The Perfect Church? | Dr. John Ewart

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning in to our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. Well, I appreciate the worship

team. Amen.

Plus, Drew has some really cool shoes on those Vans.

They got to be Vans. Those of you who don't know what

vans are, you got to get with it.

Take your Bibles this morning. Turn to Acts chapter 6, if you

Acts 6 · chapter mention

will. I'll catch up to you there in

just a moment. There's a couple of things I

want to call attention to because you may not be aware of

this. You may not know who you've

called as your pastor. I, I'm a, I'm AVBSA holic.

I don't know if you know that or not.

So I have to confess that I love vacation Bible school.

I'm addicted to vacation Bible school.

I never went to vacation Bible school as a kid.

So I think I'm trying to make up my time.

And VBS is coming up and your worship guide, you'll see places

to not only register your kids, but sign up to volunteer.

And in just a couple of weeks, believe it or not, don't worry,

I'll get you there. We're going to hang 2000 of

these door hangers around our community.

So we haven't see how many kids we can get here to learn about

Jesus. So thank you for that.

So, yeah, so BBS also the women's gathering is happening

this week. You can still sign up for that.

Look for that as well. And I, I've heard there is a

good crowd coming. So I appreciate that and look

forward to that very, very, very much.

Now, if you're here this morning and you're a guest, it's an it

going to be an interesting sermon.

So just prepare yourself. It'd be a great sermon for you

to be here as our guest because you're going to learn some

things about Englewood, but I need to share some practical,

honest things with the congregation as well.

And so we're still going to be in Acts 6 and don't worry about

it, but, but it's going to be a little different than normal.

We've been walking together through these first chapters of

the book of Acts over the last several weeks.

We've been witnessing God establishing and protecting his

church, watched several things happening.

We've seen several power engagements between the Holy

Spirit and Satan as they're fighting of the church.

We've seen the Holy Spirit demonstrate his absolute

dominion and authority over man and Satan, and I promise you

that is always going to be true. He always has dominion.

And in the end, God wins. And that's something we can

count on. In fact, we depend upon that,

and nothing's changed here. Same God, same mission, same

power. Our our task is to simply come

join the King's mission. And that's what we've been

talking about South. These first five chapters that

we've walked through have presented a community of

believers in Jerusalem. The church has just been in the

Jerusalem area closely bound to Judaism still, and they were

mainly reaching people who had Jewish backgrounds.

They're meeting daily at the temple that because that's what

they know. They're preaching the gospel,

they're getting in trouble, and also seeing God work over and

over again. So they're fulfilling the first

part of Acts chapter one, verse 8, where they're reaching their

Jerusalem. This is about to change,

especially next week. Starting next week, we're going

to see the church get pushed out of Jerusalem in a brand new way,

become much more global and frankly, much more diverse.

And So what we're looking at here is how the church is going

to grow. This is a good congregation, but

it wasn't a perfect congregation, even though it was

the first congregation. And so this morning I'm going to

ask the question about is there really the perfect church?

So I've never met one. I've never met one I've known a

lot of. I've known a lot of churches,

but I've never known a perfect one.

And there's a reason for that, because the church is made-up of

guess who? Yeah, us.

And we are imperfect sinners. Raise your hand if you're an

imperfect Sinner here this morning.

My hands up. Notice this.

Yeah. Well, thank you for the

confession for those guests here.

We all acknowledge we're not holier than you are.

We just know somebody who might be or who is, you know?

And so we know the one who is. But it's only by grace that

we're saved. And it's only by that same grace

that will be held together and move forward, be able to grow.

So Satan's tried multiple assaults here.

He tries from the outside, moves to the inside, tries from the

outside, moves from the inside. Last time he was having external

persecution by the Jewish leaders.

So now he's going to move back to inside the church because our

enemy will never stop. He will never sleep, He will

never relent. He will never, ever give up.

And so we must be diligent. So look at Acts chapter 6.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Let's begin with the first verse because that's where the chapter

starts. And let's see what God says.

Now in those days when the disciples were increasing in

number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the

Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the

daily distribution. And the 12 summoned the full

number of the disciples and said it is not right that we should

give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.

