"Master Builder" Pt.2

Hi, this is John Ozanting, lead pastor of Evolve Church, and this is the Evolve Church Podcast.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

We hope that you find today's message encouraging and full of hope for wherever you're at.

Well, here we are.

Welcome to part two of Master Builder.

I'm so excited to be together with you.

It is July.

Summer is upon us.

We've been talking about Evolve's Summer of Fun version 2.0 and all the opportunities we're going to have to be together in person this summer.

As we continue to just prioritize this time every single Sunday morning.

And I just want to look through this camera right now, straight into your home, straight into your heart, and just remind you that God is good and he loves his kids.

And as we continue to just press into the goodness of God, even if you don't see it, even if you can't feel it, even if you don't hear it, even if you don't feel seen or heard or acknowledged, I want to remind you that we are with you and we are for you.

And that God is building something beautiful called His home, His Church.

And He's using you to be a part of it.

And so as we uh get started today, if you're taking notes, grab your pen, your notebook, grab your Bible, and I want to encourage you to just kind of press in.

And if your kids are nearby and they're watching, um I want to tell you, I've got Lego with me today.

So we're gonna be playing with Lego today as a part of our message.

Uh but let's dig in.

We're in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 20 to 22.

Ephesians 2:20–22

God is building a home.

He's using us all, irrespective of how we got here, in what he is building.

He used the apostles and the prophets for the foundation, and now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick.

Everybody say brick by brick.

Good.

Fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together.

And we see it taking shape day by day, a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.

Ephesians 2, 20 to 22 in the message translation.

So quick recap.

Last week, this was our big question last week's Sunday.

Are we more focused on following our own plans and building our own personal kingdoms and homes rather than on following the Father's plan and building his kingdom and home?

And the statement we worked in throughout last week's talk, which you might have taken some time this week to kind of sit in, was we cannot allow an individualistic personal belief system to alter our calling and our purpose and of belonging to something greater and more beautiful than just our own life.

We are his church, his building, his home.

We talked about blueprints last week and how a healthy church follows the blueprint.

In order for us to build a great home and be a brick as a part of the home that God is building, we have to follow the blueprint.

We talked about why blueprints are important.

And we talked about how God's word, the Bible, is the blueprint for his church.

And then maybe you found four out of seven days this past week to work through the UVersion Bible plan that we assigned to you.

We gave you some homework, how to start reading the Bible, and there was beautiful insight into the priority and the value and the repetitive or the repeated habit of finding time in the Bible.

It's God's word and only God's word that identifies the foundation and the plan for the Father's house that he's building for the picture of what it's supposed to look like as God is building you, all of us, to build his home.

So we're gonna pick up today four questions that we assigned, put on the website last week.

What does it mean to be a brick that God is using to build his home?

How do we stay attached to the cornerstone Jesus and allow Jesus to hold us together?

How do we commit to a day-by-day surrender to the foreman and grow under his supervision?

And lastly, we ask so how do we invite the Holy Spirit to transform us into this temple where God is quite at home?

So today I actually want to talk about question one.

And in your own study time, maybe in a small group, maybe over sharing a meal, maybe sitting in a park, sitting around a fire, maybe you found yourself talking through some of these ideas, hopefully, with your church family or with your friends this past week.

And if not, that's okay.

We're gonna look at them together.

And so I want to talk today what does it mean to be a brick that God is using to build his home?

And you guessed it.

We're gonna use Lego as our analogy.

Lego as a building block analogy.

And so Lego's gotten fancy nowadays with uh big booklets that come, step-by-step, you know, procedure to build a car.

I didn't have that when I was a kid.

I just relied on a age-old method, a strategy of building Lego that I gave a phrase to.

I call it um stack the crack.

Yeah, that's right.

Repeat after me, stack the crack.

And here's the fun part about being a dad and having boys that I get to pass on my Lego wisdom to.

