Fresh House: I Love My Church… Again // Fresh Fruit (Part 3) // Charles Metcalf

Welcome to Transformation Church Podcast, where we represent God to the lost and found

for transformation in Christ. We're so glad you're here and wherever you're listening from,

we believe God will transform your life. Do today's message. We've been

in a series called fresh Fruit. Somebody say fresh Fruit, and I'm excited

to share today a word that's on my heart. But man, I want

to let you know this is such a special season of our church and I'm

so grateful for our church. I'm grateful for our lead pastors, Pastors Michael

and Natalie talk. Can you give it up for our lead pastors? They

are so special And I'm excited because this is the first week I get to

preach as the campus pastor here, which is a crazy exciting thing. Me

and my wife get to serve as as the campus pastor's here that are Tulsa

Campus. And I have people in the lobby that was like, what does

that mean? Will you? What does that? What does that actually mean?

First of all, calm down, okay, take it then breath.

What that means is that Pastor Michael has such a heart, such a care

for this place that he has done just like in scripture where Jethrow came to

Moses and he said, listen, if you try to sit here and talk

to these people, this is what the Bible says. It's not good for

you or for all the people. And Pastor Michael would be in that lobby

until twenty twenty eight, praying for every single person, talking to every single

But what he did, he said, you know what, I got to

raise up leaders and a team that can do that. And so that's what

me and my wife are here to do. We are here to be an

extension of our lead pastors to bring their vision to pass. And I'm very

excited for this season. We're gonna jump into the word. Okay, so

I need you to open up your bibles. If you got your bibles,

if you have a real Bible, you get more points than the person who

had to charge their bible. It's in Leviticus. You just never read that

part. So if you gotta beat go read all of Leviticus and then come

back to me. I mean, like, what is a Leviticus? Uh?

Okay, I'm gonna read you a portion of scripture and then we're gonna

take off. Okay, this is Matthew sixteen, starting in verse thirteen,

and it's actually the song we just sang. It's like we planned this thing

anyways. Matthew sixteen thirteen says this. When Jesus came to the region in

Philippi, he asked the disciples, who do people say the son of Man

is well? They replied, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah,

others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. Then he asked them

this, but who do you say? I am Simon. Peter answered,

you are the Messiah, the son of the Living God. Jesus replied,

you are blessed Simon's son of John, because my father in Heaven has revealed

this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. Now

I say to you you are Peter, which means rock. And upon this

rock I come on, not social media, not YouTube, not your attendance.

Upon I somebody say, I, I will build my church and the

powers one translation says Gates the powers of Hell will not conquer ends. I

could jump off this stage right now with how excited I am. I'm gonna

pray real quick, God build your church. Amen. All right, I'm

about to tell you the whole sermon in one sentence, and then I'm just

gonna preach the crap out of it, and then I will come back.

And if you're mad that I said crap, you're about to be real mad.

Okay, throw it up on the screen. My whole sermon. Please,

if you got that, the long sentence that I text you, guys,

if you could throw that up there, this is the whole sermon right

here. The church, somebody say the church. Say it again, look

at your neighbor and say the church. All right. The Church, its

people, and its place was dreamed, designed and destined to be the primary

vehicle through which God radically redeems and restores humanity. I believe this more than

I believe this jacket is green. I am telling you the Church, the

people, and the place was dreamed, designed and destined by God. This

wasn't a man's idea. Nobody sat up in the corner and cooked this thing

up. This was not imagined by a couple of gods. This was dreamed,

designed and destined by God to be the primary, very vehicle through which

God restores, redeems, and transforms the entire world. And I came to

remind some of us and to reignite something on the inside of you to remind

you of the power of this thing we call the church. Friend. I

know, for some of us it has just become a box to check.

I know for some of us we've had experiences. I know. For there's

a lot of different ideas and concepts and views and YouTube channels about the church.

I get it. But let me remind you and restores you today very

clearly what the church is. The church, its people and its place was

dreamed by God. You need to know this thing we're sitting in and the

people group we are this was God's dream. You know how you have dreams,

things that your heart is full of, things that you're so excited about,

the things that overtake your sleep, and that you constantly find yourself going

to sleep thinking about and waking up thinking about. Can I tell you what

that is? For our Savior, It's the church. And here's the thing.

