The Purpose of the Church

Today we're going to give some vision for who we are as a

church. And so the specific kind of view

of this is the purpose of church.

What is the purpose of what we're doing right now?

And before I get to some of the ways we'll answer that through

the Word and through just our local convictions as well, I

just want to give you a little bit of a heart behind this.

A couple weeks ago, I spoke to our church about just the

cultural moment that we're living in.

If you've tuned into the news at all, or if you've just had

conversations around the workplace or at home, you know

that there's something happening in our country right now.

And. Really, in our world where

people's hearts are being stirred.

For what they believe. They're trying to figure out,

you know, where they fit in, in a world of confusion and, and

some people really, you know, having some heartbreak.

They're they're working through with the recent news and a lot

of different ways and. Because of that.

More people are starting to come to church.

I have met many people over the last month who are like, I'm

going to get right with God and you're going to see me Sunday.

Or I've met people who are like, I am here for the first time in

a long time because I need some answers for what I believe in.

And so it's a great first step is to come to church.

And in response to some of you, if you're feeling that way, I'd

love to just give some vision behind.

Church. But I don't only wanna speak to

those of you who maybe are from afar, I wanna speak to our whole

church family too. This is just good for us to, to

have in our hearts and our minds from time to time, just a

reminder of what we do and why we do it.

So that's one of the reasons that we've got the, the upper

balcony, the, the cheap seats are filled up today with the

youth want you guys to know that we are a church with a specific

purpose and why we do what we do.

And so just to give you kind of a, a picture of every once in a

while you want to call a family meeting.

You know, I don't know how you guys run your households of

faith, but I would recommend from time to time just to

implement some vision and some some understanding for your kids

as you give them directions and rules.

It's good to say, you know what? Tonight everybody gather around.

We're going to family meeting. I just did one of those last

week. Maybe it's why it's on my mind.

I had to do a family meeting in regards to birthday parties.

We get my wife help me do the math, and I think that between

our four kids, we get invited to around 20 birthday parties a

year. So we're always once a month

we're doing something, once or twice a month we're doing

something in the birthday party realm.

And I'm like. We got to have a.

Plan for these kids to try to offer a gift from the abundance

of their life. So we, we've called a family

meeting and I gave them the, you know, the, the way for them to

make money and have a budget and get a gift and write a card and

just the heart behind it. And then they asked questions

and we had vision and they were excited to start working towards

the goal of buying birthday presents.

And I'm like, you know what? Family meetings are so good.

So that's my pro tip to you. If you want my birthday present

plan as parents with multiple kids, you're welcome to talk to

me after the service. I'd love to.

Give it to you. Free of charge, I think I have a

good one, but it'll always be edited.

But we also need to do that as part of this family.

It's like, why do we do what we do and, and how are we going to

go about doing it? So today we're going to talk

about the purpose of the church and really the heart of our

church. And so to do that, let me just

start with a simple reality. This is true of your family,

your life, and our church the the mission.

Makes the vision so you know your when we talk about vision,

we're talking about, you know, trying to figure out where we're

going and how to get there. And that all comes from the

mission. And so let me just share with

you, in case you've never heard it, the mission of our church

that has been around for as long as I can remember.

We've we've done all sorts of ways to get it out.

We've said it. Put it on bulletins has been on

our website, but I want you to know the simple mission of our

church. It's right here, our mission as

a. Church is to.

We know Jesus and make him known.

So that is the simplicity behind why we do.

The purpose of our church could be answered in the goal of all

the operations and all the invites and all the gatherings

and all the thereafters. We want to know who Jesus is and

we want to make him known in our world.

And I'll just say this from time to time through.

Today I'll I'll speak. To some of you who may be.

Coming into the church for the first time, and I'll remind all

of you, this is just a great mission not only for your

church, but for your life. If you want to know, you know

how to filter through the purpose and direction for your

life and what to do with the person of Jesus and your

knowledge of Jesus, here's what it is.

Just live your life everyday, try to know him more and then do

something to step out in faith as you follow him to make him

known to the world around you that God has placed you in.

