Better Together: Part 3 - Participate

Welcome to the River City Church podcast and a message by our

lead pastor Jason Powers. Our prayer is that this message

would inspire and encourage you, build your faith and point you

to the life changing love of Jesus.

May you enjoy the goodness of God as you follow him today.

We talked a couple weeks ago and we just said like church

membership, especially if you've been around the church for a

while, that can be kind of heavy or or if not heavy, just

nothing, right? Like when I was at growing up to

be a church member, literally all you had to do is get out of

your seat and walk down to the front of the church, right?

My Baptist Church is like shake somebody's hand and the guy

guess. If you had a good.

Handshakey welcome you into the church.

There is a thing called a letter right?

Like I had to get a letter of membership.

My letter is still out there somewhere floating, floating

around, right. And the problem is we choose, we

come to associate that as church.

Membership and So what we. Wanted to do what I wanted to do

is we talked about this was kind of rescue this idea from church

membership rescue it from thinking it's something like a

list somewhere in an office and change that and and kind of

recapture that and define it and describe it as really a vibrant

partnership and what we've done is we've looked at that a couple

different ways we're going to look at it the third way today.

One thing we talked about church membership is as as belonging.

To be a church member is to be belonging.

And the symbol, the illustration that we used to describe that is

baptism. The word baptized literally

means to immerse. And so being a church member, to

be a partner of the church, it's not just to attend, it's not

just showing up to the things that are church things.

It's to be immersed in the life of the congregation.

We use the the illustration of the body and my liver is

committed. It is part of the process.

It doesn't get to sit out. It got doesn't get to take weeks

off. When it starts taking weeks off,

the whole body starts to go septic.

And what we talked about is, and again, we're not just talking

about membership. It's entirely possible and I've

seen it many times to be in the church every time the door doors

are open, but to not have your life reflect that.

So membership is to be immersed in the body and the in what God

is doing around. It's not just belonging, it's

also transformation. As we hang around, as you

immerse yourself in the body, your life will begin to be

transformed as granular as you want to get.

The more we follow Jesus, the longer that we follow him, the

longer that we walk with him. Everything about us should

change. Our desires should change, the

things that we find satisfying should change.

And it's, and the way that we're transformed is by the Holy

Spirit through discipline. And this is kind of a sketchy

and kind of a twitchy, like a relationship, right?

And what I want to say to you is you can't change your heart.

This is where the church often gets in trouble, right?

Like I want to change everybody else's heart, right?

Like somebody does something mean to me or bad or I see it.

And I just went like, like Lord, just get him.

And Lord's like they're not the problem.

You're the problem. I can't even change my heart.

I certainly can't change your heart.

What we saw last week was the. Way that our affections are

transformed, the way that our hearts are changed and

transformed is when we discipline, we just say like,

hey, I'm going to put my body in a place and I'm going to submit

my body to this. And it's not about whether I

want to do it. It's not whether I feel like

doing it. It's like whether it's the thing

that I should do or not. And what we find is when we

begin to put our body, our hands and our feet in a certain place,

what happens is our affections begin to be transformed today.

See. We're going to look at kind of

how all that comes together. See.

Previously like, like belonging. Ultimately, that's up to you.

You get to decide where you immerse your life and you're

already deciding. Some of you immerse your life in

work. Your whole entire life is lived

either going to work, being at work, or waiting for work to

come, and that's a choice that you've made.

Some of you immerse your life in family or in recreation or in

money or in power or whatever it is, but you just say that's the

thing that I give my life to. And that's a decision that you

have made. Some of you have made a

decision. We make decisions how we're

going to discipline our lives, the things that we say yes to

and no to. And ultimately, that's a

decision that that you get to make with God and before God.

But today what we want to look at is what happens when all of

these individual parts come together as you follow Jesus and

I follow Jesus. How do How does our following

Jesus together impact around? US.

And one of the things that that we can identify and acknowledge

is that it's not unusual for churches, and this church is

included in that to do. One of those things, well, maybe

a couple of those things, well, right, like like maybe we do

belonging really well, right, but we're not like going

anywhere. We're like doing anything or

maybe we focus a lot on like the transformation and the

discipline part of it, but we don't like belong to each other.

So we're kind of mean and cranky to each other.

And you've been a part of that. My sense is that when we

misunderstand or when we live and tolerate an imbalance and

all of these things, real hurt and damage can come.

And my guess is some of you, if not many of you, if not most of

you have experienced something like that in the church.

And So what I want to do real quick, like I want to just

describe in a little bit. The first thing I want to know

is I want to tell you and share with you when that comes from my

place, right? When the leadership of the

church does damage. And there are ways that we can

process this, that are that I can get it wrong that cause

damage, right? So one thing that we can do is

we can just say the body is most important over all.