So many of us, for real reasons, have slowly lost this beautiful

fire and passion and desire to understand that this thing we call the church might

be the greatest gift ever given to humanity. I heard one person say it

this way. They said, the church at its worst is still the best

thing to ever happen to the world. Now here's the thing. I want

to be very aware, very sensitive, and very acknowledging of all of our

different experiences. But I want to separate something just because you had an experience

with an individual with one place. Please do not. And I'm not begging

you for no other reason but for you. I just don't want you to

miss out on the beauty of this thing. I just don't want you to

miss out on the power of this thing. I don't want you to miss

out on God's greatest dream. It's the church. There's no place like the

church. Friend. There's a lot of good things. There's a lot of

nonprofits that help people. There's a lot of nonprofits that show up in a

time of need. There's a lot of nonprofits that serve people in this life.

But can I tell you there is something unique about the church. It

serves people in this life and the one to come. There's nobody. There's

no place like the church. There's no place where it doesn't matter how much

money you have in the bank and you're still welcome. There's no other place

where it doesn't matter what you smoke or drank before you came in, and

you're still welcome. If you've had issues with the church, let me tell

you what type of church we are. This is the church where no matter

what you're going through, no matter how hurting or broken you are, this

is the church. It's God's dream thing that he loves. It's the thing

that he cares about, and it's the thing that he said I will build

it. I'm gonna build my church. And here's the thing the you neque

think about. The church is so beautiful because I wrote this down. I

want you to write this down. The church may be broken, but it's

still God's bride. I want to acknowledge something for you. You don't know

why it's broken because we're sitting up in here. Let me mean the issue

is not with the system, it's with the people in the system. So

let me separate something for you. You can go to an amazing restaurant where

the chef is doing his thing and then you have some jankie server come out

what you want, what you need or something. They don't even look at

you. They act like they too bougie to do the job they applied for.

It's like I'll be feeling that all the time, like, if you

don't want to work here, quit Like I didn't ask you to do this.

You mad at me. You need to go to counseling, like I'm

sorry your life didn't work out. I don't know. Sorry, I'd be

going down a whole path. But please do not mistake the attitude of the

waiter for the intention of the owner of the restaurant. It's not even their

fault. It wasn't their dream. They didn't sit there thinking about the power

it would be. They didn't sit there dreaming of how people of different races

would come in. They didn't sit there thinking about how it would radically change

the environment that it was around. Please do not mistake your experience with the

waiter for the intention of the owner of the restaurant. He has plans for

you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. That is the

church, and I'm afraid some of us have forgot that this is his bride.

If you were to come up to me after this service in the lobby,

he said, man, Charles, you preay so good. That was

really good. And he was dressed like an avocado. Man, that was

so cool. But you know Abby, I just I don't really I don't

really mess with Abby. I mess with you, but I just you know,

Abby's just kind of weird. You wouldn't get weird out of your it

would be weaker you would. I would pass to Charles, stole off on

somebody in the lobby. Some of y'all don't know what's stole law on.

Y'all don't even know what that means. That's one that's a punch from back

here. It's a specific type of punch where you ring it back and buy

him. Y'all you should if you ever get in a fight, though,

this is my moment to stole off. You got a wine, Okay,

I will go stand up. I have to keep myself in. You couldn't

say, well, I mess with you, but I don't really want to

mess with her because the two have become one. It's it's my bride.

Now totally understand if you had experience that maybe was like I don't know,

but but there's something intrinsically connected to the heart of God and his church.

Now here's the thing. When I start talking church, I know there's a

lot of different thoughts in here. So I'm gonna try to bring these together

so we can all work from the same premise to move forward together. When

I say church, I wrote this in the thesis statement. It's the people

and the place, the people and the place. The word church in scripture,

it's a word ecclesiam. Okay, is the word. I'm gonna teach

you a little bit. We're gonna go teaching right now. Come on,

spiritual Formation. We about to do it right here. Welcome to the first

Formation class. Take out your notes, write this down, impress your friend

in your tribe. Hey, O, somebody, come on tribes. What's

a tribe? Oh? Just wait on us. Eclicia mentioned in Scripture one

hundred and fourteen times. In a New Testament, it's only mentioned twice in

Jesus's lifetime twice in Luke. The first mention of this word is the one

we just read in Matthew sixteen. Here's what would have happened when Jesus said

this word. He said, Peter, you have this revelation, you have

this understanding, and now I want you to know I will build my Eclicia.

