Better Together: Part 1- Belonging

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.

Confession is just telling the truth, right?

Like if I confess something, I tell the truth about what

happened. And each week we get together

and we tell the truth about this reality that we live in.

And our truth, our confession, is we're badly broken.

Yes, you are. Grace and peace to you.

One of the things I got to do, I was on my break, was I joined

Costco. Yeah, Holy cow, For $65 a year

and a short drive north to the city of Kyle, I can have at my

disposal all the bounty that American capitalism can provide.

It is. I mean it is a.

Glow, I thought. Bucky's was awesome and it is

just wonderful, right? Like I can get floodlights and

dress pants and like produce and enough toilet paper for a year

like. It was just, it was a wonderful

thing. And we go and we go back all the

time and it just like, listen, it's.

Worth every penny. I have to drive a little bit,

right? Like I have to join.

I have to do a thing and, and, and I just, I love it.

And some of you are like, it's the 21st century, like Costco's

been around for a long time. Why do you not go to Costco

earlier? And this is where another bit of

confession comes in. I am not a joiner by nature.

I resent that everywhere I go like they want my e-mail and a

password. I'm like, I don't have any more

passwords in me. I've used all the passwords.

There are no more configurations of numbers and letters that I

can put in and I'm just like my password is not like if you're

going to hack into Google, my 8 number alphanumeric thing is not

keeping anybody out. So if you want it just just have

it right. And it kind of changed against

me because because I'm not a joiner and because every.

Everyone now wants me to join something I have.

I have joining fatigue. I'm tired of trying to sign up

for things and one of the things that I truly like and I'm

thinking about. This as I walk around Costco

because I've been off of work for a while and I hadn't.

So I was thinking about things like that is a picture there are

there's implications to that, right?

Like this whole joint thing and we see it.

We see it in the demographics. I was reading demographics

today, but not today, but this week about spiritual interest

among emerging kind of emerging generations.

Call it younger millennials and Gen.

Z. And whether you read Barna or

you read Pew or or whatever you've seen, especially

particularly since Covert over the last three or four years,

spiritual interest among emerging generations is up and

to the right. It is growing, right?

And listen, I just want to say like, I don't, I, I went and got

the numbers to support that. But I, I see it, I see it in our

youth ministry. I see it in the kids.

We send kids to camp and what are they wanting to do?

Right? Like, like I've got kids.

I'm looking at it. I'm looking at a parent of the

kid right here whose 16 year old boy is like, Hey, can I get some

middle schoolers together? And can we just like go talk

about the Bible, right? They want to share their

testimonies. They go it on Monday night and

they share their testimonies about what God is doing in their

lives. And I see it and it's real and I

celebrate it and I want, I want to point at it and I want to

talk to young people and say, your time is now.

Like we're not waiting for you to be the church.

You are the church. This is this is what it is and

what God is saying to you and leading you into and doing in

your life. It is real and it is valuable.

And he's not waiting. And there's all kinds of numbers

and statistics to prove that. And there's a corollary set of

statistics and numbers say that as spiritual interest increases,

I can't even say it. See.

As their interest increases, the incidence of a real and

meaningful and sustained and sustained and consistent

participation and full engagement in local

congregations is flat. It's not growing.

Younger generations are. And, and also side note to check

the footnotes, there's also been a decrease in church

participation among boomers as well since, particularly since

COVID. We've seen this, right?

But especially emerging generations, younger

generations, they prefer kind of a more individual, kind of a

more personal and especially a more informal kind of

exploration of spiritual things. They'll get a few people and

they'll have deep conversations. They'll read a book and have

deep talks. And I know that it can be easy

to kind of poop. That right, it can be easy to

look at that and just go, we're just not get it.

They're not right. Like what I would my take on

that is a little bit different and what I would encourage

people like I'm Gen. X, right?

Like all this. My parents are like kind of the

boomers that what I would encourage us to do is to have a

posture of observation and of learning because these

generations they wanted and what they want is real.

And so when we look at this incident, why aren't they

joining churches? Why aren't they going back to

churches? Why aren't they seeking out

churches and full participation in churches?

Well, I know why, and a lot of it's our fault.

They watch the news and they watch Gen.

X boomer pastors mired in scandal after scandal after

scandal all the time. It's easy to lose.

Confidence in that. They watch churches get aligned

to this movement or to that movement or to this leader or to

that leader and to be and to just also clearly ignore and

deny other matters of scriptural interests that are significant

and important. And they look at it and they

just go that what I don't want, that I'm not interested in that.

If we get a little closer to home, what can be?

Difficult is many young people were grown up, grew up in

households that were full of church, less full of Jesus, full

of the rules. And the institution and even

participation and going, but they went to the church, but

they haven't seen an increase in humility and grace and

forgiveness and service and love at home.

And I have to look in the mirror.

I know that churches that I went.

To when I was growing up, churches that I was a part of, I

fell in love with the idea of grace.

