The Church The Lamb is Building

I would apologize for prayer being lengthy, but I feel like that's one of the things we can't apologize for.

I want to be, I want to be, I want to be a church that that is sensitive to the moment, sensitive to the spirit.

When God wants to speak, let him speak.

This is his house, not mine.

And so that word, whoever that was for this morning, I pray that you receive that.

And everyone this morning that came up for prayer, I pray that you believe in faith that God is not answering, but he has answered what you asked him for.

That whether it's peace in your mind, it's peace in your situation, it's healing in the body, it's healing in the spirit, God is still able.

He still sits on the throne, he still rules over it all.

And just at the mention of his name, we have to remember there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved.

There is no other name but the name of Jesus that encompasses every characteristic of God and every title given of giving God gives us in his scripture, but the name of Jesus.

And in that spirit of prayer, I'd like to continue in this for a moment.

Can we have all of our students stand all across the house?

Whether you are in preschool, all the way to college, if you work in the school system, whether you're a teacher, you're a teacher's age, you're a paraprofessional, you're you're you're on faculty, you're staff, you drive a bus this morning.

Can you guys come, can you guys come up to the front this morning?

This morning, we want to take a moment and we want to be intentional about praying for our students.

All right, come on, guys.

We want to be intentional about praying for our students, praying for our faculty, praying for our staff.

Our intention is not to embarrass you as a student, as a teacher, as faculty and staff.

Myself, I I I I work I work at a high school.

And I see firsthand and I know a lot of what these kids go through.

And you guys can remember high school, you guys can remember middle school, you guys can remember, but they live in a different day and age than any of us did.

I know I'm I'm not, it seems like I'm not too far removed, and even if in my gap from from high school and from college, it's a different world that they live in.

And I what I what I ask is we've been real intentional the past couple weeks about about talking about being spiritual mothers and fathers.

Here's what I ask, church, would you stand today?

If your grand, if your child's down here, would you come stand behind them?

Kids step step up for me.

It's okay.

I promise, it's okay.

Grandparents would and then family members, would you come stand behind your student or your professional or your your faculty member?

And then, church, I ask you, would you come and would you stand behind those?

Your student may not be here.

You may your kids may have been graduated out for a while, your family may not come here.

But what I want to ask is that you would stand behind them as pillars of faith, as spiritual mothers and fathers, and you would pray for them as these were your own kids.

As as these were your own little ones walking back into school, and that these these uh professionals that are going into schools and teaching and helping, that these were yours going into the schools.

I am appreciative of the of the public education system, and I'm appreciative as American of the opportunities that we have, but I also know the spirit of the world that we live in.

I know the spirit of the world that tries to deceive our children and tries to in every way to show them that God's not real, that he's not for them, that he doesn't have a plan for their life.

And I I again I am I am of I am for education, I am for studying God's creation, for studying language, for communicating, I'm for studying all these things.

God is the one who created math, he created the sciences, he created the languages that you speak.

But what I'm not for is for the enemy coming into the place and trying to ruin all of that.

Here's what I still believe that the same promise that God gave to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, that everywhere that their foot would stand would be a spiritual inheritance.

I still believe that for our students and for their schools.

And so whether walking into elementary school or they're walking into their middle school or their high school, or even as teachers and as professionals, when we step into our classrooms, that is a spiritual inheritance.

And where we go, we are reclaiming territory from the enemy.

You are in the desk that you're in for a reason.

You're sitting in the classroom that you're in for a reason.

Why?

God has a divine plan for you.

God has a divine plan for you.

And I understand it may be scary and it may seem scary to live your faith out, but here's what I promise you that if you trust God and you live your faith boldly, and you just you you do whatever God leads you to do, speak whatever He leads you to speak, pray for whoever he leads you to pray for.

Stand in your faith, that God will not just stand behind you to keep you upright, but he'll go before you and He'll make a way where there is no way.

God will provide everything that you need.

God will provide the words, God will provide the boldness, God will provide the courage.

Here's church, here's what I ask that we pray.

Number one, that we would pray spiritual authority over our kids, that they would have a power when they walk into the school.

Pray Holy Ghost power over them.

Second, let's pray for their safety.

We know the world that we live in, but we also know the God that we serve.

Pray that angels walk with them in the hallways and sit with them in their classrooms.

And the third thing, let's pray that they would be little missionaries everywhere that they would go, and that they would fill the Sunday, our Sunday school classes because they're bringing their friends to church, that they would fill this auditorium because they're bringing their friends to church.

All right, can we do that this morning?

God, I pray over each and every student.

I pray that God, you would move in miraculous power over their lives, whether they're homeschooled, God, whether, whether whatever school they're in, um primary school, middle school, they're they're in they're in high school.

I speak the name of Jesus each and over one of them.

God, I pray that you would you would anoint them in power and authority to do the good work.

God, that the calling that you have over their life, that you have over them, that you would protect them everywhere they go, station angels to go with them into every classroom and over every student.

God, I pray that you would give them boldness and you would give them courage and you would give them tenacity to do exactly what you called to do.

Jesus, I pray that they would be little missionaries everywhere they would go, that the love that's in their heart and their actions and their word would point right back to you.

And Father, I pray warring angels to go before them into the classroom, and you would there would be peace where they would walk.

That God, you would surround them and encompass them wherever that they would go, and you would be with them, and you would give them boldness and courage, knowing that they are yours and they are yours first in Jesus' name.

We have some we have some anointed cloths that we'd like to give you guys this morning.

We want, we've we've we've anointed these.

There's a spiritual principle that that that is is is practiced in scripture.

Um, Paul couldn't go everywhere, right?