So very simply, a problem arose. They had a real issue, and a

problem arose. So we know the church is already

large at this point. If you know the book of Acts or

you've been here with us, thousands and thousands of

people have been saved and they're increasing in number.

And so with growth comes change. That's always true.

A baby doesn't stay a baby, a seed doesn't stay a seed.

And a church will change too. And with change can come

problems and certainly can come complaints.

And so there's a church I once pastored and, and I've had the

honor of pastoring that that doubled in size about every year

and a half to two years for at least six years in a row.

And, and most of that was from outside conversion growth, not

not just our own children, but actually new people who were

being saved and baptized every single week.

And, and that sounds wonderful and it was absolutely fantastic,

phenomenal, but it also produced growing pains and some

difficulties along the way. And so the church in Acts is not

completely homogeneous anymore. They, they actually, although

they still have a Jewish background, you've got to

understand, except maybe for some proselyte converts, people

who weren't Jews, who become Jews, but but they didn't

necessarily all come from the same place.

So you had subgroups of Greek speaking Jewish believers and

then you had Aramaic speaking Jewish believers.

Now just stick with me for a minute because it's important.

So these Greek speaking people came from the diaspora outside

of Palestine. So they're born outside of

Palestine and they actually lived outside the city, but now

they had moved to Jerusalem, but they still had even separate

synagogues in their Judaism. So you had Greek speaking

synagogues and you had Aramaic speaking synagogues.

So when they become Christians now, they're still, they're

congregating together, but they're probably still saying

these segregated groups even within the church because of of

language, customs and culture. So if you think cliques within

the church are a modern invention, this has been around

a long time. So the Greek believers would

actually read from the Septuagint, which was the Greek

translation of the Old Testament, while the Aramaic

believers would read from the Hebrew.

So you got to understand the complexity of this context.

You have people from all kinds of backgrounds moving in, all

kinds of new people. And this might shock you.

I'm glad you're sitting down because this might shock you.

Not everyone is just like you. Isn't that shocking?

Isn't that amazing? In fact, and and this gets

worse, you ready? They might even have different

opinions about what should happen and how here at

Inglewood. Isn't that isn't that something

somebody might think a different way about the church.

They might suggest different strengths, different weaknesses,

top needs that this church might have.

And in fact, a lot of them will come talk to me and they'll say

here's what we no, and that's not what they say.

Here's what you need to do, Pastor.

Pretty amazing, isn't it? You didn't know that happened

here, did you? Yeah.

See, So the Greek or the Hellenistic group of widows did

not believe their needs were being taken care of.

They literally were saying we're not being fed, right.

And so and and the Aramaic groups getting more than we are.

So that wasn't just we aren't getting enough, they're getting

more. This is unfair little

competition going on, and this could have been a really sizable

group because these Jews from the diaspora would often come to

Jerusalem to live out their older years so that they could

die and be buried in the holy city.

The men would die off first, so there be this large group of

widows who were left and the church would care for them.

In fact, early church records show us they actually had lists

of these widows that they had recorded so they would be able

to take care of them, kind of like our Deacon ministry does

here, so that that they could take care of him.

And it's likely the church followed the old.

There's old Jewish traditions about how to take care of

people. You had what was called the

koopa, which was where they were.

They'd give enough money every Friday for 14 meals to the

people who lived there. And then you had the Tom we,

which was the daily, the daily distribution that they would do

for people in transition who weren't residents.

They're just passing through. They'd give them food and drink

and they'd deliver it to their house.

So it was the first Meals on Wheels.

So all these things have been around for a while, but they

wanted to make sure the needs were addressed.

So at 1st, and I'm getting out of the background here real

fast, at first this all fell on the apostles because they were

the leaders, they were the only ones in the beginning, right?

But, but, and then in the beginning that might have made

sense. But when you have thousands and

thousands and thousands of members joining, suddenly it had

to be delegated. So growth requires change and

can create new problems. And so they may have delegated

the responsibility to some Aramaic or Hebrew speaking

believers early, but with language and cultural issues and

frankly perhaps even some prejudice, it became easy to see

how the Greek speakers were feeling neglected.