At a church, at a Christian Church, I fell in love with the

idea of love your neighbor, love your enemy.

Greater love has no man than this.

Then he lay down his life for his friend.

I fell in love with those ideas. I unfortunately went to churches

where I didn't see it. What do you mean love your

neighbor like I'm bringing friends.

You don't even like my friends and SO.

I get it. I understand and what I want to

say, but like to people in my generation, like we've got some

humbling to do. We've got to acknowledge and

recognize that there's something that has been missing.

My challenge to younger generations is.

Hold us accountable. But also you learn too, just

because maybe it hasn't looked like what you think it should be

and maybe you rightfully believe that it it what it it hasn't

been what it should. That doesn't mean that you throw

out the baby with the bathwater just because it hasn't been.

And So what I would love to do over this week, in the next two

weeks, what I would love to do is kind of maybe reclaim this

idea of membership, of church membership.

And what I think may even be helpful to do is like, let's try

to talk about a different word. Maybe that word of membership is

too loaded with baggage. Maybe it's too heavy and weighed

down with bad ideas and fallen principles.

Maybe we need a new idea and a word to describe it.

And So what if we talk about it in a different way?

What if we use Paul? From and again, like all of the

elders now are wearing glasses. You're welcome, Greg.

It's not just you. Listen to how Paul wrote to the

church in Philippi first in Philippians 1.

He starts in verse 3 says I give thanks for every remembrance of

you and listen to how he talks about in verse 4, always praying

with joy for all of you, all the church members in in my every

prayer because of your what's that word partnership in the

gospel from the first day until now, Paul looked at his ministry

as the gospel of taking the good news to people and tell them

this is what God has done and this is what God is doing in

your life. And he saw ordinary Philippian

peoples as being partners with him in that gospel.

He's saying, listen, it takes all of us.

Sure, I'm doing my part, but you got to do your part too.

And what Paul saw when he looked around Philippi at the church

and the expansion, the growth was not perfection, but what he

saw was a partnership. And So what I'd like to do is

reclaim that idea. And sure, maybe it needs a new

word. Maybe this idea of partnership

works now for this idea. But we don't want to just slap a

new word on the same old tired idea.

So let's reflame the idea of what membership, of what

partnership should look like. And what we're going to do this

week and over the next several weeks is flush this out.

What does it look like? But let's define it first, OK?

Church partnership is a mutually held agreement.

That's so important. What church membership is not

you giving everything to me and me taking everything from you.

It is a mutual agreement. That means listen.

Are you listening? I don't have any authority in

your life that you don't give me, OK?

I don't have any right to speak into your life except whatever

authority that you give me and some of you.

That's right. And some of you have been so

wounded that I understand that. My hope is that it.

Becomes in this mutuality, it becomes an agreement of trust

and an agreement of confidence. Church partnership is a mutually

held agreement to be immersed, to be formed, and to be engaged

in the process of becoming like Jesus in this world, together.

The goal of church membership is to increasingly look like Jesus

together and individually. And with this idea, right, like

this idea of us helping each other become more like Jesus, of

encouraging each other, of praying for each other, of

telling each other the truth about ourselves and about

themselves, this kind of participation, this kind of

membership and partnership, it's not option.

There aren't options to the Christian experience that go

like, if you just want to get saved, like if you just want to

get in, then you just have to pray this prayer and you just

have to believe it. That's not presented as an

option. You can't just say, yeah, I

like, I like, I like the salvation part, but I don't like

church. And listen, you got to know that

was my like I had a moment with Jesus where I was just like, no

Jesus, I know that you're real. And little while later I had a

conversation about the church and he was like, I think you

should go back to church. I was like, the church Lord is

terrible, right? Like save me from your people.

And I went back to the church and it was radically imperfect

and it was everything that I needed.

And I've experienced from the church great deals of pain and

unbelievable measures of healing and redemption and grace and

restoration. And so I want to talk a little

bit about several of you as you've come through the years

and you've seen me on Sunday morning, you come and you're

like, hey, I really like this here.

And I can tell you've been around the kind of the church.

Would you just say, what do I have to do to become a member?

And now as a moment of confession, right, elders are in

the room. I'm not like letting any secrets

out of the bag. We haven't had a membership

process for probably six years, six or seven years, and here's

why, because I felt like it was hollow.

The membership process at that point was you go to a class on a

Sunday afternoon and you would hear me talk about our mission

and our vision and our values and what it means to be a member

at River. City and it means you got to be

a part of a community where you're known and where they

encourage and help you follow Jesus.

And it's about growing spiritually and practicing

Christian disciplines. It's about participating in the

body and supporting the ministry with your presence and with with

your finances and with all that. And there was a group of people

that would come to that meeting and they'll go, yeah,

Hallelujah, praise you. Finally, Bible believing church

does this do this and it's sign on the line and hand in their

thing. And there are members and they

don't ever do any of the things that we talked about right.