And what happens in here is what happens to everybody and what

happens to that. And you may have been a victim

of this is when we just say we are more important than me.

What can happen is you get burned out and you begin to feel

like a cog in the wheel of a church.

Machine. That's not very fun, is it?

When you start to go, hey, I maybe need to take a week off or

take a break off because like my entire life is falling apart and

nobody ever asks you how you're doing.

Nobody ever says, hey, we value rest.

Nobody says that to you. They just go, well, we get to

get back on the schedule. All right.

I want you to hear me say as much as it depends on me, we

don't do that here. And I want to acknowledge also

one of the thing that presents is because we are committed to

caring for people and because we're committed to not burning

people out, that means that sometimes it means that we won't

rearrange the body in order to to address consumption.

And here's what that means. Sometimes we'll close a

children's ministry classroom rather than ask volunteers to

serve for the 247th week in a row so that they can go to

church and worship as well. Here's and we're right.

Some of you just think Jesus, praise loo you, Jesus, right?

Here's the problem. That's well and good until it's

your two year old that gets locked out of the room.

And trust me, I don't want your two year old in here any more

than you want your two year old in here, right?

I'm just kidding. I love your two year old, but

here's the idea. Too many times the response to

Oh my gosh, why are they closing this room?

Too many times the response is well, I see Miss Janie right

there. I see someone right here and

rather than the response should be Oh my gosh, there is clearly

a need here. How can I?

Help so we don't put the body over the over the individual.

I want you to know we care about you and our job is to help you

find what God has called you to do.

Another abuse that can go when we talk about this thing is

like, it's like the elevation of one person and one gift above

all others. It would be just like, well,

Pastor Jason is the pastor and he's the preacher.

And so whatever he wants must be right.

What I would say to you is This is why our elder board is so

important because it's not just what Jason wants.

And let me tell you, anytime that you elevate one person or

one gift set or one gift mix, and that person is not Jesus

Christ, the Carpenter from Nazareth who is risen and

raining at the right hand of God, Anytime one person starts

to elevate that place, people start to get abused.

It happens all the time when you hear about pastors going off the

rail and doing these abusive things, when you've experienced

it, and not just pastors, youth pastors or small group leaders,

when it becomes about their gift, their personality, they're

annoying. You start to say really wild and

crazy things, like we don't touch the Lord's anointed.

Folks, I'm submitted to a group of elders and if I start being

abusive or crazy or arrogant, it's time for me to get fixed.

And if I'm submitted to that, what we ask is that you would

submit to that as well, that you would allow people in your life

who are, who are spiritually mature, who are wise, who would

just say, hey, I think maybe God has more for you because we're

not committed to abuse. And so I do know that leadership

structures on the church can cause problems, right?

We elevate one person or one gift or we minimize you and you

just become a part of this thing.

That's that, you know, that's all of that.

But I also want to say part of it is on you as well, not you

specifically. Most of them were in first

service. You, you guys are looking

around. You guys are are are good,

right? But there can be a sense in the

church with believers are just like as, as and as much as we

have rightly talked about spiritual gifts, right?

There can be this kind of gift protectiveness, right?

Like where we walk around, we walk around the church and we

see a need and they're responsible.

That's just not my gift. Well, I don't, I don't, I don't

have that gift and listen, so I have teenagers and every once in

a while in my house, a teenager rarely, I'm sure this like

rarely, though, they'll like leave a dish out sometimes and

just forget to do it right. And my response is always like,

if you don't want to clean your dish, why do you think I want to

clean your dish, right. And so sometimes we've now who

does it. Right.

Like we do it because it's important for the household to

run. And so sometimes we just go, oh,

well, I see that need, but I can't meet that need, right?

I'll serve where I can, but I, I really don't want to serve in

that place because I can't really shine in that place.

And they're going to ask me to do it often, more often than I

want to. Or they're going to put me on a

schedule. And I don't really want to

submit my schedule because what if something comes up?

Or what if it's uncomfortable for me?

And what if they asked me to do something that makes me feel?

Weird or unusual or uncomfortable, right?

And So what happens is we have this dance, right?

And again, like this is one of those chicken or egg things,

right? Like you have maybe some leaders

who asked too much of you. And so you get gun shy and you

say, well, I'll never do that again.

And so we get very kind of particular about where where we

are. And So what happens then is the

church gets lopsided, it gets imbalanced and damage can start

to do damage can start to happen.

And what I want to say is the church isn't supposed to be like

this. That's not how it's supposed to

look, but often it is. And what I want to submit to you

is that Paul, the apostle Paul in the letter to the Ephesians,

what Tony read today invites us into a different way.

And the way that Paul describes, I'm just going to give you kind

of the big idea and we're going to unpack it a little bit,

right? The big idea is this.

The body of Christ is best when every part does its part.

