I believe in the Holy catholic church

Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church

Henley and thanks so much for tuning into our

podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast,

you can have an encounter with Jesus that'll

change your life. And now get ready for an inspiring

message from our preaching team. Thank you, Tim.

Hey church, it's me again. Sands tears for now.

So during, I know this is a time we're not even

meant to say the word anymore, during COVID,

the Horners got caught exactly, we got caught

in one of those, what felt like a seemingly endless

loop. of uh what do they call like home i was

about to say home detention that's not the word

uh what do they call the isolation loops type

thing right so it was one of those ones where

like if you tested positive for covid and then

somebody else tested positive in your house for

covid like it all just ran like it started again

what an unbelievable time so the the five horners

got the they had the beauty of spending 19 days

together in isolation i mean She's right. You

can only play so much Mario Kart. I can tell

you, you think you want to play more, there's

a limit. So we spent 19 days. And of everything,

are we honest? We were mostly okay. We all got

COVID actually and then we kind of recovered

pretty quickly and it wasn't too bad for us,

you know, God bless. And having a bit of time

off from work, not all that bad. The kids are

missing a bit of time from school. They didn't

actually mind it that much. What we found ourselves

all really missing was Sunday, it was church.

We had not missed church services basically since

we'd come, you know, come to faith and started

going to church as a family a couple of years

prior to that. So on the afternoon of the second

Sunday in a row that we had missed, and I genuinely

think that might have been the first time we'd

missed two weeks in a row ever, on the afternoon

of the second Sunday, there was a knock on the

door. And that knock on the door was actually

Jenny, who's here with us today. and she was

there and she was off to drop off some dinner

for us and some snacks and it was really a really

lovely, you know, do the whole knock and then

you drop at the door and then you walk away and

then the person open. What a time, right? So

it was a really lovely gesture. But what was

an even more lovely gesture is it wasn't just

Jenny. We looked out through our kind of sliding

doors and Jenny was there and Mike was there

and Josh was there and Emma was there. and our

friend Tash was there and our friend Schmox was

there and we were kind of so overwhelmed because

again we haven't really seen anyone we're so

overwhelmed it took us a little while to realize

that Josh was there and Josh had his acoustic

guitar slung over his shoulder. And as Kara sat

at our open doorway and kind of held each other,

as we sang and as we prayed, we worshiped with

our church as that group of people who had come

to our house stood in our yard and worshiped

Jesus with us and brought church to our house.

Us in our house, them in our yard, separated

by like an imaginary boundary, I'd never felt

closer to any of those people than I did in that

moment. And the interesting thing is, like, I

cannot remember, sorry Jen, I cannot remember

what you cooked us for dinner. God bless Jen,

it's the thought that counts. I cannot remember

what you cooked us for dinner. I have no idea.

I have no idea what snacks were in those bags.

I do not remember the songs we sang. I do not

remember any of the words of the prayers that

we prayed. I will never, ever forget that day.

the people that showed up for us at our house,

the love that they showed us, the care that they

showed us, and the way that they made us feel

in that moment. At a time when we felt at our

most isolated and most vulnerable members of

our church, our family had sacrificed time, money,

energy, comfort, effort. These people had all

served that day at church already. To think of

that act to think to do that for us and not just

to think about and be like You know how to be

nice. They thought about it. They talked about

it and then they did it They came and it was

one of the greatest acts of encouragement and

greatest acts of love that I've ever actually

born witness to and been the recipient of And

it's kind of one of the reason I'll be honest

that those same people kind of have my love and

my respect of my loyalty like forever Because

you don't have a moment like that and get loved

on like that and then just kind of sweeping under

the rug And it's moments like that and acts like

that that I've seen since I've been a part of

this Church that make me really proud and excited

to speak today on one simple line from the Apostles'

Creed. And that line is, I believe in the Holy

Catholic Church. Just to clarify, in this context,

Little Sea Catholic Church. No smells, no bells

here, right? Little Sea Catholic Church, which

just means the combined body of all Christian

believers. And I want to unpack a little bit

for us why I and why we should hold that line

and hold that idea of believing in the Holy Catholic

Church and that body so importantly and so dearly.