Then there's another group of people who man, they're here

every Sunday and they're serving and they're moving the cameras

and they're doing the stuff and they're serving and they're

giving and they're praying. I can just see them growing and.

They're just like, I'm not going to your class and like, like

which one of those is the member?

And what I want to say is you need both.

You need both. You need to know.

What it means to be part of what US is.

You need to know what God is calling and doing here in the

way that we're walk specifically because membership is a mutual

agreement. You got to say, yeah, I see what

God is doing there. I see where there I was like,

and I think that I want to be a part of that.

I think I want to walk that way. So you need the information, but

we're not saved by information. We're saved as we walk in

freedom. It takes it takes both.

And the problem is too many times we can just go have a

robust. Membership list and anemic

participation in our ministries. Like we're, we've got members

here who need their children to be raised to know the Lord.

But like people show up and they drop their kids off and they're

like, I'm not helping with that. Like I don't want to.

I don't want to do that right? And so membership is

acknowledging this is the way that God has called.

Us to walk and then walking in it.

And I want you to know at the end of this series, this week,

next week and the week after that, you're going to have an

opportunity if you so desire to be among the fur no to be the

first in our reconstituted membership process.

OK? You'll have a chance to sign up

and do all that hear what we're about and sign up and do that.

But I want to stay out of front, and this is important.

OK? At no point will you hear me

trying to make you do that. My role in this process is to

clarify, to identify this, what we did believe.

This is who we are. To invite you to tell you that I

think that God wants when God moves, he moves through people.

But I will never try to control you or manipulate you or try to

get you to do it. When I would say if you're here

for the fright, I'd say some things over and over.

One of the things that I try to say often is that I wish I could

just offend you at the door so that you would know that I'm

just a dude trying to follow Jesus, right?

Like I'm just, I'm just a guy here and at River City, we

follow Jesus. And my job here isn't try to

manipulate you into church membership so our roles are big

or anything like that. That's not what we do.

Here's the idea. The goal of River City Church,

the goal of RCNB, is not to recruit members, but to be a

place where apprentices of Jesus partner with other apprentices

of Jesus to become more like him.

OK. And I believe that church

partnership is a part of that. I believe it is a vital and I

believe that Jesus showed us that Jesus left us a symbol of

partnership, right? And he didn't, he didn't do this

symbol and then just go, this is about church membership, right?

He just did it. And he showed us what it, what

it looked like to be with him and following, right?

And that symbol, that thing that Jesus showed us is baptism.

Baptism is a picture of what it means to belong to Jesus, right?

And baptism is immersion into the identity.

It is immersion into the authority and immersion into the

community of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The word baptized literally means to immerse.

It is a Greek word. It wasn't translated from the

original language. It was transliterated.

It was just picked up and moved over.

The Greek word is baptizo and it means to immerse.

It was originally used in the textiles industry.

Textile worker would take a Swatch of cloth and he would

baptize it. He would immerse it into dye and

then it would come out and it's different, It is changed, it is

transformed because of the immersion process.

That's what immersion means. It is to be immersed into

something symbolically that leads to a new and a different

identity. And here's how we do it.

Matthew chapter 3, starting in verse 16, Jesus went to the

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

Jordan River with John the Baptist and when Jesus was

baptized, he went up immediately from the water.

So Jesus went to the Jordan River and he got all the way in

and he got all the way in out and then he came out of the

water. Jesus was perfect.

Jesus was the Son of God. Jesus came straight down from

heaven. He didn't need to do this, but

he set us an example. And here's what's here's why

this is important. Here's where it's good, because

notice what happened when Jesus was baptized when he came up.

Out of the waters. Immediately.

The heavens open for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending

like a dove and coming down on him.

Holy Spirit was there, and a voice from heaven.

So the Father was there, said, This is my beloved son with whom

I am well pleased. What's great about the baptism

is what Jesus heard at Baptist. Listen, Jesus hadn't saved

anybody yet. Jesus wasn't the Savior yet.

Jesus hadn't taught yet. Jesus wasn't a miracle worker.

He wasn't. He didn't have disciples before.

Jesus did one single thing. He was immersed in his identity

as a son. And what?

I want you to know is when you to be a member.

At River City is first and foremost to be a child of the

king. You are more important than what

you. Do.

We're not making a product at River City.

We are the product. And when we are immersed into

the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit, it changes

us because you realize I don't have to earn anything.

I don't have to force. Anything.

I just AM. And so Jesus and his baptismal

waters with the Father and the Holy Spirit present there the

whole Trinity represented. Jesus was immersed in his

identity as a child of the king. Then he went on, let's go to the

end of the book, right? Jesus does all the stuff and the

miracles and the resurrection. And then we get to Matthew

Matthew 28:18

chapter 28, verse 18. Jesus came near to them and said

all authority has been given to me in heaven on earth.