You know, when you're teaching the age-old wisdom with Lego of stacking the crack, it's a lot of fun because inevitably when you're building Lego with boys and you talk about stacking the crack, somebody makes a fart joke and then things get out of hand.

And you know, you know, anyways, I digress.

I digress.

But my point is this uh I want to teach you today John Ozanting's uh timeless method of stacking the crack.

All right, we're gonna we're gonna look at this.

I hope you're laughing because I think it's hilarious.

But I've got some Lego here in front of me, and I've got uh a couple of pieces that represent, let's call these uh our foundation today.

This is apostles and prophets, okay?

And I've got uh a little red block.

Um, and we're gonna call this block uh our cornerstone.

We're gonna call him Jesus because that's kind of important from Ephesians 2.

And then everything else goes around.

And so as we look at building this Lego, we've got our foundation in place, we've got our prophets, our apostles, we've got our cornerstone, Jesus, and then we're building this house brick by brick.

God's building a home where he's gonna make himself at home.

And I want you to notice here my uh very, very precise uh layering of putting a brick over top of the crack as we go along.

And you'll see uh that brick by brick I stack the crack, which means um I don't uh leave a crack exposed, I cover it up with another brick.

This is my age-old strategy of building Lego.

Well, and here's the beautiful thing.

As you can see today, I've built myself a little home here out of Lego bricks.

I've got my foundation, I've got my cornerstone, and I've stacked the crack.

And uh so this house, and here we go, we're gonna drop it right now.

You can see it stays together.

Now, I'm gonna do that again one more time, just for the sake of everybody watching.

I'm gonna use the same foundation.

I'm gonna use the same cornerstone.

Here we are.

I'm gonna build this one more time.

This time I am not going to stack the crack.

All right, I'm gonna break my own rule, and uh here we are playing with Lego.

Lots of fun.

One more time.

Let's take a look.

Here we go.

Foundation, apostles, prophets, cornerstone.

All right, okay, looking good, coming together, brick by brick.

Ooh, building Lego is fun.

Lots of lots of fun.

Here we go.

Okay, and then I'm gonna drop it.

Oh, it fell apart.

And this is what I love.

Stacking the crack makes the house stronger.

And it's the bricks stacking well that build the strength into the house.

The foundation didn't change.

We use the same apostles and prophets.

The cornerstone Jesus was our starting place.

Okay, so we're talking theology and lego here.

But I want to read from Acts chapter 2, verse 42.

Acts 2:42

And the subheading for this part of this chapter is how the believers formed community.

And I want you to listen to what it says here.

Verse 42, Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper, and to prayer.

That word fellowship is not a word that you hear used too much outside of the church.

Unless you're a fan of Tolkien and you've seen fellowship, a read fellowship of the ring.

Um, but uh that word fellowship is is a pretty churchy word.

And we can uh look, dig deep.

If you're a scholar, you can go back to the Greek word for fellowship, which in Greek um koino eo or the anglicized version koinaneo um or koinanea, and uh, and so there's this Greek word that means sharing.

It means taking a part in, it means contributing, it means financial partnership.

But fellowship um uh has bits and pieces of all four of those: sharing, taking part in, contributing in terms of relationship, and also partnership in terms of money.

Acts 2.42 in the message unpacks the word fellowship this way.

They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together.

Isn't that beautiful?

The early church modeled for us what it means to not only lean into teaching well, but how to do life together, the common meal, the prayers.

Today's big question, here it is.

How are you, and by that I mean you, all of you, prioritizing, building, and committed to koinania, fellowship and life together as a part of Jesus' church?

How are you committed to prioritizing and building fellowship, life together as a part of Jesus' church?

Acts 2.42, the Passion Translation, that same verse, here's what it says: every believer was faithfully devoted to following the teachings of the apostles.

Their hearts were mutually linked to one another.

Sharing communion, coming together regularly for prayer.

This phrase, hearts being mutually linked to one another.

I call that the gift of one another.

