excelled at that Maverick hasn't yet.

But there's also things that Maverick has excelling that Zane's not in the same.

And even Hazel, she's starting to show different things that the boys that they didn't excel in that she is.

And you could probably think of the same with your children.

Um, and so think of the same with with the in the in the concept of spiritual babies.

There's gonna be some things that they grasp and they get right away, and there's gonna be some things they gotta go through the hard knocks and lessons on, but what are we gonna do in the spirit of meekness with that?

A healthy church doesn't lower biblical standards, but it doesn't demand maturity from someone who's never been discipled.

We will we don't excuse immaturity, it means we disciple people through it when they ask the hard questions, when they need the lessons, we're available.

That's the big distinction there.

And so I want to uh I want to bring back that idea more is caught than taught because it applies to church culture too.

New believers are watching, they're learning how do these people handing handle disagreement, how do they talk about leadership, how do they treat their visitors, how do they respond when somebody falls, how do they worship, how do they pray, how do they give?

How do they serve?

How do they forgive?

And then think about this: every church is discipling people into something even when it's not intentional.

Going back to that idea that culture will create itself.

We are discipling people into something even when we aren't intentionally holding a discipleship class.

People are watching, their spirits are listening, and so be careful what you're depositing.

The church culture is caught just like family culture.

There aren't five easy steps to building a great church.

I wish there was.

I wish we could just pick up one of those books and do it.

It would be awesome, but it just honestly there's not.

But there's practices of people who've who did dedicated decided to live in covenant together.

Practice presence, don't disappear into the crowd.

Guys, know people and allow yourself to be known.

Practice honor, speak well of one another, even when they're not doing great in the world.

Celebrate someone else's victories and refuse gossip.

Practice hospitality, make room at your table, not just merely in the sanctuary for people to talk to you.

Practice restoration.

When someone's struggling, move towards them rather than away from them.

Practice contribution, bring your gift, your prayer, your generosity, your service, encouragement, and discipleship into the body.

The unique gift that you have, offer it.

Offer it.

Um, and so what what what makes a church feel like home to you?

What behaviors can quietly destroy that feeling?

And then if a brand new believer copied the same way that I participate in church, what kind of Christian they would they become, and what kind of church would they help contribute to building?

But we're preparing for people we haven't met yet.

Again, back to the idea in 2 Kings 3 through 16.

They dug empty ditches, and that's super important.

There wasn't water yet, and they were preparing space for something God promised they couldn't see, and that's exactly what we're doing.

Somewhere tonight there's a marriage that we haven't met yet.

There's a child who hasn't walked into our Sunday school building yet.

There's a prodigal who hasn't come home yet.

There's a new believer who doesn't know scripture yet, and there's a future leader who doesn't even know that God is calling to be a leader yet.

We're digging that ditch before they arrive.

We're creating her healthy church culture because we believe in God for people later.

We don't know their names, we don't know their stories, we don't know how messy they're gonna be when they get here, but we're preparing a healthy house for them anyway.

And when the water does come, and it will come, they will be already somewhere there, somewhere for it to flow.

We don't go to church, but we belong to a people.

And together, again, together, key words there, we are becoming the church that the Lamb's building.

Remember that each and every week, again, as we as we talk to it, we're probably end of wrapping this up in the next week or two.

But I want to I want to define what these things look like because I want this to become the DNA of who we are.

A lot of this stuff already happens naturally here, already happens organically.

That's what I love about this church.

I had not when I had one of the things we were praying about.

I was like, God, you know, uh, whatever you take it is to our next steps, um, and wherever you're leading us to, and when we you know when the opportunity arose here, it's like, wow, don't have to walk into a place and fix a lot of things.

Um, you guys, the the the the the the culture here is rather healthy.

I just think there's some things that we need to be rather intentional about because if our heart is to reach people, we have to make sure that we prepare the things that once we reach them and they start coming into this place, they stay here and they they they make their home here and eventually they become leaders, eventually they become disciplers.

And so we're gonna do it one person at a time, one uncomfortable ditch at a time, one uncomfortable uh conversation at a time and correction at a time, and and discipling one another and growing together at a time.

And so let's pray.

God, thank you for what you've been doing.

Thank you for working on each and every one of us.

And as you speak to us, let us hear as a voice of love and not a voice of condemnation, condemnations from the enemy.

God, what you're doing is you're trying to grow each of us as individual believers and individual leaders before you bring an increase in.

God, you are so concerned about the people that are outside of these walls, that are in this neighborhood, that are uh down every street in this community and in the in the communities that that neighbor the city of Zachary.

Uh uh, God, you you see them, you know them, you weep for them.

And here's here's here's what here's what the truth of the reality is is God, you want to bring them to a place that that that preaches doctrine, uh, the true that preaches true doctrine, a place that that that that that has fellowship and communion together that that heals people, and you want to bring them to a place that they can call home.

And but God, you're also asking your people at the same time, the labors that are in the field, to to step up to the task and to be exactly who you called them to be.

So help us to do that, God.

As you speak to us, help us to hear your voice, and that if you tell us that we need to work on something, then God, it's not, it's not because you look down on us, it's because you believe in us.

And the same way that you believe in us, and the same way that you're investing in us, help us to take that, help us to turn around and then start investing that in other people.

Because, God, as you pour into us the ideas that we live in an overflow in our lives, and let that overflow into other people.

None of what I have first came from me.

None of the spirit that I have, none of the joy that I have, none of the fruits of the spirit that are in my life, none of the blessings that I have, all of it originated from you.

So anything that I have, God, I give it freely back to you.

Let it flow out of my life into other people's, and let that process continue and continue until God, you build such an explosive church that the world and the community around us in the community is forever changed by the power of your name, Jesus.

We want to build that kind of church.

We want to build an effective church in this community that we would reach the lost and see this place saved.

In your name we pray, Jesus.

Amen.