So he had division in the church over this issue, right?

So they needed a better plan. They needed a unified vision for

the entire church. I hope this sounds familiar

because it's the same thing we're working on behind the

scenes here, not for food, but for other reasons.

So the apostles gathered all the disciples together.

And even though this issue just affected A subgroup, it's the

responsibility of the whole body because each person, each group

affects the whole when you're seeking to build together.

They, they wanted participation to, to help get to resolution.

And so they're, they're working together on this.

And Englewood, we're in this together.

So let's just be honest and deal with a few things together,

exactly like the process that we're going through with our

mission and vision right now. So here's just some behind the

scenes practical things I need to update you as a congregation.

I want you to understand what's happening, trying to be

transparent with you so you're not surprised by anything.

So let me just give you a couple things.

We'll get right back to the passage, I promise.

So we've gathered with other leadership groups for input and

feedback on best ways to move forward in discipleship.

And, and so we recognize, as they said, it's not right.

It wouldn't be pleasing in God's eyes to to do this alone.

And so we, we recognize that, that to oversee the

distribution, even though it was important, it needed ministry in

the book of Acts, It would be too much just for the apostles

to do alone. It would distract from their

calling and primary responsibilities.

And so their success as a church, their growth as a

church, it actually produced this need.

So it was time to assess time to identify, time to develop a new

vision and then adjust and implement a new plan.

I really do pray this is sounding familiar.

So, but you need to think about their unique context.

And then I'm going to come back to what we're doing, their

unique context, the apostles alone.

You got to think about these guys.

These apostles alone had personally, physically witnessed

the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Their testimonies were absolutely unique.

They were irreplaceable, unrepeatable, and absolutely

foundational for the Christian movement to move forward.

But you got to remember, there wasn't, there wasn't a New

Testament written yet. So they couldn't just read the

New Testament. These books hadn't been written

yet. Paul hadn't written his letters

even yet. And so these apostles who were

with Jesus were crucial to pass on these stories and to have

time to work with under the leadership of the Holy Spirit to

write the Gospels. And so this was a crucial time

in history. They needed to be free to

perform these primary tasks of teaching and leading, so they

had to face the truth and be honest about it.

So Inglewood, let's just be honest about a few things.

Where this church has been, where and who we really are

right now, and where we must go, and let's see what should be

done about it. So we are in a very specific

process. Let me just update you for a few

minutes. We're in a very specific process

to guide us to move forward in the healthiest way.

We're working through some key phrases that I've shown you

before. I showed you this at the very

beginning when I was with you, and believe it or not, that was

just a few weeks ago. It feels like 14 years, I know,

but it was just a few weeks ago, OK.

And we're working through these phases together.

It represents a process not necessarily that I created but

observed working with hundreds and hundreds of healthy churches

around the world. But I've also used this process,

and we've seen many churches move forward in healthier ways.

So it's time for a new normal. Because believe it or not,

Inglewood is not a perfect church.

I know. Gasps of horror, right?

Turn to somebody sitting next to you and just say, Oh, no, I

know, see, it's horrible. I know.

I get it. But.

But I work with hundreds of them around the world.

There are no perfect churches, but Inglewood is a good church.

It's a good church. And it must become even

stronger. That's what we want to see

happen. Amen.

That's what we want. So we're seeking the best ways

to be the people of God that he wants for us to become.

So we want to become healthier. We want to measure success in

the right ways. It's not just quantitative

growth, obviously it's quality. It's how do we become good

disciples? So at the middle of that

diagram, you see the word mission.

That's at the center of everything.

We seek to bring God glory. We want to join Him in redeeming

the nation's. That's one of the reasons why

we're praying every single week for Unreached people groups,

unengaged and reached. So, but we need to approach this

in the proper manner. So I want to show you another

thing that I've shown you before, and that's called the

discipline of why we must constantly ask the right

questions in the right order. Why always precedes who?

Which always precedes what, which always precedes how.

We don't just jump into the how. We don't just jump into the

what. We need to know why.

Why are we here? Why does Inglewood Baptist

Church exists on this piece of property at this moment in

history, in this context? Why am I breathing today?