And the disciples would have been like, yo, what this was not

a word they were familiar with. They would have looked at each other like,

Echlo, what do you say, Ekla? Who? Hey? You

know Echlicia? You see her around? What's her name? Echlas? Eclas?

Oh? Okay. And what Jesus was doing is he was introducing an

entirely new concept. This was not a bite off of some other religion.

This was not some idea said you ain't never seen nothing like this before.

And when he's saying the word at Parcia, what this word means is ones

who are called out from the world and called to God. It's the called

out once And this messed me up. I was talking to my friend and

he said, this, the concept of church that we understand as a building

was not in any believer's mind for hundreds of years when they said church,

nobody thought of a building. Nobody thought of a place. They thought of

the people. And this is super important for you to understand because if not,

you come here, and you come here and then you leave it here

because you think church is something you go to, not something you are.

I'm trying to teach you this morning. Church is not something you go to,

it's something you are. John Mark Coomber, in his book Practicing the

Way he says, we have confused so much the word disciple because we treat

it like it's a verb and not a noun. Let me explain it to

you. It would be like some people use this language. I just need

someone to disciple me. Disciple is not something that happens to you. It's

something that you are. Let me make it plain. It'd be like if

you said I need you to christian me. What No, no, no,

no, it's who you are the church. I don't church you.

This isn't where why I church at you? No, no, no,

we are all in here as the church, becoming the church, growing as

the church to walk out and be the church. You know where church is,

It can be in your cubicle at ten twenty two on a Tuesday morning.

You can start having church. And wherever the church is, there's hope.

Wherever the church is, there's light. Wherever the church is, healing

can happen. Wherever the church is, the good news of Jesus is preached.

Wherever the church is. Things change. Wherever the church is, stuff

starts to act different. Wherever the church is, there are things that break

open doors that nobody else could have opened up. Wherever the church is is

where our God is. You need to know this. The church, it's

first the people and then a place. First the people group. We are

the church. It is first the people group, and then it's the place

we come to. And here's the beautiful thing in the forming of the early

church and access where this word explodes seventy two times onto the scene is where

we see church start happening. And there's a beautiful thing that happens. And

I'm trying not to nerd out on this stuff, but again we information class.

I'm gonna give it to you. There's a beautiful thing that happens.

And there's one theologian who writes that believers must understand the dual aspect of the

church. It is first. It first has spiritual implications. The spiritual nature

of the church is that when you are saved, you become a part of

the church. Go read it in your bibles. Jesus is the head of

the Church, and we are all parts of His body. We are different

members with different functions, so we have different gifts, we have different abilities.

Some of y'all are just naturally the most welcoming and hosting people. Ever,

some of y'all are not that, but you have amazing other gifts that

we need. We are all different parts of the same body. So there's

a spiritual implication that happens when you give your life to Jesus. You become

a part of the global church. That's important for you to realize, friend,

because this is not about us in our corner sitting behind Chick fil A.

There's a church all around the world that is raging against the gates of

hell, and we are better together than we could ever be apart. Please

do not get it twisted. This is not a ploy to get you to

come to Transformation Church. This is trying to get all of us to become

the church. There's spiritual implications, but it is so important that we understand

after we become that the reason it's set up as a physical place is because

it is the only way that you are actually formed to produce fruit. The

reason we come in here, the reason it's so important that you're a part

of the place of church is because it's hard to produce kindness staring in a

mirror by yourself. It's hard to produce patience when you isolate yourself. Here's

the beautiful thing about Jesus again, we're walking through what the church is.

Jesus did take times where he was by himself and prayed, but he always

came back. He always came back from his times all throughout scripture. You'll

say, Jesus he went to be alone to pray, and then he returned

to his disciples. Here is the thing. We do not run to prayer.

We do not run to church. We do not run to times by

ourselves with God to run away from people. We go. Therefore, the

sake of the people. Your prayer time is not an escape mechanism from your

other Christian friends. It is a place to go to say God, I

need patience, God, I need peace, God help me forgive them,

and then I go back to that person and I'm with them. The church,

it is first the people, and then it is a place. And

here's the beautiful thing. What I have realized about the church is against all

odds, beliefs and questions, the church is a worthy endeavor. I know

it's not perfect, I get it. But the church it's God's dream.

And I know we all got questions, and I know we're all real busy,

But friends, I tell you, there is far greater things about this

church. There are far greater things about his church then there are bad experiences.