And I want to stop right there and just say from this point on

for the rest of this book. It's just a couple of verses,

right? Jesus is speaking on a

authority, on his authority as the resurrected King of all

things. He's not suggesting.

Whoa. He's not recommending.

He's not got a few pointers. This isn't 5 easy steps.

He's saying listen because of resurrection I am the king, I am

the author. You can choose to accept this or

not, but this isn't a suggestion to ignore this is to not accept

Jesus as the king. And he said this.

All authority has been given, so go and make.

Disciples, There's another one of those words that maybe

doesn't serve us super well because we're not familiar with

it, right? It's a great.

Word. It means everything that it

needs to mean. We just don't have a lot of

disciples in our culture, right? What we do have is apprentices.

Right, You can be an apprentice electrician, you can be an

apprentice plumber where you learn or you follow the master

around and you learn a skill and you learn a product.

That's what he's getting at. Go and disciple.

Go and make apprentices, right? And what did he tell you to do?

Make apprentices of all nations, all nations, all of the nations,

every single one. See, this is the thing about a

baptism. What baptism does is it immerses

us in a new identity. That means that your first

identity as a child of God, that Trump's all of the other

identities, more than your nationality, more than your

politics, more than your last name, more than any of that,

your first identity, if you're baptized, is as a child of the

king. Baptized children of the king

have more in common, literally in common with foreign born

citizens of another place than they have maybe with the person

that lives right next door to them going to all the world.

Make apprentices and immerse them into the name of the Father

and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe

everything that I have commanded you.

Teach them to be baptized, too. Teach them to love their

neighbor. Teach them to love their

enemies. Teach them to serve the poor.

Teach them to be a voice for the powerless.

Teach them to overcome oppression with kindness.

Teach them to be a voice for goodness and justice and mercy

and freedom and liberty in the world, because that's what I did

with you. You can't follow me and do the

things that are radically different from me.

He said be immersed in that. And so we can't be followers of

Jesus if we aren't doing what he said and we aren't doing what he

did. Now you going to be my friend.

You get like I I love. You like, let's have dinner,

let's talk about it. But to be a follower of Jesus is

to do what Jesus said and to do what Jesus did.

And his ministry began with baptism.

Now, let me make a, a real, a quick doctrinal point real

clear, right? Like I went to a Church of

Christ college and part of the doctrine in the Church of Christ

was that baptism is like what saves you.

Like you can't get in without being saved.

And that presents some theological problems that I'm

not going to unpack. But a River City?

Here's what we believe. About baptism, it's like my my

wedding ring. I could get it off first service

I was when I was puffy and I couldn't get it off but.

The way that. It went at my wedding is the

pastor stood in front of the witnesses, the congregation, and

he said before God, Jason, do you vow to take this woman for

richer, for poorer, for better or worse, in sickness and in

health until death do you part? And I looked at her and I look

to God and I look to the pastor and I said I do.

And listen, I had no idea how annoying she was going to be

back then. I'm just kidding, just kidding.

She's great. She's so good.

She's someone she yeah, I have so trouble.

So trouble. She knows.

And you know what? And then he looked at he looked

at Natalie and he said, Natalie, did you promise to take this

guy, this guy? Are you sure?

Look, look again. Till, till death, Till death.

And she said, Yep, yeah, thank you.

And he said, you're going to forget.

And so I'm going to do is I'm going to give you a symbol to

remind you and you're going to put it on your finger.

And when you're driving her crazy, she's going to remember

baptism is like that. I'm not asking you when I asked

you to follow Jesus. I'm not asking you to just

believe something. I'm asking you to let the Father

who is good and the creator of all things invade your life to a

degree that you can't fathom. I'm asking him, I'm asking you

to give him access to parts of your life that you have would

never even dream of giving to another person.

And not just access, but give him the permission to change and

will make you uncomfortable and you won't know what he's doing

all the time. And you're going to wonder and

it's going to be hard. And what baptism does, the

little getting physically wet under the water, is a day that

you can remember on that. Day.

Here's what that is. Because the day before baptism

is the day when you did exactly what you wanted to do.

That's the day when you were a Lord unto yourself.

That was a day when you made the rules.

When you define your marriage, when you define your finances,

when you define how you spend your time and what job you went

to. And on that day, you chose.

Jesus and baptism is a reminder of that day.

I remember my baptism. I remember how it felt to come

up out of the water. And baptism is a symbol of the

redemption. It's a symbol of our new

identity. It's a symbol and immersion.

Look, I'm wearing my Astros shirt today, and several of you

came up and celebrated me as you should.

And some of you need Jesus. I can tell.

But listen, this shirt identifies my allegiance to a

baseball team and I wear it proudly.

And what I want to say is there are places in the world today

that understand baptism better than we do.

Because there are places in the world today where to be baptized

into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit of

Jesus is a death sentence. Because it is the because it is

the radical realignment and and reissuing of all allegiances.