That's a question to ask. And why are you sucking up my

oxygen? Why are we here?

Right. So our reason, our motive, not

just our methodology, but our hearts, our commitment, our

faithfulness, every second, every minute, every step matters

in this process of why we're doing what we do, why we do what

we do, and the way we do it all matter.

So who must be be? Who must we become to be the

disciple that Jesus wants us to become?

And what do we need to know and do in order to become that?

So how do we define these things?

How do we move forward? Because we got to remember

something. This is key.

You got to remember that church health on this corporate level

that that, that that idea of corporateness of us all

together. Remember church health is simply

your health. That's all it is.

It's not any more complicated than that.

It's how healthy each and every single one of you as members of

this church are and how healthy your leaders are.

And we put that together to fulfill God's mission.

So if you are not healthy, it affects the whole.

Each one of you matters greatly and influences the church as a

whole. And you may be sitting here

going, I don't matter. It doesn't matter what I do.

That's just not true. That's not true at all.

Your faithfulness or your lack of faithfulness actually impact

the whole you matter. So church, church membership,

personal transformation, biblical discipleship must have

clear definitions, must have clear direction, must have clear

destinations, and they must have understood value.

In other words, we understand the mission of God to bring him

great glory and to fulfill and to join Him in redeeming the

nation's, but that must have great value to us that we

actually understand. In other words, this is too

important. Nothing's more important than

this. Nothing's more important than

serving my King. So that's more important than

sports. It's more important than career.

It's more important than anything else in my life.

I need to serve my King. That's going to be make my

family stronger. That's going to make me

stronger. So I've shared with you often on

top of that about the the amazing harvest potential of

Inglewood. We're living over 70% of the

people in this 10 mile radius are unchurched.

We're living in the middle of an unreached people group right

here right now and it's just going to grow.

So how will Inglewood engage, right?

So that means how will you as an individual disciple engage?

It's not just about us standing up here creating some program

structure for you. It's how will you as an

individual respond? So we must first depend upon the

Holy Spirit. And as we study the book of Acts

together, we're supposed to be learning, supposed to be

learning more about the biblical church and church membership and

who we ought to be, what we ought to know, what we need to

do. Now, please hear all of what I'm

about to say before you cast judgment on me or run for the

door. We need you to be more involved

than just the Sunday morning worship service.

We need you more involved in that.

Now, make no mistake, I'm absolutely thrilled that you are

here right now and you are most welcome.

But this service alone is not a complete holistic spiritual diet

that you need in order to be the greatest disciple.

You need more than what you're going to get just in this time

together. We need you to join a Connect

small group. Now.

I was blessed this morning by one of the Connect group leaders

sharing with me that they've had eight to 10 new people in just

the last couple of weeks show up for their cup.

And I appreciate that. If you're one of them, thank

you. And then as church members,

those of you who are church members, we need you to

volunteer to serve in ministry. That's part of it.

Because because right now, like in most churches, a certain

percentage of members do a much larger percentage of the work.

And we're going to be introducing to you specific

pathways of involvement with clear definitions and clear

destinations for discipleship and how you can grow and how you

can plug in. Because, listen, this church in

its history has experienced tremendous growth, but this

church has also experienced in her history tremendous division

and decline. And some of you have been

through all of that. And so right now, it's a

wonderful time. It's good church.

What I love about Inglewood, which to be honest with you,

it's been one of the greatest blessings of my entire career,

of my 4000 years being alive. One of the greatest things about

Inglewood is what a great foundation we already have.

This is a good church. And we're going to talk about

how to become a great a greater church.

Right now. Some would just say that that

that tremendous growth and then the occasional division and

decline is just normal. What you need to understand

something about me and I'm going to be kind of strong for a

minute. I'm sorry, but this is a

personal silk box of mine. Anyone who has ever served with

me knows that I despise normal. I won't settle for it.

I won't tolerate it. I hate normal.

In fact, I wrote a little book called A New Normal that I write

about it. So I always hear this phrase,

well, you don't need to reinvent the wheel.