Every part does its part, right? The engine in my car has lots of

parts and relatively speaking, they all usually work and do and

do their part and when they don't, something goes terribly

wrong. There are no small parts in your

body. Hang your pinky toe on a door

jamb ruins the rest of your day, right?

Your liver gets sick, your whole body begins to shut down.

So what does Paul say? Right.

So Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4, starting in verse 7.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Now grace was given to each one. I'm going to stop.

You're like if you stop every 4 words we'll never get through

the thing. But I want to acknowledge and

pull up front what we're talking about, what we're about to

unpack and uncover, is grace. Grace.

Now, you've probably heard of grace talking about as the free

gift of forgiveness for your sins.

And it is that. But what I want to say, I want

to hold up is Paul's not talking about specifically the gift of

salvation right now in this. It is a manner of our salvation.

It is a form, it is an outworking, it is an overflow.

It is the fruit of our salvation.

But he's not talking about that initial gift of forgiveness that

changes us, that moves us from the Kingdom of darkness into the

Kingdom of light. He's talking about something

else. But it's grace.

And what I want to hold on to is when we get this wrong, when we

get the whole way that we all work together wrong, what we're

missing is grace. And when we do the hard,

difficult sacrificial work of getting in line with all this,

sure, it's costly. Sure, it takes something from

us. But the result not only will be

grace, but it'll. Feel like grace?

Grace, and we'll experience it as grace.

So he says grace was given to each one of us according to the

measure of Christ's gift. So here's the thing.

If you're following Jesus, grace has been given to you, stop to

you. Grace has been given, and what

we're told is it's given according to the measure of

Christ's fullness. And so listen, there's some

people that you know. And you know, if they invite you

to dinner, you better eat something before because they

have skimpy portions, right? Because they're stingy.

And you just know, right? Like I'm not getting a second

Taco and there are other people at your.

House that that you when they invite.

You. It is so decadent that it's like

borderline sinful, right? And you're just like, I want to

go to that house because I will be so full all the time.

Some people are wired like that. What I want to tell you is

Jesus's table. It is always a feast.

There is more than you could possibly consume.

There's more grace than you could ever experience or taste.

You will have new flavors and shades and nuance of grace every

moment of every day that you live and that you walk with him.

Christ is not skimpy. He is not stingy.

He does not withhold, and that is the measure of grace that He

gives to you. Wouldn't.

It be awesome to walk in that, to know that, to experience

that. So he says a measure of grace

has been given to each one. For it says when he ascended on

high, he took the cactus captive, he gave gifts to

people. So this is a picture of an

ancient kingdoms, right? When a conquering king would go

conquer another Kingdom, he would bring their prisoners of

war, he would bring all their soldiers, and he would March

them through town as an example, as a spectacle.

Look how much mightier we are than they are.

And this victorious king would take all the plunder and all the

spoils of war and he would distribute it to the citizens as

an example and an evidence of his kindness and his goodness.

And what we're told is that's what Jesus does for his people.

That's what Jesus does for his followers.

He gives them grace, abundant grace and it's and their gifts,

they are purely spiritual gifts of grace.

And So what I want to say is when Jesus asks you to follow

him, when I stand here and say, listen, I want you to follow

him. I want you to give your whole

life to him. I want you to organize your

relationships around him. I want you to organize your

finances around him, your free time.

I'm not asking you to do something that is a drag, even

though it may hurt and be costly at first.

I'm asking you to and inviting you to align your lives around

grace. And something happens in this

place when. We gather as a people of grace.

That's why our mission is what it is.

We talked about membership, about participation in this body

and our mission as His body is we are a church for New

Braunfels. You see right out of the front.

We don't exist for ourselves. Our job isn't.

Here to be the biggest or the best or the flashiest or the

most well known. Our responsibility and our

mission is to be for New Braunfels to be so much so that

if River City were for some reason wiped out of New

Braunfels that no longer hear that there would be outcry in

the streets. Who's going to?

Feed all the people. Who's going to take care of all

the foster kids if River City is gone?

If God's people of his church is gone?

River City is a church for New Braunfels.

And here's how we're for New Braunfels, by authentically

experiencing and expressing God's love in our lives and our

community. The way that we are for New

Braunfels is by experiencing and then expressing God's love.

And it has to happen in that order, and it has to happen that

way. A couple weeks ago, we got up

and we told you about our outreach to provide shoes for

foster kids, right? You remember that?

The reason that we give shoes to foster kids is because the

reason I, my family bought a pair of shoes for foster kids.

It is our way of saying the Lord has been so faithful and

abundant to me. I am now able to get now I got

kids at home and they need, they need man, right?

And so, but what we have decided was we believe that our God is

abundant. And so as much as we love to

give to our kids, right, we give to others because we have

received His abundance, the grace that He has given us.

We give away the reason. We pray at the end.