Paul was Paul was a great apostle, and he he he he he he he he he he evangelized the known world at the time.

But there were situations and there were things that he couldn't go to, and what they would do is they would rip a piece of his garment and they would send it to where it goes.

And so tell you this morning, there's nothing inherently special about this.

There's this this this this isn't cloth from the throne of heaven, but what it is, it has been prayed over and it has been anointed, and when it goes with you, the Spirit of God goes with you.

I want you to either tie that to your backpack, I want you to put that somewhere in your backpack, somewhere wherever you're at, and let it be a constant reminder that when you look down it, that God is for me, God is with me, God has a plan for me, and God's gonna use me right where I'm at in my school, okay?

Church, thank you so much for being intentional with this.

I know this isn't the normal order of service.

I just I believe in our kids, not just because my kids are here, but I believe that this is not just the church of tomorrow, this is the church of today.

And we want you to know, kids, that we stand behind you and that we're here for you.

And then you need resource during school, you need prayer, you have questions.

These are the people that you lean on and ask.

Ask mom and dad, ask grandma, grandpa, ask, ask, ask your aunts and uncles, but ask the people in this place.

We love you.

We want to see you succeed, not just in your education, but we want to see you succeed in your spiritual walk.

You guys can be seated this morning.

Thank you so much, church, for praying over our kids this morning.

I believe that there's going to be fruit that we see from it that is going to change the course of this church.

Amen, amen.

The past couple of weeks, we've been on a journey of looking at scripture through the lens of the Lamb and looking through things, through the scope of uh of Jesus.

That not just studying scripture to say that we read or or just quoted scripture, just have something to preach out of, but we're trying to get to the core root of what was Jesus trying to show us, whether it was Old Testament or New Testament, whether it was when Jesus um spoke in the words of Red, it was an apostle, it was a prophet.

And we've been through a couple of things, and that's the the idea this morning is is we wanna we want to ask what kind of people is the Lamb uh building us to become?

We started with the house that the Lamb is building.

We talked about, then we moved into the heart, then the marriage and the children, and last week leaders.

And every week we've widened that circle.

Why?

Because you don't go downstream to fix an upstream issue.

God doesn't transform people in isolation, he changes their hearts, and those hearts affect homes, and those and those homes they raise disciples, and those disciples become leaders, and eventually all of those people have to learn how to live together, and that's what we call the church, the capital C church, the ecclesia, this gathering, this assembly.

But here's what I want us to talk about today, and I want to be I want to be direct towards it that every church has a culture.

Every church has a culture, and here's the thing every church has a culture whether they intended it or not.

Every family has a culture, every organization has one, every church has one.

Culture is simply the collection of beliefs, behaviors, rhythms, relationships, and values that are reinforced so consistently that they have become instinctive.

They're the language that happens in the hallways just because it's what's always been heard.

It's how we respond to first-time guests, it's how we treat our children in Sunday school, it's how we do this and we do that, just because it's the way that it's always been, that's culture.

We can put something on the wall that says we value prayer, but if nobody prays, then prayer isn't actually part of the culture.

We can say that we're family, but if somebody disappears for three Sundays and nobody calls and nobody notices, family isn't the culture.

We can say that we believe in discipleship, but if somebody gets baptized, receives the gift of the Holy Ghost, and then has to figure out everything else on their own, discipleship isn't the culture.

Here's the difference.

Culture isn't primarily what's written on the wall, but it's what happens every day in the halls.

And here's here's here's where I'm at.

This matters because culture will form whether you form it or not.

Culture will form whether you form it or not.

Nobody wakes up one day and intentionally creates an unhealthy church.

Nobody calls a meeting and says, let's become clickish.

That is not on the order of any any business meeting that's ever been had.

Nobody puts on the calendar that this year that we're gonna stop praying.

Nobody says, let's become territorial about ministry.

Nobody votes, let's make sure visitors feel like outsiders.

It doesn't happen like that.

It happens quietly.

One tolerated behavior, one unchanged attitude, one neglected value, one forgotten rhythm at a time.

Until one day you walk through the doors of the church that you love and you look around and wonder, when did we become this?

I'm not interested in waiting until something becomes unhealthy before deciding what kind of church that we're gonna be.

I want to be intentional now.

So today isn't about fixing a broken church, but it's about cultivating a healthy one.

And the good news is you we don't have to invent the culture.

The Lamb has already shown us what the culture of his church should be.

And before we go to Acts 2, let me go backwards a little bit because intentional spiritual culture didn't just happen in the book of Acts.

It didn't just start when the church began in the book of Acts.

Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 9, and and we could we could again we could quote this by by by heart many times.

Hero, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.

But he goes on to say, And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

And these words that I command you today will be on your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and you'll talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes, and you shall write them on the doorpost of your house and of your gates.

We already talked about this passage a couple weeks ago when we talked about the children that the Lamb is building, but I want to now to look through that through the idea in the lens of culture.

Talk about it when you sit, talk about it when you walk, when you lie down, when you get up, put reminders on your hands, put reminders before your eyes, and put reminders on your doors.

Why?

Because God understood something about people we have a tendency to forget.

Israel wasn't instructed to hope that the next generation would remember who God was.

They intentionally created rhythms of remembrance.

They built rhythms that made forgetting difficult.

Think about that for a minute.

They built rhythms into their lives that made forgetting God difficult.

That's intentionality.

That goal wasn't meaningless repetition, but the goal was a covenant remembrance.

And church, we need rhythms that make forgetting God difficult.

We need rhythms in our everyday that make forgetting God difficult.

We pray because we don't want to ever forget where our help comes from.