You got to stop that. Please stop that because that

presumes a constant context that presumes the world around you is

not changing. And it's really dumb advice in

church life. So please don't say that to me

because we live in a rapidly changing culture with a rapidly

changing dynamic around us. And God is expecting more of us

and from us, each and every one of us.

He's expecting a new normal. So join me in creating the new

wheel for Inglewood for 2025 and beyond.

Because just doing the old ways, the old ways aren't going to cut

it. They won't.

I work with hundreds and hundreds of churches who believe

that and they're dying and they're declining, and we will

not be that way. So with growth, we're going to

have blessing. It's wonderful to see people

saved, people baptized, disciples made, people

volunteering, people joining discipleship groups, etcetera.

But with growth, problems can arise in the church because the

church is made-up of problematic, sinful human beings

just like us, just like me. And just like in the book of

Acts, people will say to me, you know, I have seminary children

who'll sit there say, I, you know, doctor, Doctor Ewart, you

know, I want my church to be like the church in Acts.

And I say, oh brother, it is, it is.

They all fight over money and food.

It is. So how did they deal with it?

Acts chapter 6. Look at verse 3.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

The story continues. Therefore, brothers, pick out

from among you 7 men of good repute, full of the spirit and

wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of

the Word. So this problem arises.

But we also see that an answer is proposed very simply not not

a complex outline at all. And answers proposed.

They proposed action based upon prioritized mission and vision.

I need to say that again, didn't say that very well.

You really need to hear that sentence.

They proposed action based upon prioritized mission and vision.

They select qualified men to administer this charitable work.

That's how they did that practically.

They laid down some important spiritual and practical

qualifications. These were qualities.

Don't miss this. These were qualities in this men

that the congregation have seen. They would have seen this in

them. They would have known this about

Stephen. They would have known this about

Philip, right? We saw that in them.

So, So these were men of good repute, full of the spirit, full

of wisdom. I mean, doesn't that make sense?

I mean, that's that those are great qualities.

Know the Lord well, know how to handle the work and the

resources of the Lord. Well, that just kind of makes

sense, doesn't it? So some see the model for

deacons here. The the title's really not given

like that and there probably wasn't a thought of official

offices at this point, but this becomes kind of a template for

what deacons became. So these were servants with

spiritual and practical know how.

And that that's a great prototype for a Deacon.

In fact, I love our deacons. I'm now going out every single

week with a Deacon and and we're going out and making visits in

homes every single week. So y'all look out because I'm

coming and lock your doors and bolt your windows because we're

coming at some point. These deacons are ministering

and loving people well. So this answer meant the

apostles could then live out. They're very unique because you

got to think about who these guys were.

Very unique, historical calling. It reminds me very much of what

Paul was referring to in Ephesians 4 when he wrote to

that church. And he said, and he gave the

apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and

teachers to equip the Saints for the work of ministry, for

building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity

of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to

mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of

Christ. So in other words, leadership is

pouring into membership so that ministry can happen together and

we work together in this. Everyone of you matters and your

role here matter. So with this in mind, we got to

ask what about us and how do we do this?

We see this problem, we see an answer.

Look at verse 5 and what they said, please, the whole

gathering. And they chose Stephen, a man

full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip and Prochorus

and Niconer and Timon and and Parmenus and Nicholas, a

proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the

apostles and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

So the third thing we see, there's there's a problem,

there's an answer. Now there's, there's a process

is approved. This process is approved.

Look at what the Bible says. This alone is a miracle.

This is a miracle of the Holy Spirit.

And what they said, please, the whole gathering.

I mean, wow, they couldn't be Baptist.

But anyway, it's amazing, I wish we could always say that

everyone was pleased, right, with the decisions that were

made. The Holy Spirit's bringing them

together, see, He's saving them. Satan's trying to split them up.

Holy Spirit in his unity because he indwelt them.

He's bringing them together in a unity of the Spirit and mind,

see. And so the apostles LED in

making a wise proposal and process to the congregation.

The congregation liked it. They were all pleased.

See, there's no dictators, there's leaders.