And I just I love that language.

I love this idea of Jesus' home, each individual brick, each individual life being mutually linked to one another.

In John 15, uh, we read um the words of Jesus.

Right before he goes back up into heaven, Jesus says to his followers, You didn't choose me, but I've chosen and commissioned you to go into the world to bear fruit.

And your fruit will last, because whatever you ask of my Father for my sake, he will give to you.

So Jesus is saying to his followers, Um, I've taught you these things, now go out and make a difference.

And as you do, whatever you ask for, God is gonna provide, and you're gonna change the world.

And then Jesus says in verse 17, so this is my parting command, love one another deeply.

So here we see the early church being committed to the gift of one another, and we see Jesus' final teaching to his followers: love one another deeply.

This big question today: how are you prioritizing, building, and committed to fellowship, life together, the gift of one another as a part of the home that God is building, as a part of Jesus' church.

And I just want to take a few minutes today to talk about the gift of one another.

Because I believe this summer, as we plan and prioritize time together, as we're committed to just carving out moments to celebrate this gift and prioritize this gift, we saw it last summer that God did beautiful things through us as a community, just sort of knit something into our DNA.

And so I want to teach on it.

And I'm gonna start by assigning you some homework this week.

We're gonna go back to the UVersion Bible lab.

And over the next seven days, I want to encourage you to just grab five out of those seven days.

You can do this.

You can just scan this QR code real quick.

It'll pull open a brand new plan that we're gonna read through together this coming week, a plan called No Ordinary Fellowship.

And this is gonna help you look at this idea deeper.

Um, so this is your first homework assignment today.

I've got a couple more that we're gonna get to, but if you're new to church, I just believe that this is gonna set you up well to see the value of belonging to this beautiful, messy thing called the church.

And if you've been a part of Jesus' kingdom for a long, long time, if you grew up going to church, if you've been a part of Evolve for the last couple of years, even, and then I just hopefully this will ignite or reignite your sense of worth and your leadership and your value as a brick in Jesus' church.

Last week's Sunday in our online chat during Church Online, I was fascinated by one of the conversations that took place.

Did you know that there's no plural English word for the word you?

And a shout out to a couple of ladies specifically who just were talking about this in the chat.

They were talking about in French, there's a plural word for the word you.

Um, in German, and then while while what church was happening, I went to my parents' native tongue.

And in Dutch, I can't help but wonder what other languages have a plural word for the word you.

English doesn't, but other languages do.

And so if you know another language that has a plural version of the word you, I want you to type it in the comments for me right now.

In Canada, our second language officially in this nation is French.

And so there's a French word v that means you.

Um, so we cannot allow an individualistic kind of personal belief system, my faith story, my uh ability to know God, my this, my that.

We're always going to be looking through the lens of you, or I'll say vu.

Okay, so big question: how are the prioritizing, building, committed to koinania, or this fellowship life together, the gift of one another as a part of Jesus' church?

Acts 2.42, their hearts were mutually linked to one another.

Do you feel alone in this season?

Do you feel isolated?

Do you feel separated from?

Do you feel overlooked?

Do you feel unheard, not seen?

Because the invitation to belong includes hearts being mutually linked one to another.

Jesus' command in John 15, his parting command, love one another deeply.

And so I want to share three thoughts, and as such, three homework assignments with you in addition to this week's reading.

You're like, man, I didn't know what I was signing up for with Church Online this month.

Pastor John was giving us homework.

I figured the kids are done school, so we've got all this free time on our hands.

We might as well be digging in, right?

So come on, hang with me.

But I want to share three thoughts with you as we close out today.

Number one, love one another deeply by being a gift to those who are ahead of you.

Love one another deeply by being a gift to those who are ahead of you.

In your faith journey, and generally speaking, when it comes to life, um, you're not as smart as you think you are.

That might come as a shock.

But uh I've learned and am continuing to learn that I'm just not as smart as I want to be.