For every one random story you've heard about some person, some person at

a church, some pastor something. Can I tell you there's millions of things

you haven't heard. There's millions of faithful pastors who's been serving for fifty years

and they're gonna keep serving until they die. There's millions of volunteers who had

a beautiful experience. It became exactly who they were created to be in the

four walls of a church. Please do not anybody sell you any thing difference.

Yes, there are people, but let me tell you, the history

of the church will be on our side. We are still a place of

hope. We are still a place that redeems. We are still a place

that takes care of people. Can't be honest with you, and this is

just this is just raw, because here's where I get messed up. You

know, we just announced we're doing Ransom again. And boy, when I

tell you, I could punch a hole through that television. I'm so excited

for Ransom. Last year, people took Ransom out of context started running with

it. You know what they didn't take out of context that eight million dollars

we gave away over the last couple of years. Ain't no news stories,

ain't no reporter searching around, like, why did you guys buy out a

shoe store and go give it to all the kids who don't have any shoes

and don't have any fans. Why are you taking care of widows and orphans?

Why have you guys bought multiple houses for single mothers and given it to

them. Why do you give millions of your dollars away every single year?

We can't no, no, no, no, don't get it twisted.

This is the church. And whether they write about it or not, whether

they say anything, we will keep being the church. We will keep blessing

families, we will keep serving, we will keep giving. This is the

church we're a part of. And this is the church we will be no

matter who sees it, no matter what they say, no matter who comes

or who goes, we are the church and we will not back up.

And here's the thing I've realized about church. Depending on your experience, there

are some churches that have asked way too much. They try to get up

here and appreciate you that this should be your life. If you're not in

church, every week. Come on, man, what do you gonna go

to Hell? Don't expect me. You don't expect your kids a little God

if you don't prove it to them by never missing church, and you somehow

leave him more ashamed. My God gotta go to church ducking in because you

late. Come on somebody else, like dang, I was y'all do worship

at the ten am? I ain't. Never did y'all stop doing worship at

the ten? I love you, I'm so glad you're here. Well,

some churches ask way too much and that's just weird. And I'll say the

other end of the spectrum, some don't ask for enough, and that's weak.

There is something in you. Here's the way I'll it straight through scripture.

I like to say it this way. There are some things that don't

come out of you until something is placed on you. So like being a

father didn't come out of me until the responsibility of my children was placed on

me. There are some gifts, some things that God has put on the

inside of you that I want to tell you you will not get from halfway

participation every six weeks. It's just not gonna happen that way. There are

some things that are weird. Some of that is weak. But here at

TC, we have this beautifully imperfect mix that I truly believe is a worthy

endeavor. And here's the thing about the church. Believe the church is a

worthy endeavor. And there is a way to keep it fresh. I'm gonna

give you three things and we gonna be out of here, and you can

go get you some French toast. Somebody said avocado. That was a little

disrespectful. I'm not gonna fire back because that would be flesh. Three ways

I could fire back, though, so just whoever's over there, just I'm

gonna keep it. Oh gosh, Okay, let's get back to the spiritual

matters at hand. Three ways to keep the church fresh. Number one,

write this down. You gotta keep passion alive. Gotta keep passion alive.

Now here's the cheek code about this sermon. I'm gonna go ahead and tell

it to you. This is you could put how to keep blank fresh.

You can put anything in there. You can put your marriage, you could

put your breath. I don't know, maybe I don't know about your breath,

but anything in your life that you are trying. We're in this seret

fresh fruit, not new. Fresh. Church ain't new. I'm not here

preaching to you like a new concept of church. Church has been here,

It has been here long before me, it'll be here way after me.

But there is a way to keep your engagement, your relationship, your participation

as Remember we're setting it separating two things. You are the people. But

how do I keep my engagement in this place fresh? The first thing you

gotta do is you got keep the passion alive. Here's here's two little notes

on how to do that. The first thing is presence. You gotta you

gotta be there. It's your presence that keeps it fresh. And here's let

me tell you something that maybe you've never heard. The most encouraging and uplifting

thing about my sundays is seeing your face. It is, I'm serious,

your presence. It's not what you do. It's not you like well,

if I'm want to serve team and if I'm doing this, no, no,

no, it's simply your presence. Now, there is a difference between

presence and attendance. Just I want to be you. You can be a

but not be present. And if you want to keep this thing fresh,

you gotta bring your presence. How was at breakfast the other day with my

grandfather and I was telling him and he's just navigating a hard time right now.