Big difference between the two. And so biblical common sense,

which by the way, is a superpower in the church and

frankly in life today, Biblical common sense is, is is is a word

that gets used here. You know, in the old movie, and

this is an old movie, some of you, you're way too young for

this, but you may have seen it because it was an Academy

award-winning movie too. But in the old movie Lawrence of

Arabia, which actually tells the story of a of World War 2

conflicts in the day of in kind of Asia Minor in in parts of

even Africa. But but Thomas Edward Lawrence,

who's an English Colonel who helps unite, organize an Arab

revolt against Turkey. Basically in the movie, he tells

his Arab counterpart this. He says if the desert tribes do

not unite as a nation, they were forever, they will be forever

destined to be a silly and inconsequential people.

And I, for one, we have no desire to be a silly and

inconsequential people in our culture today.

We must unite. Now more than ever, perhaps in

the entire history of Englewood Baptist Church, We've got to

unite and move forward together. There was a need.

The ministry and structures were assessed and they were adjusted.

And again, I pray this is sounding familiar to you with

what we got going on behind the scenes.

Something new, something different had to happen.

Now some it seems to be that perhaps these were Greek

speakers. The guys they appoint, they have

Greek names, but some of these Aramaic guys had Greek names too

and that mixed culture. But these Greek speakers would

have been able to communicate. Minister Best probably was going

to see Stephen later. In fact, next week the stories

about Stephen and what's what happens to Stephen is what's

going to push the church out of Jerusalem.

And so we see him. Philip becomes a major character

later. They later would be among the

first people to take the gospel out beyond Jerusalem.

Some of these people, including Philip to Samaria.

And so again, the Gospel knows no barriers.

The Holy Spirit's moving forward.

And Inglewood, you got to grasp it.

He's going to move forward one way or the other, with or

without us, and we need to join him.

So they're selected, they're installed.

You see the laying on of the hands, which is an Old Testament

gesture of passing on blessing and responsibility.

It's used throughout the book of Acts when commissioning is

taking place and so when especially for specific tasks.

So we got to ask ourselves, what are our tasks?

What's our process? Englewood?

Well, I've shown you in these phases, here's a process.

We and I need you to just hear, hear these things and some

prayer requests, very specific moments for you church members,

guests, hang in there with me, be excited for us and pray with

us. We have some additional

leadership meetings coming up very soon.

Lay teams and task forces are being empowered in new ways.

In fact, our Acts 18 missions, a task force is being empowered to

plan trips, to evaluate trips, to also evaluate mission budget.

We're meeting this Thursday night for a very significant

meeting. Your finance team is being

empowered to actually review and plan the budget.

We're going to have a whole new budget process this year.

Don't freak out. Those of you who are in charge

of the budgets, we're going to have a 0 balanced budget process

so we can have high level accountability, high level

assessment of our entire church budget.

So when we bring that to you as a congregation, I promise you it

will be worked through very thoroughly.

So that finance team is being empowered in a new way.

Your Deacon council serving as the personnel team.

I'll be meeting with them tomorrow night.

We're empowering them to have a complete accountability over me,

frankly, and others because that's necessary.

And so we're seeing some new things happen.

We're going to work this week to strategize about our missions

life. I need to share with you that

Pastor Charles, in conversations with me before I ever became

your pastor, he and I were talking, he was pulling kind of

quadruple duty with a lot of different responsibilities.

And he, he asked if he could focus in on pastoral care,

member care and prayer, which we desperately want to build.

And then also working with the deacons.

So we're actually taking the missions administrative part off

Pastor Charles. I'm taking that right now as a

missiologist with my background and Cassidy's working with me.

The Acts 118 is working with me. We've talked to our missionaries

about this already. They know how we feel supported.

We're going to have a huge emphasis in November for our

missions life, so get ready for that.

But here's the bottom line. There are two huge meetings I'm

asking you as a congregation to pray for on June 17th.

Your pastors are going to meet together all day long.

We have met with all the rest of the staff.

We've met with all the deacons. We met with 114 lay leaders of

the church to have them review some language about

discipleship. We're going to meet on the 17th

to take all that feedback, pray over it and put it integrated

into a plan, and then hopefully come out with a unified vision

for discipleship that we're going to share with you.