Of the service, we're going to have people to pray.

I see Mitch and Marshall right over there.

They love to pray, right? Do you know why we pray for you?

Because we've experienced answers to prayer and we believe

that it's real. The grace that we have received,

we give. The reason that we volunteer

here is because this church has made an impact on our lives.

The reason my kids follow Jesus isn't because Dad's so awesome.

I'm just dad to them. You have not met a more clueless

person in my home than me, right?

According to my kids, And that's fine.

You know why my kids follow Jesus?

Because they've watched you follow Jesus.

They believe the church works because they have seen the

church work. That's what sets this place

apart from Costco. I walk into Costco and I walk

through the doors. And this is all the bounty that

America has to offer for my consumption.

I get to choose what do I want? What brand of battery do I want

today? Let me decide, honey, right?

Do we want tacos tonight or shellfish?

It's all there and we approach church.

That way. I've given my hour this.

Week. Please me with the musical.

Offering right, I get it. The difference is instead, as

the body of Christ, we take care of the of each other.

When my head hurts, my hand puts the medicine in my mouth and my

stomach digests it so that my headache will go away.

And what I'm inviting us to do in membership is to move from

being. There's a difference between an

owner and an employee, right? Some of you are business owners.

When we were starting this church and we were about to do

it on our own, somebody said the great thing about being your own

boss, the great thing about being a small business owner is

you get to work whatever 18 hours a day you want.

To work, right? Like, because like, who else is

going to do it? But when I'm an employee, I'm

just like, peace out. It is 5:00 and I'm done for this

today, right? So the invitation when we are

immersed is not to show up shopping for a religious

experience, but to own the ministry that happens here.

And what I would say is I can't own that for you and you can't

own that for me. But that whole idea of gifts and

grace and in distributing his word, See, that's right.

We believe that God wants grace for the whole world.

You know how God gives grace to the world?

He gives it to you and tells you to go and Genesis, right?

What did he tell? Abraham said I'm going to bless

you. I'm going to make you a

blessing. So many times I'm just like, oh,

I've got grace. That's for me.

Now I'm resting and I'm going to sit and I'm going to like, once

this grace is gone, then I'll go look for more grace.

But the point of grace is to take it and to multiply it, and

to expand it so that wherever you go, grace is there.

That's why we make such a big deal out of Back to School

Sunday from wherever you may come and whatever you may

believe about the schools and the country or the state or the

city or the world or whatever, if you're a follower of Jesus,

you're sending a grace ball there.

Remind them that they are grace balls.

They're not adjutants. They they like, they go in the

name of Jesus with grace and gifts for them.

So that's the interpretive key to understanding the grace that

Jesus gives his church. It's this spiritual gifts are

for you to offer the body, not to keep for yourself.

God has given you grace. And there's more grace

surrounding your life than you can fathom or consume.

And the way to experience it is to begin giving it away.

And the more that you practice giving it away, the more aware

of it you are. The more you begin to experience

it, the more you become, the more likely you are to live a

life marked by grace. And Paul describes it this way,

verse 11. He himself gave some to be

apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and

teachers to equip the Saints for the work of ministry to build up

the body of Christ. Now we see this list and we

think like, oh, these are spiritual gifts.

These are not spiritual gifts. There is not the spiritual gift

of apostle. There is not the spiritual gift

of prophet. These are roles.

These are offices played not with a title.

Not so that I can get it on my name tag.

Right? So he said he gave some to be

apostles. The apostles are starters.

They're the ones that are The Pioneers.

They are the ones who begin and listen.

It happens all the time. People will come to me and

they'll just be like, hey, there's not a small group in my

house. Can I like get people together?

You know what? You, my friend, are being an

apostle into your neighborhood. You are taking the message and

the mission and the ministry of Jesus into the place where you

are in the same way that Paul took it all around the world.

You take as an apostle, you take it where you go.

The prophets. Prophets are not.

Fortune tellers. They are not future seers.

They are the ones who see and declare God's Word and His

purpose and His mission in this world.

It is often wrapped up in messages like Justice.

Like like on in this apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd,

teacher kind of framework. This is the place that I walk in

the prophetic. But listen, so I walk in the

prophetic, right? So that's when I get loud.

That's what that is, right? But listen, my gift, my

spiritual gift is encouragement. So what I'm going to tell you

when I'm going to look at you and then just go like, hey,

you've got too much to offer to sit on your Duff like you're

doing. It's no problem for me to be

like you should care about this more than you do.

You should be involved in this more than you do.

But you know when I say that to you, do you know why I say it to

you? It's because I.

Actually think you're capable of more than you do you think

you're just a guy or a lady with a mortgage and a headache and

kids and a broken husband. And I'm here to tell you, you

that resonated with someone. I don't want to know who, right?

I don't. You can come talk to me

afterwards, all right? Deeply loved.