His wife of over fifty years just passed away, and it's just it

was such a beautiful conversation. But he was talking to me. He's like,

Charles, I just don't know, and you know, it's just hard

navigating this. And what I told him, I said, he was like,

I just feels so He's so sweet. He was like, I just

feel so sad to be around. I wanted to cry. I was like,

Poppy, that's not true at all. And here's what I said to

him. I said, pos, you have no idea how grateful I am

to be able to text my grandfather. It's your presence. It's just the

fact that I had somebody I could go to breakfast and sit across from a

grandfather and say what's going on? It was his presence that was the ministry.

Can I tell you you showing up and just being here with a smile

on your face, giving somebody a hug, looking for your seat, walking

around saying it's just your presence that keeps things fresh. And I'm asking you

if you want to be a part and you say, you know what,

I want this thing to stay fresh. It's gonna take your presence. If

you're gonna keep the passion alive. If you want to keep a marriage alive,

you gotta be present. If you want to keep the relationship with your

children alive, you can just be around or in attendance of their basketball game.

You gotta be present. The other thing, if you want to keep

the passion alive. Another note under that one, and it's kind of a

secret weapon. It's people. It's people. If you want to keep your

passion alive. For the church, the craziest thing you could do is bring

some people with you when you I don't know if you've ever had this experience.

I have had this experience as one of the pastors of the church.

I'd be inviting people to come to church, and then like two seconds before

they get here, I panic because I'm like, hopefully they don't meet anybody

weird, and hopefully we're singing the hits today. Oh come on, we

got hits. Come on, then we got some new ones. We're trying.

Let's be honest, somebody, I'll be like, okay, this is

nice man, Okay, what do we doing? Okay? Like, but

there's something that happens in my heart when I'm bringing somebody. When the relational

equity I have has been put on the line. You know what it does?

It has you prepare differently. Some of y'all I never thought about sermon

or being aware of anything. You bring a friend, you will be in

the bathroom wiping up all that water off the counters that everybody hold on before

they walk in here. Let me check how y'all doing? TC kids,

y'all need anything? Were good? We got okay? Parking lot. Anybody

angry over here? If you had a bad day, get the heck out

the parking lot. My friend's coming. I don't need I don't need no

attitude. You didn't want to be out here, sign up for a different

team, but our friend is coming today. It's the truth. People bring

a different passion out of you, and if you want chush to stay fresh,

invite some people. Okay, you gotta keep passion alive, is the

first one, bar Rember. I thought I didn't. Okay, you gotta

keep your perspective healthy, Keep your perspective healthy. Now this one messed me

up because I believe one of the most beautiful and underrated things the church has

to offer is perspective. Here's the thing about perspective. You're getting perspective from

somewhere. You woke up this morning and you got a perspective of the world

from multiple different places. You got it from a friend you talk to,

You got it from social media, you got it from your past experiences.

You have farmed entire perspectives. And one of the most beautiful things that the

church has to offer is a healthy perspective. Go with me. You're at

work and you go up to your coworker, you're at the water cooler talking

and you're man, marriage is pretty tough right now, and your friend's like,

your marriage is tough. The old lady won't get off my back.

And you're like, oh, yeah, I guess you know. It's not

that bad though. Oh well, it's not that great, though, is

it ain't been great since eighty six? Brother? If you know what I'm

saying. As a matter of fact, I was talking to Sheila the other

day and have you seen Sheila? Who Sheila? Hey, Hey, I'm

not saying nothing, but if anything goes down now. That was one conversation

day after day and eventually you have formed a perspective of the person you prayed

to spend forever with. Yeah, that now it's not that big of a

deal. Wow scenario be show up to your tribe. That's our small grims

by the way, you're like, man, marriage, ain't that good?

First response? Not all that different because we're all human. Man, I

feel you what's going on? Well, ten years ago we had this thing

happen in our marriage, and ever since then she hasn't really trusted me,

and so now I feel like I'm trying to be better, but she's always

kind of on me. And I get it though, because she's hurt,

but also I'm trying to become a different man, the person you're a tribe.