Now, the Apostles' Creed, which we've been preaching

on through this series, is a statement of core

beliefs. It kind of acts as a reminder of some

of the key aspects of our faith that we all agree

upon. It acts as something that our faith is

built on, our church is built on, personal belief

system built on. But that's what it is, it's

a foundation. And foundations are the base and

you have to build upon them. You have to make

choices to build upon that foundation. Because

there is power when a group of individuals decide

together to build something. together. Then they

opt to sacrifice self and self -preference and

comfort for others when they sacrifice preference

for a greater goal and a higher purpose. Nicky

Gumbel tells us this, that church is not an organization

to join, it is a family where you belong, a home

where you are loved and a hospital where you

find healing. And it's with that in mind that

we return to today's teaching text. Now today's

text is taken from the book of Hebrews. It's

a letter written to a community of kind of under

threat Jewish Christians to remind them of their

shared beliefs of the superiority and sovereignty

of Jesus, to urge them to live out of that truth

and to compel them to uplift and support each

other. And again, before we proceed, I'm always

in danger, especially me, like I'm a doing person,

and we're about to kick a microphone stand, because

that's sometimes what we do. I'm a bit of a doing

person, so I just want to make this really clear

before I proceed any further. What I'm about

to talk about today, and I'm going to talk about

acts and doing a fair bit, I want to make it

really, really clear that this is not about your

faith, this is not about, sorry, it's not about

your salvation, okay? Your salvation was secured

for you by Jesus on a cross that cannot be taken

away, you did not earn it, you cannot loot, like

it is there, that exists. This is about acts

and deeds and things that we then choose to do

as a result of that act of sacrifice, as a result

of holding that faith so dearly and so closely

and holding that relationship with Jesus of such

value and importance that we can't help but be

changed and can't help but then want to act out

of that change. okay so please hear me when I

say this this is not like if you want to punch

your ticket into heaven then you should okay

ticket to heaven punch secure good to go all

right so like we can move on one of my favorite

quotes of all time with that I say that right

before this quote for a reason right one of my

favorite quotes of all time is from craig rochelle

and it's this a goal without a plan is a wish

We cannot, will not, and won't build the church

that we want or that God is calling us to be

by simply showing up and hoping for the best.

This passage from today's teaching text starts

with, Let us think of ways to motivate one another

to acts of love and good works. This verse is

a declaration of mutual betterment, intentionality,

and action. Let us think of ways. This affirms

intentionality. This affirms a plan of attack,

a plan of action. What I love about this though,

in this context, is it also affirms ability.

There are some parts of the Bible that we will

read. And we really does kind of recognise that

we all serve different functions, we might all

have different gifts, we might all have different

spiritual gifts, different areas that we learn.

In Romans 12, 4 to 6, for example, Paul tells

us, for just as each of us has one body with

many members, and these members do not all have

the same function, so in Christ we through...

Though many form one body and each member belongs

to all the others, we have different gifts according

to the grace given to each of us. If your gift

is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with

your faith. But the baseline and fuel, regardless

of function or gift, remains the exact same.

We are part of one body. We belong to each other.

We are under Jesus' sovereignty. We are fueled

by the Holy Spirit. These acts of love and good

works use that as their foundation and we are

to then act in accordance and compliance with

that faith and with that fact. This verse makes

it really clear that we are all to think of these

acts of good faith and love and good deed, which

means we are all capable of these acts. It is

through that lens that we are to act out these

acts of love and good works. Now I just want

to, we're gonna do what we love a little sneaky

detour here. If you've been around church for

more than 12 seconds and you've heard us talk

about the concept of love, then you'll know that

we talk about four different kinds of love in

the Bible. You know what? You guys can repeat

these with me. This will be fun. The first is

eros, which is romantic love. Everybody say eros.

There we go. Second is, and Mike always puts

a nice rolling R on this, so I'm going to do

it the my way. Storge. Everybody say storge.