We are badly broken and deeply loved indeed.

So you see, so the idea is like I have a gift and my gift

enables me to walk out this office that that that I play

here. When I stand here and I preach

and I preach with the thing, it's like it's like it's not all

of it and it takes all of us. And I look at so I think about

Alyssa our. Our sweet little worship leader,

right? And she loves it when I call her

that, right? When Alyssa leads worship, she

leads as an evangelist. When you listen to Alyssa, what

does Alyssa say? She says things like taste and

see that the Lord is good. There's this inviting tone.

She is a worship leader, but she leads.

She leads in this evangelistic role.

My wife Natalie will often lead worship.

Natalie leads prophetically. Alyssa will read a Psalm and

she's the 23rd Psalm and she's like, oh, taste and see that the

Lord is good and she's right and it's true.

My wife will get up and she'll go put your hands up.

Yeah, right. Yes, ma'am.

Right. And guess what?

She's true too. It takes both.

But the problem is we have elevated this aspect in the

church. What I do, the prophetic, the

teaching part, Right. But the problem is if we don't

have all, we are in balance. If we have.

Shepherds without, without profits.

Like if we have what we have, then it's like holy huddles and

it's nice for a minute, but it doesn't change anything.

It doesn't do anything. It feels good for now because

nobody ever challenges me or takes except for me.

But if we have profits without shepherds, we have people

crushed under the weight of an example that they can never live

up. To it takes both.

If we have evangelists without teachers, we have shallow

crowds. Wide is the day, but shallow,

nothing substantial. On the other hand, if we have

teachers without shepherds, without evangelists, we become

small and insulated. We get legalistic.

We begin to believe that we are morally superior because we have

truth. For every shepherd, we need a

prophet and an evangelist and an apostle and a teacher because

there's no gift of guest services.

There's no spiritual gift of holding open the door.

But my guess is you smiled when somebody greeted you today.

The thing about this is like you come in and I and I, some of you

are, you're so kind of me and you talk about this.

But listen, before you ever hear me preach a word, you have

encountered the body of Christ as you engage in our parking

situation. Maybe you rode on the golf cart

with Bob. You're experiencing the body of

Christ as you walk through the door and you get a fresh cup of

coffee that somebody has made for you.

You're experiencing the body of Christ when you hear the worship

team sing songs and your heart is moved or you think some of

you're experiencing the body of Christ.

And it takes everybody doing their part, standing in their

role to make all of it work. So we there's no such thing as

the spiritual gift of children's ministry.

But what there is is an opportunity for all of these

apes expressions. There's an opportunity for all

of the the apostles to love and to care for kids.

There's an example for the prophets to talk to our young

people about justice and righteousness and holiness.

But they won't get it if you won't go there and because we.

Care about the body. I am not going to send the 20%

to do what the 80% won't. What we're going to ask the 20%

to do is to do what God has called them to do, and then

we'll be fine with the rest. We have seen God be abundantly

faithful, but we're committed to doing whatever the body is able

to and the gifts. The grace that you.

Receive. It's for the good of all.

Listen to what Paul says in First Corinthians.

We're going to start in First Corinthians chapter 12, verse

1 Corinthians 12:30

30, and Paul asks some rhetorical questions, right?

Do all have the spiritual gift of healing?

No is the rhetorical answer. No, they don't.

Here's a good one. Do all speak in tongues?

Tongues isn't the sign. It's a sign, but it just says

the rhetorical answer is no, not all will speak in tongues.

And some of you are super nervous right now.

And some of you are. Super excited right now and

you're ready to go. But the idea is we all have a

part. Not everybody does this and not

everybody does that to all interpret.

But listen, desire the greater gifts and I will show you a

better way. See, the problem is we just

know. I want to know what my gift is.

I want to know my specific special thing to do and what

Paul's saying. Like, look, it's good to know

that. It's good to know what you do

says, but if you want to know something, I'm going to show you

the best thing that you can know.

If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but I don't have love,

I'm a gong or clinging cymbal. If I had to get to prophecy and

I understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all

faith so that I can move mountains, but I don't have

love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my

possessions and if I give over my body in order to boast, but I

do not have love, I gain nothing.

See, when Paul ties giftedness to love, what he's saying.

See, here's the thing for love, there is no defining, there's no

context for love apart from someone else.

I'm so good at being like Jesus when there's nobody within

earshot or eye shot and I don't have to contend with another

human being. I'm a perfectly fine driver

until there's another car on the road, right?

Love demands another. Your gift, in order for it to be

the grace that God has for you, your gift requires another.

It requires A recipient. And So what Paul is saying is

the best way to find your place in the body, the best way to

participate, this isn't by knowing your gift, it's by

loving. It's by choosing and finding a

way and a place to love people and going there and paying

attention. And what I would say is that is

what this is about. That is why we do this.