This will not bow the knee to any other king.

Not in your life, not. In anybody else's eye, not in

any sphere of what we do. And baptism is a sign and a

symbol of our allegiance. In the same way that this ring

says I am Natalie's full stop, my baptism says I am Jesus's.

If you haven't been baptized. And you're a follower of Jesus.

You should be baptized. You should do it.

We do it right after the service.

You can go out today and get wet.

That's fine. We do big baptism.

We did it last week right at the end of every month, we do a big

baptism kind of outside. You can wait and sign up for

that. But I really would encourage you

if you're, if you want to be a partner here, you have to be a

follower of Jesus. But we encourage you also to be

baptized, to be immersed as a sign and a symbol and a

declaration of what God is doing and has done in your life, a

symbol of your allegiance. So that's what the church is.

When we talk about the church, we're talking about the immersed

ones, right? The Capital C Church, those who

have been immersed. Into the identity of Jesus and

you're terrible at it first, right?

Like that's the thing I look at some of you and like I know your

journey and you've just been following Jesus for a little bit

while and you're just like, I'm the worst disciple ever.

That's fine. Be like you're growing.

You don't have to get it right all the time.

Keep coming, keep being a part of it.

Keep submitting, keep wearing the ring, keep remembering.

Keep you'll grow. And I see you grow, and I see

that. And so that's what the church

is. It's not people who are perfect,

it's not people who get it right all the time.

It's not people who believe all the right things.

It's people who are following Jesus, who are increasingly

immersed in his life. And what this is then is a

congregation of the church. And the reason we do that is

because it's hard to get a billion people together in one

place, right? And so we meet.

In congregations, we're meeting across the city, so now there's

a congregation of the Church at Oakwood Fellowship, and I love

them. They're fantastic.

There's a congregation of the church that's meeting at

Redemption Fellowship right across I-35 at Epic Life at Hope

Presbyterian. There are great congregations of

the Church of Jesus all around. And you know what?

We disagree on a lot of stuff. But we agree.

That there is one person who makes all of it possible.

And so me and my Presbyterian friends, we get together and we

joke about, you know, whether we're always saved.

We're not always saved, whether it's, you know, like, whatever.

We joke about all that stuff. And at the end of the day, we go

just Jesus, right? Just Jesus, Right.

Yeah. And So what that means for this

congregation? As a part.

Of the larger congregation is that there's a metaphor, the

biblical metaphor for the church, for the Capital C Church

and all of our unique congregations is a body.

That's the picture that helps us understand what it is and

listen. There is a global church, the

Church of all believers around the world, that is, believers

and baptized followers of Jesus, baptized participants of the

church in Thailand and in Swaziland and in South Africa

and in Venezuela and in Cambodia and any nation.

Any place that you can imagine, you can think of, there's a

gathering of the church and there is also a gathering the

church in New Braunfels and listen, each church in New

Braunfels has a unique voice, a unique aspect, a unique role to

play in the ministry that God is doing at at in New Braunfels.

And in the same way that River City is a part of the church,

the body of Christ in New Braunfels, you if this is your

church, you are a member of the body of Christ here at River

City. Here's how Paul.

Describes that First Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

He says this verse 12 for just as the body is.

One and has many parts and all the parts of that body, though

many are one body. So also it is with Christ.

He's just saying like you're made-up of a lot of parts.

You're not all in arm, you're not all in leg.

You have arms and legs and hands and fingers and livers and

spleens and appendices. And listen, some of the parts

you don't even know this. I didn't even know I had a

gallbladder until that sucker like erupted and started.

Messing up my life, right? All the parts are important.

Every part matters. Your liver gets sick.

You know it. You ever hang your pinky toe on

a door jamb? It's the most important part of

the body. Dude, listen, I can go.

On for a little bit of my liver sick of my if I stub my toe I'm

out right now until it decides it's going to be OK, right.

He says. We as the body have one part

we're all all unique parts. I'm looking at you, your part,

your part, your part, your part they're all different right Paul

goes on. We were all baptized again by 1

spirit into one body. Whether Jews?

Or Greek or Americans or Canadians or French, whether

slaves are free. And we were all given.

One spirit to drink. See, that's ultimately what the

church is about. It's about his spirit in US.

And there's all kinds of spirits, right?

Like, I don't want you to, when you think about a spirit, I

don't want you to think about like Casper the Friendly Ghost,

right? Like I want you to think about

movement, right? And there's a spirit of the

church. And some spirits are for

reconciliation. Some spirits there's a spirit of

our age that tells us what defines us and what makes us who

we are. And what we're saying is a

church is we together from wherever we come from, wherever

we've been, we have one spirit, which is the Spirit of Christ

which raised. Him from the dead.

Which means that the spirit that unites us should increasingly be

forming us to look like Him. So there's a.