We worship so exuberantly because we don't want to ever forget who sits on the throne and what we'll all be doing together one day when we reach eternity's shore.

We preach doctrine because we don't want to ever forget what we believe.

We take communion because Jesus literally said, Do this in remembrance of me.

We testify because we we need somebody needs to remember that if he did it for them, he can do it for me.

Our rhythms form our culture.

And so we go from there, and then Pentecost happens.

The Holy Ghost falls.

3,000 people are baptized and added to the church that day.

The church, this becomes the birthday of the church.

The church is born.

But here's the question: what happens on day two?

Because an encounter can happen in a moment.

We can remember encounters that we've had with God, but culture has to be cultivated afterwards.

Go to Acts 2 and 42 for me.

And they continued steadily, they vote devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship and the breaking of bread and prayers.

And all came upon every soul, and many signs, everybody's saying wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

This isn't a church growth strategy.

This is looking at what these people became.

They were doctrinally grounded, they were prayerful, they were together, they were generous, they were hospitable, they were joyful, they were unified, they were worshipful, they were mission-minded.

That's not a schedule, that's not something and just order events.

That's a culture.

But look again at verse 42.

They continued steadfastly.

Pentecost was the counter, the upper room was the encounter, but what followed was intentional.

What followed after that was intentional.

The spirit produced something in them and they continued.

Everybody say continued.

And that gives us an important balance that we cannot manufacture the culture of the kingdom, but we can intentionally cultivate what the spirit produces.

We cannot manufacture the culture of the kingdom, but we can be intentional about what the spirit produces.

We can't manufacture revival.

We can't manufacture unity.

We can't manufacture a genuine love.

But when the Holy Ghost produces those things among us, we tend to them.

We protect them.

We reinforce them.

We practice them.

And then notice this, they didn't just meet in the temple.

Verse 46, they said they went breaking bread from house to house.

Their Christianity followed them home.

That's everything that we've been talking about for the last couple of weeks.

The house, the heart, the marriage, the children, the leadership, and now the church.

The church wasn't somewhere merely to be attended, it was a people that they belonged to.

And so, how does something like prayer or hospitality or generosity go from being something that we occasionally do to something simply becoming who we are?

Scripture shows us that in Philippians 4, 9, it says this that what you have learned and received and heard in me, practice these things.

Everybody say, practice, and the God of all peace will be with you.

Look at Paul's language.

Learned, received, heard, seen, and then what does he say?

Do it.

Do it.

Why?

Because Paul didn't give them a doctrine to repeat, he gave them a life to observe.

Paul didn't give them doctrine and just and just try to say, here's the lines, here's what you believe.

But Paul gave them a life to observe.

And this keeps appearing throughout everything that we're talking about.

More is caught than taught.

More is caught than taught.

Our children catch it.

Our leaders catch it.

And what eventually happens, our church catches it.

And that's why last week matters so much, the leaders that we talked about, because leaders don't simply steward ministries, leaders steward culture.

People notice what leadership celebrates.

People notice what leadership ignores.

People notice what leadership corrects, and people notice what leadership participates in.

But here's the thing if leadership prays, prayer then becomes the value.

If leadership serves, then service gains value.

If leadership celebrates souls instead of platforms, then reaching the loss gains value.

If leadership honors people, and then honor spreads, but here's the important part culture isn't solely about leadership's responsibility.

Because everyone in the room contributes to the culture.

Every foyer conversation contributes to the culture.

Every response to a visitor contributes to the culture.

Every refusal to participate in gossip contributes to the culture.

Every phone call to someone who hasn't been around for a while or you've seen missing, it contributes to the culture.

Every older saint who encourages a young believer, it contributes.

Every time that we celebrate someone else's victory, instead of becoming jealous, we are cultivating something that only God can build in this church.

And here's the idea.

There's something interesting about a garden.

And this might be revelatory for some of you.

But if you want tomatoes, you plant tomato seeds.

Write that down.

I promise you.

Go tweet that out.

You'll get famous.

If you want fruit, you cultivate it.

I have to prepare the soil.

I have to plant the seed.

I have to water it and protect it, intend it.

But you know what I don't have to plant?

Weeds.

Nobody goes outside to their garden and says, Man, I wish I had a little bit of crabgrass in here.

Nobody goes to the garden and says, I want all these dandelions and I want all these other things and I've got I want all that in my garden.

It just looks so good.

We work so hard to intentionally keep weeds out of our gardens.

We put down the liner, we put down mulch, we spray, we we we pull the weeds out, we take care of that.

You don't plan weeds, you just stop tending the garden, and it happens on its own.

Own and eventually left to its own device, it'll take over.

Church culture works much in the same way.

Healthy culture has to be cultivated.

Unhealthy church culture only needs to be tolerated.

That's why we've been talking about intentionality for these last couple of weeks.

Because Genesis gives us this language in Genesis 2 and 15.

And the Lord God took the man and he put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

God planted the garden, but he gave Adam responsibility for stewardship.

Everybody say stewardship.

He gave Adam the responsibility to dress it, to keep it, to cultivate it, to guard it.

And I think there's a principle that extends far beyond horticulture.

What God entrusts to us, he expects us to steward.

What God trusts entrusts to us, he expects us to steward.

And God has entrusted us with a church and not just a building, but a people, a spiritual family.

And that means we have a responsibility to cultivate what the Spirit is producing amongst us.

But what does cultivation actually look like?

I think spiritual scripture gives us four very practical verbs.

We teach what we want understood.

Everybody say teach.

If doctrine matters, then we teach doctrine.

If prayer matters, then we teach people how to pray.

If discipleship matters, we explain what discipleship looks like.

