Church on the Lawn | Pastor Jordan D. Waage

FA Admin: Welcome the Faith Alive Sermon Podcast. This is a replay of a past sermon from Faith Alive Church. Whether you missed it, want to hear it again, or share it with someone you know, we're glad you're here. This sermon is by Jordan Waggy, lead pastor at Faith Alive Church. Good morning, good morning, good morning, Faith Alive Church. How are we doing? Under the tenth. Church on the lawn. What? We're having a good time in here already. How about that worship, huh? Come on, give it up for our worship team. Man, we're so excited that you have chosen to join us for church on the lawn. And we are so excited to celebrate Jesus and encounter him today. And I wanted to welcome you here. If y it is your first time here with us, thank you for joining us. My name is Pastor Jordan. I have the privilege and the honor of leading this church alongside my wife Jotty, who you is walking down the aisle right now. There she is. And we're so excited to have you here. And we want to meet and greet with you. And so after the service here today, come and find us. We mean that. Come and find us and say hi to us. And we'd love to get your name, get your contact information and connect with you. And so we're so excited that you're here. I also wanted to welcome our online audience. I know that it is not live right now, but we are going to upload this after the service here today, so we didn't forget about you. We love you and we are thankful. Come on, give it up for our online. We love you. We're thankful that you have joined us again. And we are so excited about that. Hey, I just wanted to take a second and and and realize and recognize a couple of people here today. You know, Romans chapter 13 says, give honor to whom honor is due. I I told my my my staff and I told my wife this, and I told several people this. I said, You know, this is the first time that we're doing this, this church on the lawn. I want you to know that if it works out, it was my idea. If it didn't, if it didn't, it was my wife's idea. But the truth, the truth of the matter is that this all came from my wife, and this was her idea. Can we give it up and show some appreciation? Come on. Love you. We are so thankful for her and her vision for this, and we are so happy to play a part in this. I also wanted to recognize one specific person who really took charge on putting this all together from this tent that we are experiencing under right now, to the worship team, to all the logistics that goes into something large like this. His name is Trent Petrie. Come on, can you give it up for Trent? Where is he at? Where's Trent at? He's probably running around doing stuff right now. he's in the bathroom? That's awesome. That is fantastic. That couldn't have worked out better. So make sure when you do see Trent. he's running this way right now. He's got Yeah. Come on, show him some love. Yeah. Come on, Trent. You got a piece of toilet paper on your foot. We love you, Trent, in all seriousness. Thank you, thank you, thank you for doing all of this, man. It takes one person to put it all together. I also want to recognize Johnny Clare, Johnny, all of our tech, all of our worship, putting that all together. my goodness, I could take all day and thank everybody. My goodness, the side-by-side rides. Coming bringing everybody to worship, to our parking lot team, to our greeters, to our prayer team, to our worship team. My goodness, it takes an army to put something like this together. So we are very thankful. Can we just one more time give honor to everybody? Man. So excited, so excited. I am pumped up and ready to rock. And I hope that you brought your Bibles with you today. I know we don't have any screens in this place, but if you got your phones, if you the U Version Bible app, pull that out, or if you got the old school physical Bible like I got, pull that out right now and turn with me to Ephesians chapter six. Ephesians, excuse me, Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. We're gonna start in verse three here today. and as you're turning there, I want to kind of throw this out there, and I I I hope you you you agree with me in this, but it is a sad thing, and that's that we live in a culture that seems quite divided at this time. Would you agree? We we we seem to live in a world that thrives on division. Thrives on division. It seems like it's harder to get along today more than it ever has been. We live in a divided culture. We see political divisions. We see economic divisions. We see racial divisions. We even see generational divisions. And and it's a sad, sad thing. We even see our preferences and our opinions and our personalities really create barriers and walls between people, which I find so fascinating. This is the personality that I have. This is my preference. This is my opinion. But because of those things, I have walls and barriers up between me and the person next to me. And it's sad because the big C church, the church as a whole, should be the one place. Should be the one place. Should be the one place where division does not exist. These barriers, these walls. Should not exist yet, we see it. We hear about it. Shoot, we might even participate in it. Now I want you to know that the church ain't perfect and it never will be. But it should always hear me in this be a place where people that love Jesus get to come together, united in his name, for one mission, and that is to know God. And to share his mighty name. That's what the church should be. See, the devil knows something powerful, and that's that a church divided cannot fulfill its mission. He knows that. And so he's gonna do whatever he can to put his foot where it shouldn't be. He's gonna set stumbling blocks for each and every one of us so that we trip up. That we fall and that division is cast within the church. But I like what Paul writes in Ephesians chapter