That's familial love. There is philia, which

is friendship love. Philia. And there's the last

one which is, who knows it? It's something behind

me, it's given, right? Agape. Agape is selfless

love, right? Agape love is considered the highest

form of love. It is agape love that is used in

the original text for this passage. So when we're

talking about acts of love, we're talking about

acts of agape love, the highest form of love

that the Bible has to offer us. Selfless, unconditional,

sacrificial. Active it's the kind of love that

focuses entirely on others without expectation

of anything in return In this context friends,

and I think overall love is a verb Love requires

action It will always lead to an action Which

is exactly why verse 24 goes hand -in -hand with

verse 25 as we unpack the passage today and let

us not neglect our meeting together as some people

do, but encourage one another especially now

that the day of His return is drawing near. Agape

love requires other people in order to live it

out. You cannot have sacrificial love without

somebody or something to sacrifice for. You need

someone or multiple someones with whom to direct

agape love at Love cannot true love agape sacrificial

love for other people cannot be lived out in

isolation From the very, very beginning, God

makes it abundantly clear that the intention

was for us to never be isolated people. We're

going to go back to Genesis for a second, Genesis

2, 18. Then the Lord God said, it is not good

for the man to be alone. I will make a helper

who is just right for him. Now we know here this

is, again, this is the story of the creation

of Adam and then the creation of Eve. God had

created Adam. Now, I think it's really important

we note here, up until that point, up until this

very expression that comes out of Genesis 2,

everything that God had created, He had declared

either good or very good. Everything. Until now,

until this very moment, even after creating man

in His own image, He recognizes the incomplete

vision of His own creation. And He takes immediate

action. and proceeds to make Eve, affirming that

without companionship, without community, without

somebody else for him to be in community with,

that his vision will never be complete. That

we will always remain incomplete if we're left

in isolation. Now some of us, despite the fact

that God declares that it is not good for us

to be alone through fear or maybe what it could

require of us or the sacrifices that will be

made or maybe we're carrying personal hurt or

family hurt or previous church hurt, we have

been trying to live out an isolated life. But

being annoyed is the price we pay for connection

and community. We're paying for convenience with

disconnection. We traded the messiness of community

for the ease of solitude and we have lost something

vital along the way. I love this quote. I love

it because she's not wrong. But we are living

in a world currently that the World Health Organization

is referring to as a loneliness epidemic. It

is clear that for too many of us we are living

lives of isolation and disconnection and my fear

is that so many of us have done so because we

believe it is the easier way or we have become

fearful of what it might look like to live in

a community, to live in a way that we will have

to sacrifice, to spend time with people that

just kind of annoy us a little bit. Welcome to

church. God does not want that for us and neither

should we want that for us But to avoid that

isolation and to build that kind of community

that will require And it will require sacrifice

work and sacrifice I ask you a sacrificing personal

preference and comfort for an agape based community

going to be hard sometimes I'll give you the

answer. Yep Is it going to be inconvenient? Yup.

Is it going to suck a little bit sometimes? Yup,

I was waiting for somebody to be like, yup. It's

going to cost you time. It's going to cost you

comfort. It's going to cost you money. It's going

to cost you preference. That is what it will

cost to build an agape love community. But again,

I ask you, do you think that that sacrifice might

be worth it? A sacrifice that allows you to unify

with others, a sacrifice that allows you to uplift

and encourage people, to be uplifted and encouraged

by people, to live out an agape life lifestyle,

to help form a community formed in Jesus' own

image in which all are included, all are welcome,

and love is at the centre. Because I think so,

and if I'll be honest with you, if you're in

this room right now, then I think you do too.

So that always leads to the question of like

well, then how do we form that kind of community?

It's really easy to talk about text, but you

said before plan, goal, wish, right? So I'm going

to start with the real basics of how you form

a community. An agape love community. The first

is attend. You can't build a community if you're

not in community. Physically impossible. Show

up. Prioritise it. The Barna Group in the States

is a highly respected research organisation that

studies the intersection between culture and

faith. That's kind of what they do. Does anybody

know what the Barna Group these days considers

a regular church attendee? Shout it out. How

often? How many times? How many weeks? One in...

One in four. The Barna Group now considers one

in four weeks a regular church attendee. God,

I promise you I'm not throwing any judgment.

I'm not looking at anybody in any way, right?

You're all here. I love you. I love you. I love

you. Right? If you go to your local coffee shop

with more regularity than you go to your church,

where are you building your community? Where

is your community forming around you? It is likely

if you are at your regular coffee shop more often

than you are at your church, then every time

you come to church you are going to feel isolated,

you are going to feel on the outer, you are going

to feel like you do not have a place there. I

don't want that for you. So the first step is

to attend, prioritize it. It's good for you,

I promise. The second way that you help to build

an Agape Love Focus community is to engage. Okay.

You're here anyway. If you show up, if you are

the kind of person who is now like, I am going

to show up every week. God bless you. One in

four again. Barna Group, God bless you. We're

not doing that. One in four, no. Right? If you're

here anyway, if you have made the choice to get

in your car and drive here and attend, engage.

Worship, pray, sing, talk, dance, listen, respond.

I know it will not feel natural at first. Everybody's

like the introvert, the extrovert's yelling at

me again, right? I know that it will not feel

natural at first. I'm empathetic towards that.