If serving matters, we don't just serve, but we teach why we serve.

We can't assume that people just know, especially new believers.

And remember what we've already established in the past couple weeks, birth is not maturity.

A spiritual baby, someone who is born again to the water and of the spirit, is not mature.

Paul talks about it.

Someone can be born again and still need to be raised.

So we teach.

Everybody say, model.

We model what we want reproduced.

And this goes back directly to Philippians 4 9.

Paul said, You learned it, you've heard it, and you've seen it in me.

So if we want a praying church, somebody has to let this see them pray.

If we want people to serve, somebody has to pick up the towel and begin to serve like Jesus served.

If we want generosity in our church, somebody has to have a model of open-handedness in their life and in their finances and in their family.

If we want reconciliation, then our children need to hear us apologize.

Our young leaders need to watch mature leaders admit when they're wrong.

Our new believers need to see what repentance looks like even after conversion.

Like Paul said, I die daily.

What does that look like?

Because again, culture is caught before it's ever announced.

Culture is caught before it's ever announced.

Everybody say, celebrate.

We want to celebrate what we want repeated.

And this matters more than we realize.

Because whenever, because whatever gets celebrated communicates, that's what matters here.

We do it with our children, right?

We celebrate the behaviors that we want to see when they, when they, when they do well in school, when they worship, when they when they when they when they do their chores without being asked, we celebrate those things, right?

And so the same thing with with new believers.

We have to celebrate that the things that matter because when we do that, we celebrate the things that that are awesome because that's what matters here.

So you say, yes, you we celebrate great worship, but we celebrate the person who also quietly served somebody all week, who took the meal to their house after they've been in the hospital and were recovery.

We celebrate the baptism.

We celebrate the person that taught the Bible study that led, but we celebrate that person who taught the Bible study that led them to the baptism.

We don't just celebrate the public thing, we also celebrate the things that happened in private to lead to that public thing.

We sell we celebrate somebody before completing discipleship.

We celebrate reconciliation, we celebrate generosity, we celebrate faithfulness, we celebrate the Sunday school teacher who's been showing up time and time again, even when they're exhausted and they're tired.

Why?

Because what we celebrate, we cultivate.

And finally, everybody say we correct.

Don't worry.

It's not like you, that's not the correction you think it is.

We correct what threatens what God is building.

Hear me this morning.

This is a part of cultivation too.

Because gardeners don't only water their gardens.

But sometimes they've got to pull out some weeds.

And I want to be careful here.

Hear me clearly this morning.

People are not weeds.

People are not weeds.

We don't fight against flesh and blood.

We don't fight against people.

Attitudes, patterns.

Things that quietly become normalized if nobody lovingly addresses them.

Gossip.

Division.

Clicks.

I understand that there's going to be natural friend groups, but I'm talking about the kind of friend groups that don't ever open up their homes to new people.

Bitterness.

Competition.

Territorial ministry.

Disrespect.

Spectator Christianity.

Those things don't require cultivation.

They only require toleration.

And sometimes love requires us to say that's not who we're becoming.

There's a big difference between those two phrases.

There is a big difference between those two phrases.

That doesn't belong in what the Lamb is building here.

We have to constantly bring it back to God's plan for this church, his purpose, his mission, his blueprint for who we are becoming.

There's a massive difference because this goes all the way back to we talked about in the beginning.

The heart, the heart, the heart.

Belonging precedes behavior.

We don't tell broken people, get everything right, and then you can belong.

That's not the order.

No, you come here, you belong, you meet Jesus, you receive his spirit, you become part of his family.

But belonging to Jesus means he loves us too much to leave us unchanged.

The same voice of love that God speaks in your life also is the same voice that speaks in correction.

And where God has corrected us and where leaders have corrected attitudes and personalities and things, think about the benefit in your life.

Now think about spiritual babies that are here that just don't know.

We want to make sure that we guard the culture of our church.

Why?

Because there's lost and broken people, and they can walk in the back doors and they can feel it and see it before we ever say it with our mouths.

More people will decide in the first couple of minutes of being in a church if they want to be a part of that church before they ever get to the worship and before they ever get to the message.

Why?

Because they can feel it in their spirit, even though they may be spiritually immature.

What we cultivate in culture is a place where people want to find a place to be rooted and planted and grow.

But if they walk into the house and they feel in their spirit all the same things that they see in the world, this is just another social organization.

This is just another club.

I refuse to be a church.

I refuse to be a family.

I refuse to be a marriage.

I refuse to be a man that has that kind of culture in his life.

Why?

Because God has cultivated something in me and has used people to cultivate my life when I didn't deserve it, when I didn't look like the candidate, when I didn't, when I wasn't the one who was supposed to be it.

Why?

Because grace welcomes people where they are, but discipleship refuses to leave them where they're at.

Grace says, you come in here broken and messed up, hurt it, hurting, dirty, broken with your problems and your issues.

Let me introduce you to Jesus.

You can be born again of both water and spirit, but I refuse as a disciple of Christ.

What did Jesus say?

If you love me, love my loving sheep is dirty business.

Being a shepherd is dirty business.

It's not glorious, it's not a it's not a glamorous job.

It probably would have been on Mike Crow's disgusting jobs.

It's not fun being covered in mud and sheep poop and other things.

But what did Jesus say?

If you love me, then feed my sheep.

Sheep don't always listen.

Sheep are knuckle and sheep are knuckleheads at times.

They don't get it right.

They head butt, they fight back.

But grace welcomes people where they are.

And discipleship says, I refuse to leave you where you're at.

So here's the thing.

We're gonna bring those four together.

What does this say about intentional reculture?