You need to pray for June 17th. Then on June 22nd, all of the

Connect group leaders and all the age graded ministry leaders

are going to have a meeting and I'm going to be sharing with

them some new ideas, some new things that we've developed over

the years to help small groups grow and become ministry teams

and to do more than more than study as well as our age graded

ministry. So it's going to be a very

strategic time. June 17th, June 22nd, Pray,

pray, pray. And we're praying that this will

create an even healthier church now and prepare us for the next

best chapter. And all I can say is you'll

believe it later. But it's time to get very

excited, Englewood. It's time to get very excited

about what the what, what the future is going to hold.

But hear me, especially those of you who've been here for years,

this is not just about trying to recapture something from the

past. We're not just trying to relive

some glory days of the golden age of this church's past.

Because in all honesty and with complete faith, I believe with

all of my heart that those glory days are about to come and that

we're going to see God work in a powerful way.

Our world and our community have changed and are changing.

The people we must reach have changed and are changing, and so

have we, frankly. So this is about moving forward

in a new normal, a new future, new ways, new definitions, new

directions, new destinations, walking together in obedience

that will bring glory to our God with the United people

fulfilling His mission. So we're seeking to create

understood value for church. Church is valuable.

And I understand that for church membership, for personal

transformation, for discipleship, to build a train

and turn off the bumper car rides.

It's time to work together heading in a known direction.

So a problem arose. An answer was proposed, a

process was approved. But here's the best part.

God's purpose advances. Look at verse 7 and it's a big

important word. And the Word of God continued to

increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in

Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to

the faith. See, with the problem addressed,

harmony is restored. The church could get back to her

biblical tasks. That's what happens when a

church isn't distracted, distracted from problems from

within. It can focus on needs outside

our walls. And so we must have such a

healthy internal life. We're going to build on the

incredible foundation of the past and the president of

Inglewood have such a healthy internal life.

The gospel will overflow into our community and discipleship

is going to grow. See, so the proclaimed word grew

as it was preached to this wider audience.

And look at this surprise group. The priests, people who were

dedicated to Judaism, are coming to know Christ.

There were as many as 8000 of them in Palestine at this time.

They would serve on rotating basis and and many of them were

quite poor, just trying to figure out a way to survive.

And so the church's love and the church's ministry built this

great bridge to them for the Gospel, and many of them were

saved and the number of disciples multiplied greatly.

Wait a minute, I don't think you heard that.

I need you to get this. And the word of God continued to

increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly.

And that's our prayer, isn't that our prayer, that we're

stronger disciples internally and we continue to see more

externally. See.

So the gospel moving forward, fulfilling Acts 18, reaching

their Jerusalem and here we are Inglewood.

Are we ready to work together in the power of the Holy Spirit to

build his future for this church in this community?

That's the question before us. So what new thing must happen?

Not, not not just from the program structure, but we're

working on that. We're going to evaluate.

We're assessing every single thing on the schedule.

We're assessing every single partnership.

We're single, we're assessing every single ministry.

Not let that worry you. That's a good thing.

That's not a bad thing. Some of them are great, but

we're going to look at every single thing.

But that's not the good. The question isn't this program.

The question is you on an individual level, see what new

thing must happen in your individual life because the

church health is dependent upon that.

What has to happen in your individual life to be completely

obedient to him? For some of you might be

salvation. Some of you need to be saved

today. You've never trusted in Jesus

Christ as your Lord and Savior. Well, I'm praying right now.

The Holy Spirit's just bombarding your heart, your

spirit, your mind. Maybe it's maybe it's church

membership. You've been visiting, you've

been, you've been in a tender, you've been a spectator, but you

haven't been a you haven't been a member.

You need to be a member so that there's accountability, there's

discipleship, but also to serve. We need you to join if you feel

led to do that. Maybe it's baptism, maybe it's

as a member. You need to serve in a new way.

So today is a day for renewed commitment.

Perhaps forgiveness, perhaps repentance are part of what need

to happen. See, but today the church, you

got to understand the church must first be revived in order

for spiritual awakening to happen out there.