I am not asking you to fake it. What I am asking

you to do is to engage with it. I am asking you

to change your posture, to learn a new pattern

of behavior. don't roll in at three past three

and roll out during the benediction and then

when people say how was church and you go fine

how are you finding the community i'm not really

finding a home there you reckon like show up

have coffee talk to someone you don't know talk

to someone who your first impression of wasn't

maybe the strongest because we all have a bad

day hang out be a part of this community. That

is how you will learn to sacrifice for other

people once you get to know other people. Thank

you, I hear that. I am begging you, I am imploring

you to, literally, here's what I want you to

do, show up, have coffee, stay for 10 minutes

after service. If you're relatively new here,

or you're someone who's tendency is to leave,

I tell you what, Tim mentioned it before, we're

having community dinner afterwards, $5 a head

for pizza. If you're new here and you've not

yet fully engaged, or you're still not sure if

this is the community for you, work it out tonight.

If you can't afford pizza, come tap me on the

shoulder, I'm buying. Like, honestly, I don't

care. Like, we'll make whatever sacrifices need

to be made. Just hang out. Kara's like, how many

people are we paying? I'm like, don't worry about

it, we'll work it out later. Church is not a

box to tick. It's a community to experience and

a family to join. The last step in how you help

to form an agape love community is to act. I

said this was going to be a sermon when I asked

you to do things. I can't begin to tell you how

hard it is to not make every sermon from me about

asking you to do things, all right? So you just

have to roll with me on this one and my last

one, right? I need you to stop. waiting for the

perfect moment in order to live out sacrificial

love. If you are waiting until there is more

money in your bank account to buy ex -person

coffee or dinner, good luck, man. I've never

had enough money in my bank account to do that,

ever. There's always one more. You can always

pay one more bill. You can always do one more

thing. Same advice I give to people who think

about having kids, by the way. Once we have done

blank, we'll definitely have enough money. No,

you won't. Promise. There's just never enough

money man. Like I don't care. I don't care. There's

never enough. That is not me telling everybody

to go rush off have kids I'm just saying if you're

thinking about it. Anyway, we'll move on right

there is no perfect moment They don't exist.

There is no perfect amount of money in the bank

account It doesn't exist your house will never

be clean enough The fridge will never be stocked

enough. The bank account will never have enough

money in it The I don't know the car will never

be clean enough pick somebody up in your dirty

car Invite them around to your house. My house

is always full of clothes horses in winter, man.

Come around and hang out. My house will be full

of clothes horses. Invite them around to your

house. You're like, I don't have anything in

my house with which to do this and da da da da.

Change your intentionality. Change your posture.

Change your mindset. We live in a life where

so many people feel isolated, lost, and alone.

If you have a kettle, you have an isolation breaker.

If you have a kettle, you have a community maker.

That's all you need. I'll buy you the box. Stop

giving people. No, right? I will buy you a box

of tea and I will buy you a $9 kettle from Kmart

if you need one, genuinely. And it's 12 now,

dang, that inflation, right? I will buy you a

$12 kettle from Kmart and a box of tea, I'm not

joking, again, come tap me on the shoulder this

last sermon might cost me some cash, but I gotta

put my money where my mouth is, literally. If

you have a kettle and a box of tea, you have

an isolation breaker. If you have a kettle and

a box of tea, you have a community builder. Do

not allow yourself to fall into the trap of if,

then. If this happens, then I can start to build

a community. No, no, no, man. If you're here,

you're already building that community. All you're

choosing is how deep into it you are. You are

here anyway. Right? Engage and act. The more

you share your daily life, the more you get to

know people, the more support you will show for

each other, these acts of love and encouragement

that you had to work hard for in the beginning

start to become natural. It's like any new habit,

any new behavior. The more you do it, the less

you think about it and the more you do it. And

I gotta tell you, something that Cara and I hear

all the time, I've stopped tracking my watch,

sorry Tim, that I hear from people all the time.

Cara and I hear this all the time. Man, you guys

are so lucky. You guys are so lucky. We see,

like, you guys don't have to look for babysitters

ever. You guys don't have to look for dog sitters

ever. You guys, like, we went away to Melbourne.

No, where do we go? The Gold Coast. Jordan and

Katie came and watched our kids and lived at

our house. Like, and people are like, you're

so lucky. And I always say to people, like, we

are, let me be really clear, we are so blessed

and we are so lucky. Then I say to the people,

yeah, these are all people from my church and

this is kind of the point. This is the point

of a church community is you do life together.