Personal, private aspect to our faith, a private, spiritual

part. Your prayers are part of your

spiritual practice of being a part of the Christ.

But there's also a public domain too.

That's what Greg read. Listen.

In Acts chapter 2, starting in verse 41.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

So those who accepted his message.

Were baptized, right? It begins with baptized.

So then what happens that like do they immerse and then go do

their own like, oh, I'm part of the body but my body plays golf

on Sunday. Yeah, me too.

I wish, right? They were all baptized.

And then what do they do? They devoted themselves to

teaching. To the breaking of bread.

And a prayer they devoted themselves to being together, to

learning, to growing, to doing these spiritual practices.

They said everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and

signs were being performed through the apostles.

Now all the believers were together.

And there are people from all over the place.

There were people that were listen the book of Philippians.

It was written mostly to Roman citizens.

When I get done in just a couple weeks, we're going to look at

the book of Ephesians, written to a largely, maybe an almost

exclusively Gentile congregation.

They devoted themselves to these practices.

It was private and it was public.

Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together

in the temple, and they broke bread from house to house.

They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God

and enjoying the favor of all the people.

And every day the Lord added to their number those who are being

saved. Listen.

This body is the physical representation of Christ.

For better and for worse, right? When we fall, we fall publicly.

But listen, I see what you're doing, River City.

I see how much you give to orphans.

And I want to tell you that's exactly what Jesus would do if

he was here. When we teach, when we get Jason

Casey to stand up here and teach, that's because Jason has

a unique experience of God's work in his life.

And you need to hear Jason Casey teach about Jesus.

And the question is, what about you?

What's your part? What's your role in all of this?

And so now let's talk about. Kind of how River City operates

and what it means. How does that body come

together? River City is currently a non

denominational congregation and what that means is we don't have

a denominational affiliation. We're not part of the Baptist or

the Presbyterians or the Methodists like that.

River City is an elder LED congregation and here's what

that means. Here's why that's good news for

you. That means that we.

Don't just do whatever I want. Because I'm broken, badly

broken. And So what the elders do.

Greg is an elder. Scooter Stanley is an elder.

In the first service. Bob Johnson was an elder.

Sean Bowers is an elder. Tony Martinez is an elder, and

these guys and their families have shown evidence through the

life of this Church of spiritual wisdom, of spiritual maturity,

and they are worthy to have authority.

And here's what that means. They have authority in my life

too. If Greg comes up to.

Me and just says hey Jason you don't seem like you're doing OK

I answer him I talked to him not because he pulls rank on me Greg

has never pulled the authority card on it.

He has never pulled the elder card on me and in fact if he.

Did that would. Probably be signs that he wasn't

ready. He doesn't do that.

You know why? You know why I trust Greg with

everything? Because I trust him.

Because I know that Greg wants what best for me.

Do I believe that Greg is perfect?

Absolutely not. It works both ways.

That means that I go to Greg too and listen, he can ask me about

my marriage. He can ask me about my spiritual

practices. Jason, are you spending time in

the word? Are you praying?

What's God saying to you? We get together regularly and

sure we talk about business stuff.

We balance the budget because we believe that the budget is

important and we believe that it is it is a it is a spiritual

tool for the ministry that what we do, but I am submitted to the

leaders of this congregation. So there's currently.

Six of us. Currently.

There's six of us, and you know who the.

Boss Elder is. Jesus.

We don't have a boss elder if we're making decisions.

I don't think we've ever been split on a vote because here's

the deal. If we're taking a vote to do

something, to build, to buy, to expand, like and listen, the

elders, they don't, they don't like decide what children's

ministry curriculum we're doing. They have delegated that to the

staff. The staff gets to do that.

But when we make decisions, are we going to build, Are we going

to grow? Are we going to plant churches?

What are we going to talk about when those things come up?

If one, even if Greg just says I don't, I don't, I'm not sure we

would. Wait and we would come together

or we would agree that God hasn't called us to do that

because we trust each other and because we're submitted to each

other, our doctrine as a church. What do you believe about You

won't? Say it always say maybe.

Maybe if you're Presbyterian you're hoping so, but if you're

predominantly Methodist, you're hoping not, right?

So here's what we say. Here's what we as elders and

what we'll ask you to agree on. If, if this is going to be your

church, we affirm without descent the historic traditional

creeds that is the Apostles Creed and the the Nicene Creed.

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and

earth, and in Jesus Christ, his one and only Son.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, we believe in the Church, we

believe in all these. You can go read them.

Go. Look on their on our website,

the Nicene Creed, the Apostles Creed about those things.

Listen, if you just come and say, I don't really believe that

Jesus was the son of God, we can still be friends, but we can

acknowledge this is a different thing.

This is a different thing, right?

Like if you're wearing your your ranger's shirt today, that's

fine. That's fine you.

Just clearly need more. Jesus, than you have right.

Just kidding. So what about all the other

stuff? What about the end times?