See, the church has to be revived and then it's overflow.

It affects the lost world. And so it starts with us, starts

with us understanding who he is and his mission.

There's a kindergarten teacher and she, it was art time and

kindergarten class and she was watching her class draw and

she's kind of walking around table to table.

She got to 1 little girl and this one little, I mean this one

girl was just going after it with crayons.

I mean, just really diligent, you know, in there drawing hard.

And she says, what are you drawing?

And she goes, I'm drawing God. And the teacher says, but but no

one knows what God looks like. And without missing a beat,

without looking up, well, they will in a minute.

What image of God will our communities will our children

see from what we do in this moment in history?

What will the guests that are here today see you do?

Oh, they're watching you last Wednesday night.

And I don't want to embarrass anyone.

If you're here in the room, don't worry, I won't identify

you. But last Wednesday night,

someone shared with me the testimony that they were just

here for the Bible study Wednesday night.

And afterwards they were weeping.

And it wasn't because of my fantastically incredible Bible

study. Not even close.

It was because of the fellowship they saw among you, they saw

people standing and laughing and loving one another and

encouraging one another that people didn't even want to leave

the building. It's almost about like we got a

flash to the light to get you out of here.

And they were standing back and where they had been and what

they have been through, where they have been is just so

different. The love of Inglewood for one

another. See, the foundation's strong.

Now it's time to build. So they're going to learn from

watching you. And will they see this imperfect

yet honest people dealing with reality transparently in their

walk with God? Will they see leaders who are

serving and trying hard to discern the will and to serve in

the power of the Holy Spirit? Will they hear your testimonies

of grace, salvation, revival, service, love for one another?

What image are you drawing for them this morning?

Reminds me of Paul as he wrote to, I think one of his favorite

people groups, the church at Philippi, and he said this.

Not that I have already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but

I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus hasn't made

me his own brothers. I do not consider that I've made

it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting

what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I

press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God

in Christ Jesus. That those of us who are mature

think this way. And if anything you think

otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

Let's press on. Father, thank you so much.

Thank you so much for. For your word, kind of a weird,

difficult message this morning. Lord, I know, but father,

something that we just need to hear.

We need to be transparent. We need to be authentic with one

another. We need to be honest with one

another. And Lord, you know, I believe

and so blessed to be here with these people.

What a what a strong foundation you've built incredible Saints

who serve here. But Father, I'm convinced

burdened with what more you want.

And Inglewood is supposed to be leading what you want.

And so, Father, help us to submit, help us to commit.

That's what this morning is, a time of commitment, a time of

surrender. For some here, it's salvation.

Father, there are people likely here or listening online and

they don't know you, Father, they don't know who you are.

They don't believe anything I've said.

Kind of maybe they've rolled the eyes of their heart a little bit

this morning. But Father, right now, Lord, I

just pray that you're piercing that heart and that that mind

and that spirit with truth. They cannot deny that you're

real. They cannot deny that you love

them and that you want them to know you.

Father, for others here, some folks need to join officially.

Some folks need to be baptized. Some folks, like in the first

service, just need to come and fill this altar with prayer.

They need to pray for the church, for the future, for

their own lives, for for their neighbors, their family.

Father, when your church is revived, when your church is

committed, Lord, you can use us in a powerful way to change the

world. So, Father, I pray this is a

turning point for us, a historical point for us, and

that we'll surrender to you and your purpose that will join your

mission. So Father, as we sing, I pray

that people will come. They'll kneel at this, this

front, they'll pray, or they'll take a pastor by the hand and

say, this is what God is telling me now.

And Lord, I just pray that you'll have this moment freely.

We won't hold back. Thank you, Father, for the way

you work in Christ's name, Amen. Well, let's stand together.

Pastors are going to be here at the front.

You can talk to one of us, or you can just come and pray.

We have others who'd love to pray with you that you just

come. As the worship team leads us,

we're going to sing, we're going to worship, but then you come

and worship by surrendering your life to Him.

Thank you so much for listening today.

And I also hope that you'll go to

[email protected] as well as our app and find many

other resources that will bless you and your families.

Thank you once again.