I don't just want to see you here on a Sunday

I don't just want to see you when it's a special

occasion or this that and the other it is about

forming a community that cares enough to Sacrifice

what they want for the other people in it And

a community that forms with a kingdom focus will

always stand out to the world around it You guys,

the way you love each other, the way you love

me and my family, people see it and they yearn

for it. They are desperate for it. Your job is

simply to invite people into it. We are God's

Church, full of God's children, doing our best

to reflect the love that He has already shown

for us. Let's be real clear. You can hear this

and be like, Tex yelled a lot and I did. And

you can leave here today and choose to do none

of it. You can make that choice. You can choose

to see statements on the wall, posters up of

who we are and what we believe, or you can read

the Apostle's Creed and go, that all sounds awesome,

and take absolutely no action with which to reinforce

it or have it come to fruition. You can take

the comfortable route. I'm going to rename the

comfortable route if you want. We say comfort,

what we mean is bare minimum. If you're on the

comfortable route, you're on the bare minimum

route. The bare minimum route is an option that

is available to each and every one of us at all

times in every situation. And I'm willing to

wager that some of you in this room who are probably

recognizing, I'll go back to the kind of version,

that you're on the comfortable route right now.

Do you want a comfortable faith? Do you want

a bare minimum faith? Do you want a bare minimum

church? Do you think we serve a bare minimum

comfortable God? I don't. You don't. We do not

serve a bare minimum God. We serve a God who

saw a suffering world broken by sin and the bare

minimum was never an option for Him. He could

have chosen the bare minimum. He could have chosen

to love us from afar. But he didn't. He could

have chosen to not show up in person. He could

have chosen to let us continue on the path that

we had been forging for ourselves, comfortable

in our own pain and our own isolation. And he

could have chosen a bare minimum response. And

Benji can come back up, please. But he didn't.

God chose the active path of love. God chose

the active path of agape love that led all the

way to salvation and eternal life for you and

me. God chose to send his son Jesus, the ultimate

and eternal example of agape love, who through

his earthly ministry chose us again and again

and again, through wonder, through miracle, through

healing, through salvation, and yes, eventually,

through sacrifice. with the greatest act of selfless,

unconditional, sacrificial, and active love that

has ever existed in all of human history. A selfish,

selfless act of love that through its very nature

offers us an invitation to sacrifice our personal

desires to totally and fully commit to Him even

now and to invite others to do the same. So as

we come to a close, as we come to a time of worship

and prayer and response, I really want to challenge

you today and I want to ask you, what do you

need to sacrifice? What personal comfort do you

need to sacrifice in order to follow that example?

That's what this is, guys. We don't come to church

to hear... a message and go that made me feel

good or bad or challenged and then leave. It's

meant to change us, not me. Jesus is meant to

change you. Jesus is meant to change your heart.

He's meant to change your posture. He's meant

to change your mind. He's meant to change your

actions. That is what we are pursuing as disciples

under Jesus. We are not called to comfort. We

are not called to an insular faith in which we

grow and thrive whilst the world around us turns

to dust. We're called to great acts of love.

We're called to sacrifice. We are called to a

life that's fueled by and continues to point

back to the gospel and the saving grace of Jesus.

Please hear me. I know I'm talking a lot of doing

by all means and I'm begging you. This is like

a yes and thing, right? By all means pursue strong

theology. Read the books. Close your door and

pray. Do the inner work. But don't let that fire

stay with just you. You need to let it burn in

a way that the world can see. My final prayer

for you, encounter Henley, before I sign off

on my final word as one of your pastors, is I

want you to yearn to be a church that is known

for how well you love. I want you to motivate

each other to acts of great works and to great

love. And I don't want you to be passive about

it. I want you to fight for it. Love is worth

fighting for. The community around you is worth

fighting for. The people on Henley Beach right

now having their ice cream are worth fighting

for. The people in your workplaces are worth

fighting for. And let me be really clear, the

people in this room are worth fighting for with

acts of love. So as we finish and as we start

to pray, I'm gonna be up the front, Jen, some

of our past, some of our leaders, if you're the

kind of person who likes to pray for people,

come pray, man. And I want you to pray against

the prioritization of comfort. Maybe for some

of you, you need to pray against the prioritization

of isolation or self. We need to pray to become

a person of bold, selfless. and sacrificial love.