That we teach what we want understood, we model what we want reproduced, we celebrate what we want repeated, and we correct what threatens what God is building.

And why do we do all of those things?

Intentionality.

Intentionality.

Because every conversation that we have is cultivating something.

Every ministry that we have in this church is cultivating something.

Every decision that we make as a husband, as a wife, as a mother, as a father, as a leader, as a spiritual mother and father, every decision is cultivating something.

Every behavior that we celebrate is cultivating something.

But also every behavior we tolerate is cultivating something.

What we teach, we cultivate.

What we model, we cultivate.

What we celebrate, we cultivate, but also what we tolerate, we cultivate too.

So the question isn't whether we're creating culture, because we already are.

Whether we realize it or not, I hope this morning that we're no longer ignorant of the fact.

But I hope this morning that God is speaking directly to his people about intentionality of what we're we're building here.

So then it becomes the question if we're already cultivating culture here, then what in the world have we cultivated?

What have we cultivated?

What are we cultivating?

What does the future look like with our pattern of behaviors and actions and intentionality and tolerance?

And if we're going to simply call ourselves to be a church that belongs to Jesus Christ, then our answer can't simply be the kind of church that we prefer.

This is not my preference.

This is not my house.

This is his house.

He died for this house.

He paid for this house, he paid for the people in this house with his very own life.

Therefore, what the king says goes in the king's dominion.

What the Lord of the house says, the Lord of the house says, and we follow.

What the father says in the father's house, we follow.

This has to be the kind of church that the Lamb would recognize as his own.

And Jesus told us the clearest way that we would recognize that church in John 13, 34 through 35.

A new commandment I give to you that you would love one another, just as I have loved you.

And you also have uh are our love to one another.

And by this, and by say, by this, all people will know that you are my disciples if it is one of those clauses that Jesus speaks very clearly, but he leaves a clause at the end of it.

It's gonna be by this that all people know, if everybody say if that's a very big two-letter word of Jesus is saying it.

If you have love, one for another.

If you have love one for another.

What are we cultivating?

What are we cultivating?

What are we cultivating?

This is how Jesus said they'll know.

Think about that.

He doesn't say they'll know you're my disciples because your music's excellent.

Or they'll know you're because your beauty, your your building is beautiful and well taken care of, and it is.

And I'm thankful for the people who help with that and take care of our building.

They'll know because your preaching is powerful or you you have the right doctrine in your house.

They'll know because your organization is flawless, and we have a great team here and great leaders, but not even they'll know if you articulate every doctrine perfectly, because doctrine matters, holiness matters, truth matters.

Don't hear me clearly today, all of those things matter.

But Jesus said, by this, all men shall know, by how you love one another.

And don't miss this as his standard for love.

How are we supposed to love one another?

He says, as I have loved you, as I have loved you.

There's the voice of the Lamb again.

Jesus doesn't allow us to define love culturally.

He doesn't allow us to have, hey, here's what your church can define love as in your community, in your day, in your age.

He defines it Christologically.

Look at him.

Love looks a lot like him.

It is sacrificial, it is patient, it is truthful, it's forgiving, it's serving, it's holy, it's being willing to wash feet and willing to carry a cross.

And this is where everything that we've been talking about the past couple weeks that comes together.

Doctrine without love does not reflect the Lamb.

Holiness without kindness does not reflect the Lamb.

Leadership without servanthood first does not reflect the Lamb.

And community without truth doesn't reflect the Lamb either.

We're not choosing between truth and love because the Lamb is full of both.

I'm not choosing to preach doctrine at the expense of love, and I'm not choosing to love people at the expense of truth.

God exists in both.

And this is where culture has to become visible.

We don't, we can't choose one or another because the church the world is looking for both.

They are looking for truth and they are looking for love.

This this is where, so if somebody walks through the doors, what do they encounter?

What should they encounter?

They should encounter perfection because we're people.

We're all in the process of growing.

We're being discipled ourselves, but they should encounter something recognizable.

They should encounter grace.

They should encounter truth.

They should encounter prayer.

They should encounter generosity.

They should encounter hospitality.

They should see honor.

They should see service and action.

They should see forgiveness and what it looks like.

They should feel the joy of the Lord and see it expressed on our lips.

And they should see a genuine love one for another in this house.

Not because everyone has this manual that you've been given.

This is the culture of apostolic church, but it's because we've practiced the ways of Jesus for so long and with such intentionality, it becomes the ways of this house.

That's the culture.

That's what we're looking for.

Because here's the thing we are not an audience, we're a body.

And that's why nobody gets to sit this message out.

Don't tune out because you're not a leader in this church.

Don't tune out because you're not the pastor of this church, or you're not on the board of this church, or you don't feel like you have a role where you speak into people's lives.

Because scripture never describes the church as an audience, it describes us as a body.

First Corinthians 12, 12 through 14.

For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, everybody say one body.

So it is with Christ.

For in one spirit, everybody say, One spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, all were made to drink of one spirit.

For the body does not consist of one member, but of many.

If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I don't belong to the body, then it would make, then it would not make it any less part of the body.

And if the ear should say, because I am not the eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing?

And if the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

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

Everybody say, He chose.

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

And as it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee, nor again to the head, to the feet, I have no need of you.

And on the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.

And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we should bestow greater honor.

Let's talk about culture.

The parts that we deem in our modern culture as less desirable, as not the cool jobs, as not the jobs I go for in ministry or the things that I try to do.

We should bestow more honor.

So thank you for those of you that come and vacuum this church.

Thank you that make sure that we have clean restrooms.

Thank you for those of you that mop the floors and make sure there's not cobwebs around this place.