Practicing your role in the body is the actual pathway to

spiritual maturity. And here I want to apologize

because some of you learned that the secret to spiritual maturity

was a long quiet time. And as much as I think that

spiritual maturity may enable and allow some people to do

really long quiet times, I also know people who spend great deal

of time with the Lord and they are mean and cranky and

exceedingly UN Jesus like. And that's not the call, that's

not the invitation. Spiritual maturity is only

achieved when the whole body is growing together.

And in order for that happened to happen, we need you listen

verse 13 in Ephesians chapter 4, until we all reach unity in the

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

faith and in the knowledge of God.

Son, let me say just real quick on point on this, right?

We're going to teach on Ephesians coming up real quick.

When we say unity in the faith, it does not mean that we all

believe exactly the same thing. In fact, it means that we

specifically and deliberately don't.

Within our elder board, we have an elder who grew up in Baptist

churches in South Alabama and we have elders who grew up in

Baptist churches in West TX. We have people that have been

formed by Assemblies of God churches and all kinds of

things. And we've agreed that we did.

We agree on the on the creeds I believe in God the Father

Almighty maker of heaven earth Jesus Christ is only begotten

son. All of these things that we

agree on these, right, a lot of other stuff we love each other

because. Unity in the faith says we

follow. Jesus.

He's the one. So we go.

Oh, Revelation, right? Like Rapture.

Not rapture. I don't know.

We'll know someday. Let's go.

Once saved, always saved. I don't know.

We'll know someday. Jesus is king.

He's coming back. Let's go.

And we walk together, unity in the faith till we all reach

unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son, growing

into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness,

the. Goal of River City Church is to

be mature followers and believers of Jesus.

Not just believers who don't follow, not just followers who

aren't growing in our understanding, but believing

fevers who are following Jesus. And he goes on to now tell us

what immaturity looks like, right?

Then we will no longer be like little children.

Little children are the immature ones, right?

We won't be like little children tossed by the waves and blown

around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with

cleverness in the techniques of deceit.

Listen, one of the great critiques of the church is that

the church has been gullible. We've bought into every, every,

what are they called conspiracy theory out there.

We get hooked. We believe, right?

Several years ago, long time ago, a book called The Da Vinci

Code and the church just lost its ever loving mind because it

says it's a novel on the front right?

And people are like, what if Jesus was married and made

Magdalene? Problem problem.

When we Co-op the mechanisms of the Church to any outside body

or entity or force. We're being children, spiritual

children. We have one father in our job.

And listen. Do you know how we.

We go against that. Teachers, prophets, shepherds,

apostles, evangelists doing their role right.

Then we won't. Be like that when we're mature.

But so instead of that, here's what maturity looks like.

Speaking the truth in love. Let us grow in every way into

Him who is the head. Maturity isn't being righteous

in your prayer closet and then a jerk at the table at the

restaurant to the waitress. It's not having faith in your

home and being cutthroat and manipulative at work.

It is being who you are before the Lord and growing, speaking

the truth in love. And we tend to go one way or the

other, don't we? You're probably wired to either

speak the truth or to be to be loving.

We need both. Because if you are truth teller,

you can destroy people and you can hurt people and that's not

what the body is for. You don't like it when I do it

right? Like I know the truth you want

me to like it's not a sword to be wielded.

But we can also get so squishy in the love part that we stopped

telling people like, hey, do you see how your life isn't working?

What if you just brought your relationships under the lordship

of Jesus and just submitted to his plan for your marriage?

What if you just tried that for a minute and see, and I'll walk

with you and I'll help. What if you just like bring your

kids to church? Oh, they don't.

They don't want to make them brush their teeth.

You make them eat vegetables, of course, because some things are

important, right? So what if we just say, hey,

we're going to raise our household, we're going to do

things, we're going to teach our kids to know and to follow

Jesus, right? And So what that looks like then

is health in verse 16 from him, from Jesus, the whole body

fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament.

He's pinning a picture of a body.

You don't grow up, right? My arms sticking out of my

chest, right? Everything's in its place.

My spleen knows where to go, my liver knows where to go.

All my parts know what to do because Jesus put it together

and all the parts that are there hold it together.

In the same way. This church is like that.

Within the context of this room that God has put together, there

are apostles and prophets and evangelists and shepherds and

teachers. Some of you know it and are

doing it. Some of you don't don't know it

and aren't doing it. But some of you know it and

aren't doing it. And listen, I'm not guilting

you. I'm not shaming you.

I'm telling you, there is grace waiting for you, and there is

grace for this community as this church becomes not what I want.

You can't believe how small my visions and dreams for the

church are. And you can't imagine how great

God's visions and dreams for this church are.