four. He says, Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body, he says, and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called, one Lord, one faith. One baptism, one God and Father of all who is watch this, over all and through all and in all. See, Paul is reminding the church in Ephesus that unity is not something that happens accidentally, it is something that happens intentionally. Hear me, Faith Alive Church. We need to be intentional about stirring the unity that the Holy Spirit has given the church. Unity is not passive, it requires effort. Paul says: make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit. See, the church is strongest when we remember what unites us is far greater than what divides us. Paul's message is simple to the church in Ephesus, and that is that we are one church with one mission, and that is to see the world changed for Jesus Christ. Listen, the message that Paul was teaching in that time was for then. And can I tell you in this place that it has not changed, and it is for today as well? That we need to see this world that seems so far away from the Lord. Come back and see him for who he is, which is the grace-giving God, the merciful King, the Savior of our souls. That's the Savior, that's the Jesus that I know. Before we jump into this, would you pray with me? Bow your heads and pray with me. Father in heaven, we thank you for this wonderful day and this wonderful opportunity that all of us can get together. Under one tent to praise, worship, and hear from you. We pray right now, Heavenly Father, that you would speak to us. Holy Spirit of God, would you guide us? And Jesus, may you be known in this place. In the precious and mighty name of Jesus. Come on, everybody, say amen. Amen. Amen. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 3. Make every effort to keep. The unity. I want you to hear me in this place, church. It's not your responsibility to create unity. That's the Holy Spirit's job within the church. You cannot create unity. The Holy Spirit does that for the church. The Holy Spirit has already established unity through the salvation of Jesus Christ. Our responsibility is to keep it that way. Our responsibility is to keep it that way. Like any relationship, like any friendship, any marriage or a family, unity requires maintenance, it requires work, it requires effort. See, we live in a society that has grown accustomed to division. I'm beginning to think that we like division more than we like unity. We like division more than we like unity. With division, We have to realize this with division comes discord, and with discord comes hatred. We see it on our online platforms constantly. You ever read the comments on some of the political posts? There is hatred that comes from these people. And it's sad. It's almost like we want division instead of unity. And it's sad because this is what some of our churches are experiencing. See, we batter. Each other because our backgrounds are different. You didn't grow up the same as me, so there's division. We have different personalities, and we come up against those that don't have the same personality as us. Or we grow up in a different, watch this, generation as if we had a say in how we do that. But there's division when it comes to that. We literally look for anything to disagree with our. peop the people that we surround ourselves with, we look for things to disagree about. Does pineapple belong on pizza? There's division in the house. Watch this is a hot dog a sandwich. Division in the house. Watch this one Apple or Android? That one's pretty unanimous, I feel like. Lyons or Packers. I knew I I didn't write that into my notes. For those of you that don't know, my wife and I are huge Packer fans. Get it out of the way. Come on, come on. All right. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Division. Division in the house. But listen to me, listen to me, in all seriousness, Paul never tells us that church unity is built on what you like on your pizza. He never teaches us that it's What you prefer or your opinion, he tells us that church unity is built on the name of Jesus Christ. That's exactly what the church unity should be built on. You know, I don't use illustrations a lot, but I just think that this one is just too perfect not to share. If you've ever been to a classical concert, you know that an orchestra creates beautiful, breathtaking music. If you've ever been to Any of those orchestras before, or or whatever it is, you know that they make breathtaking music. It's almost spiritual. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. Now, the music isn't beautiful because everyone plays the same instrument, correct? Watch this. The music is beautiful because different instruments are playing the same song under the same conductor. You see where I'm going with this? It's the same for the church. Different people with different gifts serving the same savior for the same mission. That's what the church should be. See, many churches focus more on what makes people different and individual than it than what takes it to make a family, to be a family. Faith Alive family, I want you to know: don't look at the preferences, don't look at the differences. Remember what unites you, remember what brings unity. He's got a name, and his name is Jesus. It's what brings unity into the church. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 3. It says, keep The unity of who? The Spirit. The Holy Spirit's role is to create unity in the church, as I shared before, and lead us towards peace, reconciliation, humility, servanthood, and love. But the Holy Spirit, hear me in this, is hindered when we forget his role and we try to fill it ourselves. We try to do it ourselves. We begin to ask questions like if I join this ministry or if I serve in this ministry, how will it benefit me? If I serve at this church, what do I get out of it? Listen, instead of asking those questions or what in it What's in it for me, we should be asking how can I be a blessing to others? How can I glorify Jesus with my time, with my ability, with my finances, with my passions? These are the questions we need to be asking. See, if we're serious about the mission that God has given us, the mission of making disciples of all nations, then we need to know the right answer. Questions to ask. The question is not, is the Holy Spirit working? The question is, am I cooperating with the Holy Spirit? Am I moving with him? Am I allowing him to dwell within me and move me into the place that he wants me to go? See, every believer contributes either to unity within the church or division. There's not a middle ground. Unity gains momentum when we focus on God's mission instead of our personal preferences. What is God's mission in the church? To make disciples of all nations. We are one body, united for one mission. Never, ever, ever forget that. One church, one mission. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 4 says, There is one body. I love this. We are one body. We make up the church. Christ is the head. We are the members. If you've never heard that, that's how they lay it out in scripture. He is the head of all things, and we are the body. If I could get vulnerable for a second. And I'm gonna try, yeah, those of you that know me, I'm a crier. I'm very emotional. so there will be periodic tears up here. But I love the church. I love the church. I mean, I love the church. I love this church. I love Faith Alive Church. I love it so much, and I have such passion for it. Really, I have a like a burning desire for it to succeed, a burning desire to see it thrive. And as I was meditating. On today's message, I got a chance to think about why. Why do I love the church so much? Why do I care so much about the church? Why do I want to see it flourish? And I came to realize that it's because I love people. I love people. I love hearing their stories. I love walking side by side with them in their Christian walk. I love seeing Jesus speak into their lives. I like to see them filled with the Holy Spirit of God and empowered to share the good news of the gospel. I love people. I love People and I love watching them fall in love with the same savior that I have fallen in love with. But I think there's more, it's more than that. And that's that I love what Jesus loves. I love what Jesus loves, and Jesus loves the church. In fact, in Ephesians 5, it says, Christ gave himself up for the church. He literally died for you and I. Because he loved you, because he wanted to see the church flourish. Know when I think about that very selfless act, it puts in perspective how important it is that we as a church steward the Lord's church well. It's not enough for us to just show up, it's not enough for us to consume, we need to participate, we need to invest in the church that Jesus gave himself up for. And in doing so, the church. Is united in a greater way. The church begins to grow, it begins to elevate. You all play a part in God's church. Never feel that you don't. You all play a part in God's church. You all have been given abilities that strengthen the body of believers. See, some teach, some preach, some lead, some encourage, some give, some pray, some evangelize. So here's the application step for you. Ask God, where can I make a difference in your church today? Lord, where can I make a difference in your church today? Ephesians chapter four, verses four through six, Paul writes this there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all. You know what I love is that Paul uses the word one seven times in this passage. Why does he use the word one seven times in this passage? See repeated words or phrases within Scripture give emphasis to the passage. What Paul is emphasizing here is oneness. What Paul is emphasizing here is unity. Unity is not built on preference or opinion as we've shared today, or even moral relativism. No, unity is built on truth. You know, I know that there are some in this place that might say, Pastor, man, there's so much information out there today on social media, on news. How do I know what to believe? I don't even know what truth really is. Listen, the question is wrong. The question is not what is truth, the question is who is truth. I'm here to tell you today that truth has a name. Hang on, his name is Jesus. He is the way, He is the truth, He is the life. Unity is built when we as a church come together as one body. We all belong to one family, under one spirit, called to one hope, along with one Lord, who is Jesus Christ, with one faith, with one baptism, under one heavenly Father, who is, as Paul writes in Ephesians 4 and verse 6. Over all, through all, and in all. That is who we serve. Who is truth? You know, I love how Paul speaks of God in this passage. He says, God is over all. So when we think about that, that speaks to his transcendence. See, he reigns above creation, he rules with absolute authority. Nothing surprises our God, nothing threatens our Our God, nothing is outside of his control. Listen to me in this place. If you feel that your life is out of control, I want you to reach out to the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords, and he will help you walk this out. He has no rival, he has no equal. When he says that God is through all, this speaks of his movement. Listen to me, God is not distant, he is as close as the mention. Of his name. He is actively working in his church. When he says God is in all, this speaks to his closeness through his spirit. He dwells within the believer. He is present and powerful. He is God in every one of our lives. That's who we serve. He is God in your life and in my life. He's not so far off that you can't reach him. He's as close as the mention of his name. See, when we acknowledge this appropriate and correct view of God, we realize that He is high enough to rule over everything in heaven and on earth and everything under the earth. Yet he is near enough to care about everything in our lives. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. That's the God that we serve. The Lord's Prayer gives us a perfect illustration, a perfect picture of who our God is. All authority, all supreme, el Shaddai, yet he is as close to you as the mention of his name. I want to encourage you today that if you don't have a relationship with Jesus, you need one. He's for you. He loves you. He came to this earth for you. I say this if you're not, you know, if you're new with us in this church, I say this all the time, but he had your name on his lips when he breathed his last breath. He was thinking of you. He loves you. He cares for you. There's not anything that you've ever gone through in your life that he can't understand because he's experienced it all when he experienced sin on the cross. He took it from us. He gave us a a a future and a hope. That's who our Jesus is. Listen, because he is above all, and because he is through all, and because he is in us, we are equipped to accomplish the mission that he has placed in our hands. Can somebody say amen? Amen. I'm gonna invite the band to come at this time. I'm not quite done, but I want them to be prepared. You know, when we look at what Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter four, it's clear that his emphasis is missional unity. Missional unity, which is that we as a church have one mission. Again, it's to see this world come to know Jesus, to make disciples of all nations. The church was called to unite around one purpose, and I'm gonna share our mission statement here this morning, and that is that we love God, we love others, and we serve the world. That's what we stand on at this church. We love God with all of our hearts and with all of our souls and with all of our minds. We love our neighbors as ourselves. And we serve the world, like he says in Matthew 28 19. Go and make disciples of all nations. We are one church, and we have one mission to see lives change through Jesus Christ, our community, our state, our nation, and our world needs a united church. So why not us, faith alive? Why can't we be the pinnacle? Why can't we be the perfect example of what a united church looks like? That's exactly why we crammed you all under a large forty by one hundred and forty foot tent. Because we want you all to realize that you are one church. We're not one building that has three separate services. We're one church that loves Jesus with all of our hearts, all of our souls, and all of our minds. We exist to make disciples of all nations. We exist to see this world come to know Jesus in the same way that we do. See a church. That is divided cannot prosper, but a church that comes together and is united in Christ Jesus can make a great impact. A church like this one where different generations come to worship together. I want this church to be a church where different backgrounds serve together. I want this church to be a church where different gifts work together. I want this church to be a church where different personalities love together. A church where everyone realizes that the mission is bigger than us. The mission is so much bigger than us. Get it out of your mind, out of your heart, out of your spirit. That it's you It ain't you It ain't you. You know, Paul writes in Acts that I consider myself nothing. I consider my life nothing, worth nothing to me. But I have been placed on this earth to make sure that I finish the race and the task that the Lord Jesus has given me. And that is to see the world come to know Jesus. So right now. Faith Alive Church, can we commit to being one church with one mission through one Savior under one God with one church with one purpose to see the world change for Jesus Christ? Would you stand with me in the place today? Would you stand with me? Praise God, praise God, praise God. He's in the place, he's under the tent with us today. You know, as I look around today, I met so many new people. I've seen so many new people. And first of all, welcome. Thank you for being here. And you know, I don't, I don't, I don't know your background. I don't know what you've walked through. I don't know your past history with Jesus, but I do want you to know, and I want to tell you today, if nobody has ever told you, that Jesus loves you. He loves you, he cares for you, he wants to bless you, he wants to grant you favor, and he, I do believe, is inviting you into a relationship with him today. You know, the church is at its strongest when people who make up the body of Christ are fully surrendered to him. When you say this is outside of my control, outside of my capacity, outside of my authority, but there is nothing outside of your authority. There's nothing outside of your strength. And I think that there's power when a church is fully united with him, loving him with all their heart, soul, and mind, with all their strength, with everything that they have. So whether you are here for the very first time today, or you've been attending for a little while, maybe I haven't gotten a chance to meet you yet. I apologize for that. I do want to get to know you. You know, maybe there was a A time that you walked closely with Jesus, but you drifted away, I want you to know that it's never too late to come back to Him. You know, some people have that thought in their mind that I've done some crazy stuff, Pastor. I don't deserve his love, I don't deserve his mercy or his grace. Stop. Stop. No, our God is bigger than that. He's bigger than your past mistakes. He's bigger than anything that you've stumbled over, any offense that you've caused or experienced, he's bigger than that. And he's inviting you into a relationship with him today. So I want