I'm just not as smart as I think I am.

Regardless of how long you've been following Jesus or what season of life you're in, there are bricks that have been laid into this house ahead of you that you need to overlap with.

Do you pursue godly wisdom from those who are ahead of you?

I mean, in this life and also previous generations, but specifically today, when it comes to the gift of one another, how can we love one another deeply by embracing the gift of those who are ahead of us?

One of the ways that Jesus invites us into truly loving one another is by chasing after the depth of wisdom from those who are ahead of us.

Pride will keep us from chasing after this.

Self-pity will keep us from chasing after this.

Negative self-talk will keep us from chasing after this.

Low self-esteem will keep us from chasing after this gift.

But here's what I want to say today, under point number one, you add strength to the home that God is building, his church, when you lean into the wisdom and the strength of the bricks that were laid ahead of you, overlap with them, stack the crack.

A part of this community are beautiful men and women who have been in the trench, digging deep grooves, fighting for their faith for longer than we have.

And what a gift it is to love deeply by honoring their story.

What a gift it is to lean in to that resource of the bricks that have been laid ahead of us to overlap our lives with theirs and receive from.

And so I'm going to give you a homework, a relational homework assignment under thought number one.

Here it is.

This week, over the next seven days, in addition to reading that plan, five out of seven, I want to encourage you to pray about setting up an in-person, COVID-friendly coffee with someone who is ahead of you.

What does that mean?

It means if you're newly married, maybe lean into somebody who's been married a lot longer than you, just to sit and ask some questions about longevity.

If you're a new parent, maybe book a coffee with somebody who's further along the parenting journey than you, just to sit, receive wisdom from, and experience the gift of one another.

If you're new in terms of your career, maybe invest in some time this week to sit with someone whose brick has been laid before yours.

Allow your life to overlap.

Don't allow any kind of pride or low self-esteem or self-pity or negative self-talk to keep you from the gift of loving deeply by embracing those who have laid their stones ahead of you.

Step in this week.

Number two, love one another deeply by being a gift to those who are around you.

In our Lego analogy, as we as we stacked bricks, there was layer upon layer upon layer.

And wherever your brick is in this house, there are bricks immediately to your left and to your right, all around you.

You need the support and the love and the encouragement and the trust and the coaching that comes from having great friends.

There are too many lonely people in this world that don't work hard to pursue relationship.

One of the things that we've seen as pastors in COVID, as this season has caused us all to withdraw and be in our homes and isolate ourselves.

There's a lot of people sitting waiting for relationship right now.

And negative self-talk and pity and other really heavy feelings have pressed in, and they're waiting for somebody to call them.

I think because they forgot that their phone works both ways.

The gift of friendship is powerful.

ARK, the team that we're a part of.

We're this beautiful network of churches all across Canada.

Um, one of the phrases we always talk about is how we're better together.

And one of the gifts in my own life is I'm a part of um a monthly small group with friends who are pastoring churches uh in other parts of Canada and the US.

And we sit together once a month.

And I call these guys friends.

They're bricks that are beside me being built into God's home.

And even In this past week, on Thursday, we had time together where we talked openly.

We encouraged each other.

We challenged one another.

We gave ourselves permission to miss and not be perfect all the time.

We talked about what it means to always look to the Father for our identity and our validation and our affirmation.

We talked openly about slowing down our pace and learning how to rest well as pastors.

We talked about keeping our faith active and enlarging for what God wants to do next in our lives.

And we shared and we listened and we asked questions and we connected and we laughed and we cried and we prayed.

The gift of one another.

We loved each other deeply by choosing to be a gift to those who are around us.

You need good friends at your side, church.

You need to be a good friend to somebody at your side, church.

You add strength to the home that God is building, his church, when you lean into the wisdom and the strength of the bricks that are being laid beside you.

You need great friends.

And if you've allowed the weight of the season to cause you to sit in a posture of waiting, waiting for somebody to text you, waiting for your friends to call you, I want to remind you that your phone receives and sends.