It's not an honorable job, it's not a sexy job, it's not a desirable job.

But what matters, people care if they walk into a place and have have clean bathrooms.

People care if they walk into the house of God and it's the house of God, it should look nice.

Thank you to those that mow the grass.

Thank you to those that weat.

Thank you, those that have been doing it in this ungodly heat wave.

Thank you.

Why?

Because honor should be bestowed upon that.

But here's what he also says in that same scripture that there should be no schism in the body, there should be no conflict in the body.

But the members that should have the same care for one another.

And if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.

Or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

Do you hear the language that Paul is giving us?

The same care for one another.

That's church culture.

When someone hurts, we hurt.

When someone celebrates, we celebrate.

When someone struggles, we all notice.

When someone disappears, we all go looking.

We all get on the phone.

We all show up at their house.

When someone is born again, we all have responsibility in help raising them.

When someone discovers a calling, we all have part in developing them.

And here's where I'm going to make this very personal to each and every one of us.

Church culture isn't something that the pastor creates for you.

I have responsibility in it.

Our leaders have responsibility in it, but scripture itself holds leadership accountable for how we shepherd.

But here's the thing culture belongs to all of us.

Culture belongs to all of us.

No one is left out of this one.

No member of the body.

We need every member of the body.

We need every talent, every gifting, every ability.

We need every personality.

We need every good thing that God has put in you.

We need the eye, the ear, the eyes.

We need the nose.

We need the feet.

We need the hands.

We need the ones who can think, the ones who can go.

We need all of that.

So remember this every time that you are helping to create the culture of this church, every time that you walk in the doors, the way you greet somebody matters.

The conversations that you participate in matter.

How you respond to when someone else gets recognized matters.

Whether you notice the new family, it matters.

Whether you pray with somebody, it matters.

Whether you forgive, it matters.

Whether you serve, it matters.

We don't attend culture, we create it together.

And there's something beautiful about that.

Because that means every person in this room has something to contribute to what the Lamb is building.

You have something to contribute to the church that God is building right here, right now in 2026.

You have something that God wants you to be a part of that He has placed inside of you for you to use to build this church and to reach this community.

That should be encouraging.

It's not up just to a pastor or to leadership, to ministry, but God is calling each and every one of us to step into his mission and to step into his purchase, step into his purpose.

Reread Acts 2, guys.

We have to be reminded they continued steadfastly in doctrine.

They continued steadfastly in fellowship.

They continued steadfastly in breakfast.

Making bread and prayer, and out of those rhythms, out of those things becoming second nature to them, that's when generosity, unlike unimaginable generosity, happened.

Read what scripture said.

They sold all their possessions and gave to those that had a need.

Why?

Because the mission became greater than anything else.

Their families were, mind you, their families were taken care of, their business to give, those things were taken care of, but they understood that they didn't live just for their earthly family.

They understood they didn't just live for their earthly business, but their earthly family and their earthly business had kingdom-minded purpose and they gave according to such.

There was a unity in the church that no matter what was going on, no matter the persecution, no matter who was coming towards them and what was going on, that they would stay in one mind and one body and one accord and the mission moved forward.

There was a gladness meeting in their houses as they were breaking bread, as they were joining together to remember what Christ had done and moving the gospel forward.

They worshiped wherever they went.

They worshiped in their home.

They spoke the mission over and over again.

And here's what happened because that flowed out of those repeated patterns.

Scripture says, remember, the Lord added to the church daily.

Everybody say daily.

What would happen if we cultivated a culture in our church that people were added to the body daily, not just on Sundays, not just at midweek, not just at Rafa, but in our homes.

We were baptizing people in our bathtubs.

We were sitting down for Bible studies, and people began to ask questions and begin to weep as the spirit began to move upon them.

And you, not me, you laid hands on them and they received the gift of the Holy Ghost.

And you were calling and saying, I don't know how it happened, but it happened.

What would happen if we became the kind of church that when we shut the lights off and we turned the AC off until the next time that we were here, that we would take the spirit and what we got in here and we would take it home, we would take it to our schools, we would take it to our workplaces, and it would not stop cultivating and growing.

If we became a church that tended to the culture that we have every day and not just when problems came up.

Here's the thing.

God does the adding.

The church just cultivates faithfulness.

God gives the increase.

That's what's important.

I can't make increase happen.

I can't cultivate it.

I can't make revival happen.

I can't do that.

We have to remember that.

That's important.

Because we're not trying to engineer church growth.

That is not what we're looking for here.

We're not trying to manufacture revival.

We're not trying to become trendy enough that people want to become here.

Our responsibility is simpler and is much more difficult because I want to be the church that Jesus intended us to be.

I want to be a church that is effective.

I want to be a church that the lost come to and they find direction.

I want to be the church that kind of the kind of church that is the hospital for the broken, that when they come into this place, they find the healing for their body, for their souls, for their mind, for their marriages.

That this would be the kind of church that when the people would come into and they and they and they can find, they can, they they can go, they can go to Rafa, but they also can be delivered, they can be delivered instantaneously from the hold of addiction.

I want this to be the kind of church that that same as the happened with the apostles, that their shadows crossed over people and miracles happened.

I want to be the kind of church that that acts too perfectly portrayed.

I don't think we need to change the formula.

I don't think we need to change, we may have to change over the course of time how we move the message, but I do not want to change the message.

I don't want to change the culture.

I don't want to change what Jesus set forth.

Why?

Because if it happens daily, we're gonna blow hell wide open.

And we're gonna see lost people find their way home.

We're gonna see prodigals make their way back to the gates.

We're gonna see people who we would never thought darkened the door frames of this church walk into this place and fall on their knees and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

We're gonna see miracles, signs, and wonders like we would not imagine.