And when we begin to go, yeah, I guess I got to reorder my life

around that. What you're saying is I will

choose to put an opportunity for grace before.

Everything for everything. Did I finish that?

Oh yeah, ligaments that promotes the growth of the body for

building itself up in love by the proper working of each

individual part. Here's what that means.

I'm not the church. The staff is not the church.

You are the church. And you go to places that will

never invite me, and you go to places that Alyssa will never

get into. And that's God's design.

That's the plan. The way that he gets Grace into

places is he puts it in people and then he sends them there.

So when we talk about volunteering or serving or

getting involved or connection, I think we don't probably say

this often enough, but I want to say it now.

We're not asking you to do that so that you can help us out.

When we talk about financial generosity, about you giving,

we're not asking that because I go, oh, we need to go.

Listen, we've decided as elders we are going to live within what

God provides, full stop, more or less.

But what I'm saying is you have dreams and visions for your

family, maybe for your community, for your job, for

your work. And what I'm saying is we want

to go be part of that as well. So when we talked about

children's ministry, do you know why we talked about children's

ministry? It's not so that it's quieter in

this room, it's so that those kids will grow up and know that

the church is a place where they can be loved.

And you know what I want in children's ministry?

I want prophets to be in the children's ministry talking to

my children about justice. I want the shepherds to be there

so that my kids know that they are loved in community.

I want the teachers to be in children's ministry because I

want. I want them to know the word of

God. I want them to be familiar with

what it says in this book. But I got a gig on Sunday

morning. I can't go up there.

I need. You like oh, but it's awful.

Yeah, maybe. If you go to the children's

ministry and for five weeks, it's just awful.

That's not your place. Listen, my first job in ministry

was youth ministry. Teenagers, Do you know what

confirmed my calling to youth ministry?

I did children's ministry for five weeks and I knew that is

not the place. But I didn't give up.

I went somewhere else. And I've seen a lot of new faces

serving over the last couple weeks, and it makes me awesome.

But my encouragement to you is. Go find grace.

It's not about helping us out. It's not about doing me a solid.

It's about you experiencing God and then going into your world

and expressing him. So here's how we do that, right?

Three kind of ways, Three quick ways.

Here's what we do. Number one, we show up.

We show up for our family. We go to things for our kids.

We take our kids to things for their brothers and sisters.

And So what I would say is show up to worship, show up to serve,

show up to your small group, you're like.

So busy, I got so much things. Yeah, listen, I get it.

I know. Here's simply what I'm asking

you to do is restructure your entire life.

That wasn't clear. I should have made that clear up

front. I'm asking you to reorganize

your entire life around grace. And So what that would mean will

be doing some things less than you used to do and doing other

things more than you used to. And the hope is that by showing

up, you'll encounter grace. You will hear the stories of

people who are encountering and living in and walking in grace.

Showing up is first. The second thing is to step in,

bring what you've got. Some of you have been studying

the word for your entire lives and you are a treasure trove

that you are keeping to yourself.

Please share that. Please go be a teacher in

children's ministry or in youth ministry or teach a class.

Go talk to Brian or join a small group and share what you have.

And some of you and like some of you have been following Jesus

for so long and you're just crusty.

Like you got to get going and you're like, you know too much

to be good. Stop it.

Go share with someone else. And now I want to talk to you to

like some of you have been following Jesus for 8 minutes

and you're just like right. Like you're plugged in, you're

wired for sound, you're ready to go.

We need you too. You guys go and listen.

I don't need you to be what you're not.

I need you to be exactly what you are.

I need you to go find one of those crusty old people and

listen the crust where they are. Just attach yourself to them,

right? And just ask them all the

questions. Why does this work?

Why does that happen? Why did Jesus say that?

Where's that? What's that book?

Where does that go? Make them tell you because you

know what? We need your energy and we need

to remember. Listen, every every often people

come to me and say, Oh man, I was reading this book and God

spoke to me. That's so huge.

I need to remember. So that happens.

So you got to show up and you just.

Got to bring exactly what you have, excitement, passion,

enthusiasm, because what I know on the authority of this is you

have grace and you have a gift and you have something to give.

So find a place and be shaped by that.

And so here's like that mean you you old heads that know all the

stuff. You're you're going to be

changed. That's why it's simple.

We don't show up with a teenager.

Just be like, OK, teens. Now I've got something to tell

you. Listen, I'm relatively close to

him, right? I'm a good solid Gen.

XI was born in the 70s. All that the world is different.

It's a different world. I need them to tell me.

But you know what? I have stability, wisdom and

encouragement, which for those kids, Grace, I believe in you

change the world, right show up, step in thirdly, share freely,

live generously towards the people of God.

And like we talked about it last week, like we talked about

giving and I didn't say 10% right like that because for some

of you, 10% is an astronomically unreasonable number for you

right now. You've been consuming 100% for

the rest of for your, for your entire life and for you to

restructure so that there's some is a huge step of faith.