So here's your homework assignment number two, technically number three.

This week, plan a walk, plan a coffee, plan a bike ride, plan a bonfire, plan a meal with a friend or some friends.

People who are laying down their bricks beside you right now.

Lean in, be courageous enough to ask some real questions.

Be courageous enough in your time together to open up your life and be vulnerable, to receive prayer, to give prayer.

Become the kind of friend that you desire this week.

Prioritize it, schedule it.

Do it this afternoon, after church online.

Just sit down and not only put the five-day reading plan into your calendar, but the love deeply by spending some time with somebody who's uh come before you, right?

Who's done the hard work to receive from.

Spend some time with some great friends this week.

Prioritize it.

Put it in your calendar, the gift of one another.

Love deeply by embracing the gift of those around you by pursuing real friendship.

And lastly, number three, the one that gets overlooked.

Number three, love one another deeply by being a gift to those who are coming behind you, who are coming up behind you.

Out of a false humility, we so often choose to not see ourselves as having wisdom or value to offer to others.

And it's a false humility.

Who am I to offer up what I have to somebody else?

In the Lego home that God is building, there are bricks being stacked on top of your life.

Not only are you building on the foundation of those that have come before, but there are bricks being stacked on you.

Your ability to kind of persist well is going to hinge on these two things: being a gift to those ahead of you to learn from, being a gift to those around you, but you are adding strength to the foundation of those who are building their life on yours.

Someone wants to build their life on you.

Someone wants to build their life on the gift of what you bring to the table.

But only if you can set aside time to give to them, and only if you can push through the lie that what you have is more than enough and God can use it.

You add strength to the home that God is building, his church, when you offer up your story of faith to those bricks that are being laid on top of you, behind you.

So overlap underneath of them, overlap with them, help them stack the crack.

Your fourth and final homework assignment today.

Here's what I want you to do: pray.

Pray about this one.

This week, ask God to bring to your heart one person who's coming up behind you that you can A, pray for, and B, call, text, send a hope, hope-filled, encouraging message to.

Let them know that you're available to sit with and grow in terms of relationship with.

What does it mean to be a brick that God is using to build his home?

It means that we lean into the words of Jesus and we choose to love one another deeply.

It means we take our cues from the apostles and the prophets before us from Acts 2, and we choose to allow our hearts to be mutually linked to one another.

There are voices in my world who have been laid ahead of me.

There are voices in my world who are being laid beside me.

There are voices in my world whose bricks are being laid after me.

And so, as a community this week, what would it look like?

What would God build in us and build into his home if we love deeply by receiving the gift of those who have gone ahead of us, those who are being built around us, and those who are being built after us on top of us?

Their hearts were mutually linked to one another.

As I close out today, I want to encourage you to just lean sometime this afternoon into just looking at your schedule this week.

What would it look like for you to open up your calendar, choose five days to grab 15 minutes on each one of those days to read through today's homework?

If you missed it earlier, you can just scan this QR code with your smartphone's camera, and it'll pull that devotion right up into your phone.

Beautiful technology.

Go ahead and do that right now.

Put it in your calendar.

Read through this no ordinary fellowship Bible plan with us.

And allow the words and the Bible verses, the blueprint for fellowship to just build something in your heart.

And then I dare you, I triple dog dare you, to put into your calendar three moments this week.

Who can you ask to speak into your life that's being built ahead of you?

Who can you lean into for real relationship that's being built around you?

And who can you offer up your life to as a gift to pour into sometime this week?

Prioritize it, build it, make it happen.

How are Vu, how are you prioritizing, building, and committed to Koinania, fellowship, life together, the gift of one another as a part of Jesus' church.

Thank you so much for listening to today's message.

If you're ever in the Edmonton area, pop by for a visit.

And if you need any more information, visit EvolveChurch.com.

We hope this needs to be a