We're gonna be and do the things that Jesus said that greater works would you do.

If we're intentional.

And I don't speak this as a word of correction this morning, but I speak a word of direction this morning.

I don't want to just meet at church.

I want to be the church.

I don't want to just come here on Sunday and see all you guys and then go back into our weeks, and then the next time we see each other, we see each other.

But I want you at my house.

I want to sit down for coffee.

I want to sit down for the hard questions.

I want to go to people's houses and I want to sit down in the middle of their hurting and in their brokenness.

I want to be connected to people.

I want the garden to be tended to because we plant and we water and we cultivate, we protect, but God and God alone gives the increase.

And church, here's my challenge to you this morning.

I want us to tend the garden.

Not because something is terribly wrong.

Nothing is terribly wrong.

I just want us to be intentional about tending the garden because it's that important.

This is eternity at stake.

This is bigger than just having a great church and a great attendance and great giving and being an answer to a community.

But this is about something so much bigger that there is an eternity at stake and that there are there are souls that are walking by each and every day, living in just this neighborhood around this church that don't know Jesus yet.

I'm not preaching this because I walked in the doors and I thought, man, we've got to fix this church.

We've got all these problems and all these issues.

No, quite the opposite.

That's because I believe that God is calling us to something so much more.

I believe that when God gives us something healthy, that you protect it while it's healthy, that we don't wait for division to value unity.

We go ahead and strive for unity at every turn and every corner.

We don't wait for till things become prayerless.

We we go ahead and we build prayer and we cultivate prayer.

We don't wait for people to feel forgotten before we need to build a prayer team and figure out how we need to follow up with people.

We don't wait for young people to leave before we start investing in them to realize that we have a problem, we have an issue there.

We don't wait for new converts to fall away before, oh my gosh, we have to create some kind of discipleship intentionality.

We decide intentionally who we're becoming before drift gets to decide it for us.

And I'm tired of living in a Western culture church.

Now I'm just saying, I'm just saying to the church as a whole that that just we meet on Sundays and that's it.

We just go to church on Sundays and that's it.

But I want to become the kind of church that Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and every day that wins ends in why.

There's a Bible study happening somewhere.

There's somebody meeting for coffee somewhere.

There's a family new family sitting at uh somebody who's been in this for a while, sitting at their table for dinner.

Guys, that's ministry.

Preaching isn't only the the preaching the doctrine isn't the only ministry that we have.

There is a ministry of cooking for people.

There's a ministry for them sitting down in a home and seeing what a healthy family looks like.

Moms and dads.

There's a ministry for you having kids over to your house that maybe, maybe, maybe that troubled kid and your kids have become friends with them.

But when they go to your house, they see what a mom and dad looks like, they see what a healthy family looks like, they see what a godly family looks like, and you are depositing seed every time.

You're watering every time that you invite them to dinner, even though sometimes they slip out a crass word, even sometimes they may not get it right and they don't follow all the rules of your home.

Can I tell you I have seen lives changed because of that?

Can I tell you I am a product because somebody invested in me when I didn't believe in me, that somebody saw something and cultivated something in me.

And I know there's those of you around the house who share the same testimony that you have been cultivated over time.

And now that you look back on the grand scheme of things and you look back and you see, oh my gosh, there were people who loved me, there were people who planted in me, there were people who made ways for me, there were people who made room for me at tables that I didn't need to, I didn't deserve to be at.

So here's the thing.

I want to leave you with a question this morning.

Not what kind of church do I want to attend?

That's consumer Christianity.

I'm done with it.

I'm done with it.

Not even the question, what kind of church do I want my pastor to build?

No.

Here's the question I want to ask you this morning, and I want it to burn into your spirits this morning.

What kind of church is the Lamb calling us to become?

And then from that question, personal responsibility in this.

What am I cultivating here?

What am I cultivating here?

Tessa, would you complain?

When I walk into this house, do I cultivate prayer?

Don't worry about your neighbor right now.

Ask the question: Do I cultivate unity?

Do I cultivate encouragement?

Do I cultivate generosity?

Do I cultivate discipleship?

Do I cultivate honor?

Do I cultivate hospitality?

Do I cultivate faith?

Because eventually what we repeatedly cultivate, it becomes who we are.

And I want somebody to walk in this church years from now and immediately sense this is a house of prayer.

This is a house where people love one another.

This is a house where people care about truth.

This is a house where they make room for broken people.

This is a house where they raise disciples.

This is a house where people serve, and this is a house that's they still believe that God can do the impossible.

Not because it's printed somewhere and what we teach in discipleship classes or next step, or even it's on the walls, because it's become the with it's become the ways of the house, and it's what's written on our hearts.

Hebrews 10, 24 through 25.

And let us consider one another to provoke us unto love and to good works, and not neglecting meeting together.

That is a habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Consider one another.

That's intentional language, guys.

Think about one another, not just notice one another, but think about one another, encourage one another, provoke one another towards love, help one another become like Jesus.

The Lamb is building a house, and he fills that house with people whose hearts belong to him, and those hearts shape marriages, and those marriages and spiritual families raid children and disciples, and those disciples become leaders, and those leaders don't build platforms for self, they help cultivate a church.

And when that church begins to look like the lamb, when that church begins to look like the lamb, then and only then can the world see Jesus.

So let's not leave something important to accident.

Let's be intentional about cultivating the church that the Lamb is building, stand all across the house this morning.

I still believe with every fiber of my being that God is pushing us into uncomfortable places because He is going to fill this house.

But it's gonna come at the cost of our intentionality of building it, of cultivating the things that need to be cultivating and saying no to the things that need to be said no to.