The couple goes, oh, have you heard our testimony? Let me

tell you a story. Fifteen years ago, my spouse was in a completely

different lifestyle. I had no idea, and then God would deemed it and

brought us together. And we've been in counseling and now we actually the whole

reason we have this tribe is to talk to people like you and tell you

that it's actually okay. And here's what you can do. If you start

doing this and start doing and just commit to coming back to the tribe,

and have you come to Wednesday night. We do prayer on Wednesday. Come

to prayer on Wednesday night. Then you're gonna go to the Relationship Goes class

and get in there and make sure you mean have you met There's this girl

named Sheila, and Sheila, you know, Shela's in there and her husband

Derek. They're amazing couple. Sheila is beautiful and everybody be trying to hollow

shit, but they've been married for fifty two years and they just been rocking.

And two different perspectives. And I have to tell you, if you

want to keep church fresh, most beautiful thing this church has to offer you

is a perspective. But I got I gotta tell you. To get the

perspective, you're gonna you're gonna have to get involved because there's only so much

perspective I can give you in this little segment we got up here. I'm

trying to give you all the perspective. But I may not have been through

what you've been through, and I may may not have the testimony that you

need to hear today. Wow, But when you get in, when you

get on a serve team when you start coming just early just to hang out

in the lobby. We put couches out there, not just to make it

look cool so that you would hang out, to maybe get some perspective.

Okay, you gotta keep the passion alive, perspective healthy. The last one

is keep your possession powerful. Okay, now here's what I mean that.

First of all, I ain't talking about no devil possession. Demons don't get

none of my time out of the churches who talk. I don't know why

people, Oh, are you worried about the depth nine? Worry about the

devil? Devil's don't get none of my time. They've done and were chilling

on that. So I'm not talking about that. Go to Youtube're gonna look

at some weird video. I'm talking about Where's where the football? Apt?

But Kyle, come here real quick. I'm gonna y'all give it up from

a kaya. Now. You stand right there because if I get too close,

I'm gonna look short. So you stay. Uh. Every time I

meet somebody like you're a looked shorter in person like well, Stolo, let's

scire. Okay, when I'm talking possession talking, how do you hold it?

How do you take ownership of it? How? How how do you

embrace your church? How you want to know how it stays? First,

you have to keep your possession powerful. And here's the thing we're gonna switch.

I'm gonna do what you was gonna do. Okay. So here's what

many of us do. This is how we hold church. Wait, hold

on't stop, don't take my happiness, dope, okay you you oh chase

us? Get behind me, Satan. That's how I got angels on my

side. Don't you dare touch the God's annoyting? Okay. But when your

possession is weak, it's very easy for you to fall off the mat for

eight weeks because your possession was then there are sometimes you're gonna we got a

nice little like okay, okay, well then he's strong boy. Okay,

I'm not gonna fall I appreciate that then, okay, okay, okay.

But see this is how this is how I'm gonna hold a church. Come

on, boy, what you're gonna boy? Get off me? Boy,

get off right? You can't tell tree, Oh what's your running? This

wasn't part of the illustration. That's what I thought. Give it up for

Makaiah. We didn't talk about the running Makiyah. I don't know what that

was. Man. No, somebody said, ain't you been cycling? No,

I fell off the wagon. Ah, that wouldn't have happened if I

had been cycling. I'm actually out of breath. I'm gonna sit out.

How how do you hold the church? Pastor Michael said it last week?

The goal is not this that you observed the vision, It's that you own

the vision. Now I get it that this is not in a way that

this is your life and this is all you do and this is the only

thing. No, no, no, no, we we We've all got

lives. You got a job, you got kids to raise, you have

bills to pay, friendship's dreams. But what I'm submitting to you is that

maybe, just maybe God dreamed up one of the most beautiful and radical ways

for you to become the best version of yourself. What if God built this

whole thing where we come together and we get encouraged and equipped and inspired to

live in a way that we never thought was possible. And you go back

out and to your workplace, and your ownership is so strong that you realize,

Man, I got so encouraged on Sunday, and then I was in

the lobby talking to somebody and I met somebody new and they actually just moved

here from Florida, and I remember I moved three years ago to be here,

and I was so inspired by their faith and it just reminded me that,

man, God really has taken care of me since I moved here,

and gosh, He's so good. And then you're sitting at work on Monday

and your friends like, I don't know what I'm gonna do, and I

just feel like I've been in this situation and you know, I actually I

do this thing. Every Friday. We throw this party at my house.