1 believes there's a rapture, 1 believes there isn't.

In those secondary. Issues we walk in grace and

here's what that's going to look like someday we're going to go

to heaven and the rapture guys I told you there's.

A rapture. There's a rapture.

And you lost. I'm going to go.

Yeah, you were right. Let's go worship Jesus.

Yeah, we're going to have lots of grace.

And here's the deal. If you can't of that, if you're

like, you must. Speak in tongues every single

time. Listen.

There's some places that absolutely believe that and I

believe that we will worship in heaven together for all of that

and they'll be speaking in tongues.

They don't be all that. I can help you find that.

I can help you find that place, right?

Like we don't have to agree about all things, but we do have

to do is walk together in love. Here are a few big things.

Though that we just. Kind of reject out of hand,

right? We reject out of hand.

You will never experience that River City, US approaching

worship or the word as a performance.

We will never, ever, ever have a smoke machine.

Yeah. And here's here's listen,

someplace have smoke machine. That's fine.

But here's here's what I don't. This is what I'm worried about,

right? Like it in in my leadership and

my thing like this. Here's what I'm worried about.

I don't want to try to manipulate you into feeling

something other than what the Holy Spirit has for you.

Right, I'm not here to. Manipulate you.

I'm not trying to hear to get you to try to follow me.

I'm here hoping that you'll have an encounter with Jesus, and

Jesus can do all kinds of things in all kinds of different ways.

We are not at River City a brand.

We are not here to. Promote the brand At River City,

we reject out of hand the idea of celebrity leadership.

You are not here to make me famous, we are here to make

Jesus famous. And I want you to know, having

that teaching team teach 8 times during the summer, it's as much

about me as it is about you. It is every bit as important for

me to see, to go. Look, Jason, it's not about what

you're doing, it's about what Jesus is doing.

We're not here for me. My hope is that River City's

best days will be the day after I leave.

And they'll go and keep going. My prayer is that 150 years from

now, River City will be making an impact and having an impact.

We, I'm not sure that Christian and celebrity the like celebrity

Christian can it goes it now you can be a celebrity and be a

Christian, but Christianity is about submission and humility

and getting small. John the Baptist said he must

increase and I must decrease. That's hard.

That's hard teaching, but that's what we want, right?

We reject I, I don't manipulate you.

I'm not trying to make you feel what I feel.

One of the things that you may have heard at other places that

we reject out of hand is this idea of touch.

Not the Lord's anointed. There is not a special set of

rules for me and for you at River City.

We give voice to the voiceless at River City.

We speak for the weak. We speak for the powerless.

And if I use my power to score, to win, to get over, to

manipulate or to control someone with less power than me, I am in

error. And the elder's job.

And they would let. They will correct and rebuke.

I don't have special rules. We are followers of Christ

together. So what we embrace then as

leaders is submission, service, protection and love.

We won't put somebody in leadership who wants to, to

prove something or to get something.

You cannot be in leadership at River City unless you can be

under leadership. Now we understand like, like we

know that the tension and that can be, and I know some of you

have been abused. I, I get it.

I understand. We're not trying to change your

mind about anything. I'm asking you to just pray and

sense and see. Because we acknowledge God made

being a Christian synonymous with being a part of the body.

You can't say. Right.

Like I want salvation, but I want the but I don't want the

body. You can't.

It's like saying I want to be a follower, but I don't actually

want to follow. It's like saying I love

breathing but I hate lungs. You can't.

That's not a thing. It's not.

It's not a. Thing that works.

And so River City, we live out our baptismal profession 3.

Things first. Presence, to be a member, to be

a partner at River City, it means showing up here to church.

And I want you to know, and again, because I'm not trying to

manipulate you, I'm just presenting you.

Here's what I would ask. I would ask you to prioritize

your schedule around it. Now I know sometimes you got to

go on. Vacation.

You got to go do that. That's great.

But what I'm saying is if you're around, are you here?

And let me go one further and we'll talk about this a little

bit a little bit later, but. Before you ever if you're here.

You like the way I speak? That's great.

Before you ever heard a word out of my mouth, you experienced our

parking lot team, our guest services team, our coffee team,

our greeting team, our worship team, perhaps our children's

ministry team, right? You experienced all of that

before you ever, you've tasted and seen River City before you

ever got to this place. And So what I would ask you is,

are you a part of that? Are you contributing to that or

are you just consuming? Are you mad when we have to

close down a children's ministry classroom, but not willing to

get on the schedule and help make sure that we stay in open?

That's not what we do here. And you say, like, Oh my, I'd

serve the hungry people. Outside you should do that.

Go do that. But you worship here on Sunday,

help serve, grow those places that you serve their

communities. Miss Jamie in the nursery, she

loves that team. She served.

Somebody's back there, they got it right.

She takes care of those people. She's a pastor to those people.