every head bowed, every eye closed in this place, that if you want to know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior again, maybe it's your first time here. Maybe you've barely heard the name of Jesus before. But you heard me speak on him today. I want you to know that Jesus is the gateway to all that is good. For the Holy Spirit to begin to operate in your life. It first starts with a relationship with Him. So with every head bowed, every eye closed, I just want to ask this very simple question: Do you want to know Jesus? Maybe again it's those that have never heard the name, but maybe it's those that knew him at one point, and now you feel that you've drifted away. So without further ado, I just want you to, with every head bowed, every eye closed, nobody's looking around at this time. Just lift your hand and say, yes, I want a relationship with Jesus. Yes. I want to know him. I wanna know him. I wanna know him again. Yes. Praise God. Yes, back there. Yes. Yes, right here. Yes, right here. Yes, Lord. Yes, right there, young men. Beautiful. Beautiful. Yes, right there. Come on. Just another moment, just another moment. Don't miss this. Yes, back there. Yes, right there. Two hands lifted up. Yes, right here. Praise God. God's doing something great. Yes, back there. Come on. Come on. Yes, right there. Yes, right there, yes right there, yes right here. Come on. Yes, right here. Yes right here. Yes right here Come on Lord Yes right here Yes, back there. There's no better family to belong to. There's no greater experience that you will ever have than that experience that you have with Jesus for the very first time. Come on just another moment. Don't miss this. Don't miss this. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Man, I Keep your heads bowed, your eyes closed, but man, I don't know even how many I counted. Julie, 24, 24 people. So here, let's let's let's make this thing official, all right? Let's make this relationship real for you, all right? I want you to repeat this prayer after me, especially those that raise their hands today. But everybody under the tent today, would you say this prayer with me? Say, dear Jesus, and say it from your heart. Say, dear Jesus, I love you, I care for you, I ask. That you would be the Lord of my life. I ask that you would forgive me of my sin. I believe that you came to this earth and you died for me, and I believe that you rose again three days later, and you are the Lord of my life today. I will follow you. And your commands. It's in your name I pray. The name of Jesus I say. Amen. Somebody give Jesus some praise. You know, I love what Luke chapter fifteen says. It says that all of heaven rejoices over just one who repents and gives her life to Jesus. We had twenty-four. We had twenty-four. We had twenty-four. Just a couple of things, just real quick. In the same spirit here today, I want you to know that this is just the beginning for you. This is an amazing experience that you just experienced with Jesus, and saying yes to him is step number one. But we at this church believe that we need to help you walk through what it looks like to be a Christian. What does it look like to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? You know, I think we get lost in the salvation of things, and that's an amazing experience. That's step one. But how do I walk this life out? So we created what's called the what's next pathway, the what's next roadmap. And you can find that right on our app. If you're not signed up for that, make sure that you do that. It's also in our church. There's a big board that has the what's next pathway. Starts at welcome lunch, goes into baptism, so on and so forth. It's an amazing thing, and we want you to experience it. We want to walk alongside you in this because we love you, we care for you, we want to see you there. We want to see you there. Man, I'm so excited that you chose to come out and be with us today. I want you. also to know that we have Pastor Jim. Would you raise your hand, Pastor Jim, our care pastor? Yeah. He he's gonna be up here as well to answer any questions you might have about the what's next pathway. We also have Rich Casanova. Rich would you lift your hand? He's right back there. Give it up for Rich. Rich will also be available to answer any questions that you have about what's next. Get you signed up for whatever ministry that you want to be a part of. Maybe it's growth track you want to serve and all of that. Amazing, amazing, amazing. So make sure that you do that, especially those that said yes to Jesus for the first time today. I also want you to know. That your tithe and your offering, thank you so much for giving. Thank you for being a part of this church and blessing it financially. You'll see on the way out our greeting team that has buckets. You can drop that rate in there. If you're new with us, we also have a connect card. If you filled that out, you can drop that rate in the bucket as well. We just want to make sure that we don't miss anybody. All right? And we're gonna have some fun here today, right after. Again, Luke chapter 15 says that all of heaven rejoices over one person who repents and gives their life to Jesus. So, right now, can we end this service in praise? Can we end this service shouting unto the Lord? Can we end this service dancing to Jesus? Can we end this service with an eruption of praise? Come on, can you give him all you got? Can you love Jesus in the same way? Come on. Thanks for listening to the Faith Alive Sermon podcast. We hope this message encouraged you. If it did, be sure to subscribe or share it with someone else who may need it. If you want to get connected or reach out to one of our pastors, go to our website at faithalive.church. We'll see you next time.

Romans 13 · chapter mention Ephesians 4 · chapter mention Ephesians 4:3 Ephesians 4 · chapter mention Luke 15 · chapter mention