And what I would say is the Lord rewards your faith.

Some of you have been giving 10% for so long that it has ceased

to be any kind of sacrifice or anything for you at all.

And what I would ask is how is your calendar and your finances

indicating your allegiance and following to Jesus?

When we asked you to share in and invest in River City, what

we're talking about is investing in foster kids, homeless kids,

abused people, right? Justice, hospitality, mercy.

That's what we're about. That's what his church is.

And this is how God uses His church to be for New Braunfels.

Not through me. Not through me Do you?

You go to places that I'll never be.

You see people I'll never encounter with.

And so He sends you with a message of grace and love and

giftedness. First thing that happens is we

experience His love through belonging and through

transformation. He begins to change who we are

and how we see ourselves. And then He sends us saturated

in love and grace and mercy, out into the world, giving gifts,

spreading grace everywhere that we go.

And that brings us back to where we started with our discussion

of membership. So what I'm going to do right

now is not ask you to sign on the dotted line, but what I am

going to do is ask you to consider for the next several

days of this week, is this the congregation where you believe

God is placing you to grow and to contribute, to be fed and to

take responsibility to feed others?

And let me just say this. If the answer to that question

is no, you're still welcome here.

We haven't had a process. We haven't had a membership

process for the last seven years.

I'm not asking you to go away, but here's what I am saying.

These steps, these things that we've talked about, right,

belonging and transformation and participation, they are as near

as we can get in our understanding of the Scripture.

They are what we believe healthy, mature Christianity

looks like. What I'm asking of you and

inviting you to do is practice healthy, mature Christianity.

And So what I hope you'll do is go home and pray about it.

I am not asking you whether you like me or like my speaking.

I am not asking you whether you like the worship team or the

songs that they sing. What I'm asking you, do you

sense God at work in this congregation and Are you ready

to step into your part and be shaped by it?

I'm not going to ask you to do anything right now.

Not one thing except pray and talk to your family this week,

probably Wednesday or Thursday I'm going to send an e-mail with

a questionnaire and a questionnaire is just going to

explain what is belonging. Few key principles right?

Have you been baptized and you're going to?

Have like a choice, right? I'm a baptized follower of

Jesus. I am a follower of Jesus, but

I've never been baptized. I don't know if I'm a follower

of Jesus, but I want to be baptized.

And you check that and guess what?

If you feel like you're down on the end, that's great.

Do you know what what the big thing is?

If you were just saying just go, I haven't been baptized and

thanks, I'm not interested. Listen, you're still welcome to

come here, but we're going to acknowledge that that's not

participation, right? Like that's not what being a

member of the body is. So when that e-mail comes.

This week, pray about it. Talk about it, fill it out and

return it. And at the bottom, after these

three things, right, I'm going to belong, I'm going to be

transformed. I'm going to participate in all

that. There's going to be an

opportunity for you to check or to not check.

I believe that God is calling me to be a member, a participant, a

partner at River City Church. And if you do that, we'll send

it in. We'll take it.

We'll look at, maybe we'll contact you about something, but

we're not screening you. We're inviting you.

We're inviting you into something that I believe that

God is doing here and wants to include you in.

If we don't have your e-mail, you should give it to us if you

want it. There are little cards out at

the end of your row. You can go on to your church

center app. But I want us to just pray for a

second for River City. Lord, thank you for what you're

doing here. I thank you that this is a place

where children stand and worship you.

I think that this is a place where the congregation will

receive and celebrate children worshiping you.

And Lord, I'm just so overwhelmed by the heart and the

culture at River City, and I'm grateful.

And so now as we go from here, Lord, I pray that we'll continue

to do some business with you. I pray that you'll put it on our

heart, whether this is the place or not the place.

And that we will, as we walk with you and as we follow you,

that we will hear your voice. So Father, our desire is to

continue to honor you to be a place that just absolutely fire

hose washes this city in your grace.

And you've given up, given us gifts to do it.

And so I pray that you would just send us and that we would

say, yes, Jesus, we love you and we thank you and we ask all

these things in your name. Amen.

Thank you for joining us today. River City Church is all about

experiencing and expressing God's love in our lives and

community. And we hope that you've been

able to experience that today. As grateful as I am that you've

spent this time listening in this morning, this podcast is no

substitute for full participation in a local church.

I love it when River City people listen to other pastors, but it

is those who show up week after week, faithfully giving their

support and time and resources that make all of this possible.

If we can help you get connected to a local church, pray for you,

or support you in any way, click the link in the description and

let us know. If you'd like to financially

support the ministry of River City, click the give link on our

website in the description. Don't forget to subscribe and

don't forget to share this with your friends.

Thanks so much for listening. May the Lord bless and keep you

in all grace and peace.