God is wanting revival in this community, God is wanting us to be the hand his hands and his feet in this community.

But what he's asking us, what are you willing to do personally?

What are you willing to do in your home, in your heart, in your family, in your marriage, in your leadership?

What are you willing to be intentional about?

Because I'll fill the house if you build it.

I wonder if we could just step out of where we're at as a church family.

If we could just step out of where we're at, if we could come just find a place around this altar, find a place somewhere around this church, and let God begin to speak to us this morning.

Let him breathe words of conviction over your life because it matters more that they come from him than they do for me.

And remember, the same voice that God breathes words of promise, of love, of peace over your life are the same voice that will speak with conviction to the things that need to be changed in your world.

Let God convict you of prayer time, let God convict you of intentionality with your family.

Let God convict you of the thing of the people that you need to have in your home and the Bible study you need to start in your home and the people you need to be intentional about having coffee with.

Let God be intentional with you right now so you can be intentional with his work.

Lord, hear our cry and hear our prayer this morning.

We want what you want so bad, God, that we are willing to lay ourselves down as vessels.

God, would you shape us?

Would you mold us?

Would you make us according to your plan and according to your purpose?

Every good gift, everything that you have, God, draw out of us, but everything that does not belong to you, everything that is not of your spirit, every ounce of gossip, every ounce of disunity, every ounce of dishonor, every ounce of pride, every ounce of ego, we lay that at your feet.

That God, you would build the people that would build a church that is after your heart.

I don't want to be a popular church.

I want to be an effective church, I want to be a hospital for the broken.

So God help us to see with your eyes, help us to help us to feel with your heart, help us to hear with your ears, and God help us to find a place that every day, every day we establish church in our home, every day we establish uh being the church into our routine.

Why?

Because it matters.

And help us to look across this building and that these are our brothers and our sisters in this family, that we are not at war with each other, nor are we at competition with each other, because at the end of this race, we are all receiving the same prize.

Help us to see that there are people missing here and that we need to reach them.

There's prodigals that are not sitting here.

There's people that we've invited, there's people that we've prayed for, and there are people that we've fasted for, and there's people in this community that we you have laid upon our hearts.

So, God, as we plant, as we water, as we cultivate with intentionality, God, only you can give the increase in the growth.

And here's what our prayer is this morning.

God, make us ready.

Make us ready to steward that growth well, that we would steward people well, that we would steward the lost and the broken well, that we would steward new converts well, that we would steward children well, and young people and young adults and young families and newlyweds and people who are who are trying to figure out the mom and dad thing and we have every scorse and every season of life, that we would have intentionality in everything that we do, God.

I'm okay with your voice of conviction because it's the one that that brought me out of where I was, spoke to me in love.

God, you're calling us to better and greater things.

You're calling us to build, to be the church that you designed, that you died for, that you bled for.

And our goal and our mission is to walk across those heavenly shores, arm in arms, not just with our families here on earth, but also the people that we ran into in Walmart, the people that we sat next to in the Mexican restaurant, the people that in our classrooms, that God, we understand that we are here in a temporary assignment for an eternal purpose.

Help us to be eternally minded in all that we do.

Why, God, every moment matters, every person matters, every soul matters.

Help us to see that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against spiritual principalities and darkness and high places, that by your name we overcome those things, and that whatever people are wrestling with, you still want to save their soul, and you still want to help them in their brokenness.

Lead us, guide us, order our steps, God.

You order the steps of a righteous man, so order our steps, lead us to the path of the broken, and help us with intentionality in our homes, as men of God, as women of God, as mothers and fathers, as grandparents, as aunts and uncles, as spiritual mothers and fathers.

Why?

Because this matters.

Help us to ride it upon not just our hearts, but everywhere.

Don't want to forget you, God.

I don't want to forget what you've done.

I don't want to forget what it was of what it felt like when I was first filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost, when I was baptized, when I was a new convert, when I when I felt your love for the first time, I don't want to forget that.

I want to be able to bring that fire and that fervency and that zeal to somebody else.

So I don't close this altar call, God, but I commission it to go out these doors into our Mondays, into our schools, into our workplaces.

God, that you would you would anoint us to walk out in power, you would walk, anoint us to walk out in courage, you would encourage you would anoint us to walk out in boldness, that we not just will as future tense, but we are going to go out and reach our community, and we are going to reach the lost, and we're going to reach the broken.

God, you are going to open it up to us.

In your name we pray, and everybody say in Jesus' name, Amen.

Amen.

I realize that these messages are different, and I realize these altar calls are different, and they're not comfortable.

Believe me, it's not comfortable or fun here, but I am more concerned with building an effective church and being an effective church.

I want to see the lost saved.

I want to see new converts.

I want to see prodigals come home.

I want to see our children be raised into the next generation of ministry.

I want to see Zachary and slaughter and all the surrounding areas saved.

I believe God's going to do it and he will do it.

He's just asking, what are you going to be intentional about?

Craig, can you come over here real quick, man?

I don't I don't mean to embarrass you.

We're gonna Yeah.

Carl, I'm sorry, you gotta forgive me.

I'm silly, I know names and faces are horrible.

But he's getting ready to move, and I'm excited that you're moving because that means you get to be with your wife, but we're gonna miss him here.

Some men and some elders, would you come lay hands on a pray for him?

We want to pray that the good work that he's doing here, continue it over there.

We're for the Capital C church, man.

Uh, we're excited.

We we it it breaks our hearts to see you not be here at AC and at Rafa, but we believe that God's still, you're not done yet.

You're going over there to you in the name of Jesus.