That's my secret word. That's how I'm gonna get all my friends to come

to my tribe. I'm gonna be like, I throw this party and it's

the dopest party you've ever been to, and everybody's super cool and everybody's I'm

super chill, and they're so cool. You don't have to be drunk to

have fun. Actually, it's like way And I'm like, sh I don't

know about that. Come see for yourself. I'm just I'm completely sold out

to this thing. I just trust me. If This was not my plan,

like the church. I thought I was gonna do something else and like,

but this is it's the church for me. It's God's dream, it's

all of us being in here. Now here's the thing. I have to

take an excerpt because there's a beautiful thing that God has done in allowing this

ministry to expand all over the world, and there are people who are watching

from all of the world. I want you to know you are a part

of this church. You you are a vital, important and valuable part of

this church, logging on and having friends over to your house, and and

the way you you're keeping passionate alive by sharing this and sharing the sermons and

and giving a tithing tcig nation. You are an epic part of this church.

And here's what I realized. I was talking to my dad, and

it's funny. I just it's like this passion for the church church was transplanted

in me. Like I didn't even I didn't even wanna have it. But

me and my dad were talking yesterday and he said, you know what,

Charles, It's always been the church for me, because the church has always

been there for me. And I'm just thinking, there's nowhere else I could

have gone. There's this beautiful portion of scripture, and I'm about to close

right now. We're gonna be out of here about eleven thirty five. We're

gonna get out of here. It says this Jesus is talking, and he's

talking to the disciples, and Jesus says, are you gonna leave too?

And the disciples say one of the most beautiful things. He replies, he

said, who else will we go to? And I'm telling you, I

wanted to go a lot of other places. I wanted to go out and

do my thing, but I didn't have nobody else to go to. It

was the church. It was getting in this room and when we worshiped together.

There's nothing like it. Even if it's not your style, even if

it's not your flavor. There's nothing like a group of imperfect people singing to

a perfect God. There's nothing like this church. There's nothing like being in

a place where you can come in and say, you know what, I

don't have all the answers, I still got some questions, but there's nothing

like the church. I heard this story, and I'll close with this.

I heard this story this guy was telling. He said he had two dogs,

and when they were really young, they would sit on the back porch,

and they had all this land, and they would look out onto the

land. They would both be sitting there looking for a squirrel, and the

second they would see him, a movement in the trees, or one run

out, they would both take off sprinted. They would chase these squirrels with

all their heart. He said. But as time went on, Daisy her

eyesight got bad, and said she stopped being able to see the squirrels.

But what Daisy learned is instead of looking out into the trees for the squirrels,

she turned and she looked at the other dog, and she couldn't see

it for herself. But when she saw something happen with him, when the

hair on his neck stood up, when he started to twitch, when his

ears sat up, she realized, I don't know what it is, but

I can take off running. Can I tell you that is the church at

its greatest. Is you walking in not being able to see where God's taking

you? Is you walking in not knowing what He's doing in your life?

And sometimes you don't have the energy to look for yourself because you feel like

you've lost sight. But can I tell you, the reason it's important to

have your presence is because sometimes you're not looking up this way, You're looking

at your neighbor. He'll think, you man. If they can still worship,

they clearly feel something. There must be something going on in their life.

I'm telling you, friend, the church, what's the dream of God?

It still be the primary vehicle through which He restores and redeems humanity standing

all over this room. Yeah, mass year of stay still just for a

few moments. If you don't have to leave, i'm'na get you out of

here. Eleven thirty five. I'm telling you, I know you really wanna

pancake. I get it. So they stop serving it too. I know

it's okay. Here's the thing I wanna talk to two groups of people.

A first group of people, actually I'm gonna wanna separate it into three.

First group of people is maybe church just doesn't feel fresh anymore. You're here,

but it just doesn't have that same energy like it used to. The

scripture says it this way, return to me the joy of my salvation.

Some of us, maybe you've just lost that fresh fire, You lost that

feeling like you have a place to fit here's the assumption in a church this

size, Oh, they got it all figured out. They must not need

me. Can I tell you nothing could be further from the truth. But

if you're in here and you say you know what, I just I want

that spark back. I've lost something. I've lost the even desire to be

present. I've lost my desire to want to even bring my friends. I

used to maybe be excited about that, or honestly, I've got some weird

perspectives and I don't even know what to do, or maybe my ownership of

this thing hasn't even been that strong. But today I want to I want

that back. I want I need some kind of spark. I need something.