If I died and left and got hit by a bus, there's people on

Jamie's team who would continue to be loved and served because

Jamie loves them. Well, serve, get involved, be a

part of the team, show up and be a presence here, right?

Second thing we ask is formation.

This assumes the idea. That if you stay.

Here long enough, you're going to be changed and you're going

to be transformed. God is going to put his finger

on things in your character that he says, hey, I'm not mad at

you, but let's deal with that. Hey, I'm not mad at you, but

you've been selfish in that area.

Will you give it to me? Hey, you've been giving, you've

been holding your Sundays to yourself.

I want you to give me one extra hour on Sunday.

Will you give me that so that you can greet people in the

parking lot, so that you can stand with Chris Adams and see

people grow, so that you can like, what is it I want you to

give me? Your Wednesday night so that you

can go to a small group. He will change our desires.

He will change even our ingrained powders and habits.

The things that we identify ourselves by we to be him needs

to be formed and be transformed like and let me say real quick,

there is grace for your failure when you go.

I see people all the time like I'm trying to quit smoking, I'm

trying to quit doing drugs. I'm trying to quit talking to my

spouse that way. I'm trying to get to this, but I

did it again and again and again.

What I want to say is there's more grace in you for you than

there is failure in you. Keep getting up, keep walking.

We will walk together with that humility.

But what grace does not cover is the person who says, I know the

Bible says that, but I'm just not going to do it.

What you're looking for is. Not grace, what you're looking

for is a redefinition of terms. And we don't do that.

I don't get to just marginalized the uncomfortable parts for my

life. And so listen like you can and

and here's what happens if we make, oh, you can believe

whatever you want about this or that, Like what happens then?

And we make that into marriage, then this, or we make that into

partnership, and partnership just stops meaning anything.

It's supposed to mean something and it will change us and it

will transform us. Saying I failed is not the same

thing as saying I won't do that. The third thing we ask is

participation. Church isn't a thing that you go

to or consume. It is not a spiritual Sam's

Club. It is the living and active body

of Christ at work in New Braunfels, TX.

And here's a question just like you know I have to answer.

I just want you to go home and think about it.

If everybody contributed to River City the way that you do.

Would this be a church that you? Wanted to go to What if

everybody in our children's ministry served the same

intensity that you served? What would our children's

ministry be like? What if everybody gave

financially to the needs, not just of this congregation, but

of this community to the same degree that you did?

Would we have this place? Would we be able to give shoes

to to orphans? So don't just come participate,

be an owner and what it is. And that's the metaphor really,

that Jesus leaves for us. We're going to take communion

together now as an expression. The elements are down on the on

the side aisles. You're going to take those and

pass them around because when we talk about this membership,

membership isn't a question of what I want or what I expect.

And I don't want you to. Answer this question today.

What I want to acknowledge. Is that membership and

participation here isn't just what I want, or it's not the

elders congregation? Listen, I'm firmly convinced

that this is not my church. This church belongs to Jesus.

It is his. And he gives the example.

Are you listening? Jesus gives the example of what

it means to be a participant. On the night he was betrayed, he

took bread. And when he had given things, he

broke it. And he said, this is my body,

which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

Jesus took bread and he said, I'm like this.

And here's the thing, all those folks standing around, they came

as individuals, right? Like you got Matthew the tax

collector, and you've got Simon the zealot.

And those two could not be more politically diverse than they

were. But once they took this bread

and they had Jesus inside them and had that spirit in them that

was greater than whatever else was before.

So when we take this as the church with professing

Christians around the world, that's what we're saying.

This is the most real. This is the thing.

The. Spoken and given body of Christ

and His instructions to go and do the same.

So as we take this. Bread together.

It's an invitation to be a part of something bigger than

ourselves. Let's take the bread together.

And in the same way after supper.

He took the cup and. He said this cup is the new.

Covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it

in remembrance of me. See, when Jesus talked about the

blood, he was talking about the sacrificial system, about the

lambs that were about the forgiveness of sin.

And what's great for me, what encourages me, is there's no one

at that table that didn't need it.

You know what brings us all? Together.

If it's not our ethnicity or our politics, or our socio economic

standing, or our doctrine or our faith, what brings us all

together at the foot of the cross is our need for something

that forgives, that sets us right.

This cup is a reminder of our need for Jesus.

This is why Jesus is famous. This is why we make his name

known. This is why it's about him and

not us. So let's take the cup together.

As often as you eat this bread. And drink this cup.

You proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

See what church membership is about, what the communion about,

what baptism is all about is about this Kingdom that we're a

part of and this Kingdom. The king, the ruler, the

authority, the boss. He humbles himself and gives his

life for the servants. He doesn't demand that they do

that for him. He gives and loves and serves

and he sends into the world and says go make apprentices who do

the same thing. And immerse them in the life of

the Kingdom. May you be immersed in the name

of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit this week.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

May He lift His countenance and give you peace.

Have a great week. See you next time.

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.