If you're in this room and that's you, you say you know what

I want I want, I'm just gonna ask you to do something. I

just want you to raise your hand right now. If you say you know

what, I just think it's kind of I need help with this thing being

fresh. Here's the thing I want to pray over you, Jesus, I

thank you for every hand lifted. I pray supernaturally there will be a fire

ignored and ignited in the hearts of your people for them to come alive,

for their passion to be awakened, for their perspective to be alignment with You,

Lord God, and for their ownership, their possession to be something that's

beautiful. So you can put your hands down. There's a second group of

people in here, and everybody can look at me for a second. There's

a second group of people in here, and I'm gonna do something that I

don't know if we've done in a while. I'm gonna ask you to help

me. Me and my wife. We are more gassed than ever before to

see this Tosa campus reach our community. But the truth is we can't do

it by ourself. We need people who say, you know what, I'm

down. I'm down to reach this city. I'm down to represent to every

single person. I'm down to show love to every neighbor. I'm down to

serve. I'm down to show up early to help set up something. I'm

down to come up in the offices during the week and call people who it

was their first time and tell them how much we love them. I'm down

to I just I wanna be a part of building this thing. This isn't

for everybody, so don't feel no pressure of like, but there are some

of you in here you feel like, no, I I wanna help build

this thing. I wanna help do I'm here like I'm not going nowhere,

and I am here to build this church. Well, an't I ask you

to do? Is directly after service? Like ten or fifteen minutes after services?

Over? What time is it now? It's eleven thirty four? Who

I gotta speed up to keep my word? Okay, Right across here in

the south ball room, me Abby and our campus staff Pastor Amberley or Tribes

Pastor, we're gonna be in there and we gonna have our first made up

campus core team meeting. Y'all didn't know we was launching a church in Tulsa,

Oklahoma. And if you say, you know what, I'm down.

I want help. I want to be a part. I don't know what

that means. I don't know how much time I got and I don't even

need to figure out all those details, but I want to help build this

church. I'm gonna ask you after service, get you listen. Here's what

we've had TC kids prepared. They gonna keep you kids. Some of y'all

go come just for extra ten minutes without your kids but I want you to

meet us fifteen minutes after services over. So let's let's go with eleven fifty

eleven fifty five. We're gonna get started right across here in the south barroom.

Now, some of y'all, this ain't new. Some of y'all been

volunteering service. Y'all been holding this vision down since GCC, so this ain't

nuh give it up for all the people who bend down. But if you

want to make a fresh commitment to help us build this campus, I would

love to see you in that room. Every head bout every id close,

we're gonna get out of here. If you're in this room and you haven't

accepted Jesus as your Lord and savior, it's the greatest decision you could ever

make, the greatest thing that changed my life, and it's the biggest fresh

start that I have ever seen happen in my life and through the life of

so many people I love. If you want to accept Jesus into your life,

here is the good news. He loves you right where you are.

He is proud of you, and he wants nothing more than a relationship with

you. You do not have to earn it, but you simply receive it.

If you are in this room and you want to take the step to

give Jesus Christ your life, I'm gonna count the three, and I want

you to lift your hands. When you lift your hand is an outward expression

of an inward decision of what's happening in your heart. If you want to

accept Jesus as your lord and savior, I'm going to count the three.

One he loves you. Two. He is so proud of you. Three

all around the room. Lift your hand if you want to accept Jesus.

I see you right here. I see your brother, so proud of you

up there. I got both of y'all over here, amazing. I see

you right there, amazing, so proud of you, so proud of you.

I see y'all, so proud of you. Everybody out loud, which

y'all repeat this prayer with me? Everybody say, Dear Heavenly Father, thank

you for loving me. Dear Jesus, I admit I've made mistakes. I

pray you a save me, change me, transform me. I'm yours in

Jesus name, I prayer. Amen. Hey, can you celebrate people who

just made the decision? Oh, come on, let's celebrate people who just

made the choice. Thank you for joining us today. If you said that

prayer and accept it Jesus into your heart, it's the best decision you could

ever make. We want to celebrate with you, and we have some tools

to help you on your journey. Tech saved to a two A two A

two and to find out more about TC text connect to a two A two

A two. Be sure to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends.

Thanks for listening. Now go out and live a transform life.