And so that's our mission now the the, the way that we can get

a, a vision for that, maybe a picture for it.

Jesus was always teaching in parables.

There's my favorite picture of what the church does to to

complete that mission is in Matthew chapter 5, verse 14.

Matthew 5:14

So if you have a Bible, keep it handy.

You know, we have a It's a great.

First week to come to church if you're visiting us, except for

one thing. Usually we just go verse by

verse through the Bible. We pick one passage of scripture

or 1 chapter and go through it all.

Today we're doing more of a topical, so keep your Bibles

handy. I'm going to start

foundationally to answer the the purpose of the church in the

heart of our church. Matthew chapter 5 verse 14 says

Matthew 5:14

this. You are the light of the world.

This is Jesus. He's gathered all his disciples

together and he says, then you're the light of the world, a

city that is set. On a hill cannot.

Be hidden. I love the picture of how we

gather together to be the lights of the world to know Jesus and

to make him known with the parable of a city, because

whether you like it or not, everyone searching for a place

to belong and, and cities and societies, communities have been

around since the beginning of time.

And Jesus says now think of the concept of people getting

together and they're gathering and a city has a product.

A city has a a little mission within the mission.

A city has a community. And I'm going to make my city,

and that's the church, and the city's going to shine on a hill

for others to see the glory of God coming out of it and for

people in that city to show the world what it looks like to.

Live in the city as citizenship. Of heaven so that's kind of a

picture for Jesus describing the church.

We're like a little city within our city we're in the city of

Boise all over this little city, there's these little hilltop

cities that that say this is one that gives God the glory and

teaches people what his citizens live like.

And so that's the purpose of our church.

And, and I bring that up because we will now take the parable of

A. City as a church.

And I just want to break it down into three main ways that we, we

have to, you know, focus on accomplishing this.

And this will be 3 really good ways for you to kind of take a

fly over of our church if you're new, and for all of us to just

get kind of a, a, a refreshment in the foundation of what makes

a church a church. So the three main ways you got

to have really good core leaders.

So core leadership, you have to have corporate worship where we

come together and we, we, we reestablish what it is we're all

aiming to give glory to. And then there needs to be some

sort of community. And I'm calling this community

discipleship. So core leadership, corporate

worship and community discipleship, These are the

three fundamentals of the city on a hill for it to succeed.

And these are things you'd need in any successful city.

You want to know that the the reason that there's a good city

and a city that's run down with graffiti and trash and crime

leadership. You want to know a city that's

doing well and what happened. There's good leaders that are

doing something to advance the good causes of the city.

And that's where we'll start throughout our year in the

Pastoral Epistles. Timothy and Titus one of the

major themes for a trustworthy, healthy, good churches.

You got to have good leaders and during the cultural moment a

couple weeks ago when when I was welcoming anyone who was

visiting a church, you know, I made an assessment of our

country and our cultural moment that is very similar to an

assessment Jesus made of his day.

It says as Jesus was going around from town to town, he saw

the. Problem and identified it as

this. Matthew Chapter 9 verse 36 when

Matthew 9:36

he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them

because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no

shepherd. Jesus was moved for compassion

and he said, you know what people need as they're feeling

scattered and wearied, they need a shepherd now.

He's the chief shepherd that we. All aim to please but as we

studied later in our. Our passage in Titus, the goal

is to have strong leaders be under shepherds to Jesus.

Look what it says in Titus. For this reason, I left you in

Crete that you should set in order the things that are

lacking and appoint elders in every city as I command you.

We live in a time where people are desperate for someone to

give them guidance to answer the questions of life to, to be

someone they can follow and influence by.

And the church is the city on the hill to offer the guidance

on behalf of Christ for people who are longing for direction.

And Paul says to Titus, So whenever it's out of order, when

you got to put things in order, when you got to shine the light

more brightly, make sure you have strong leadership.

Appoint elders synonymous for. Pastors, bishops, overseers of

the church, so that they can put the church in order.

So the goal of casting vision for this church is to present a

desire and a need for grace. Because none of us will do this

perfectly. No church has perfect.

Leadership. But the goal.

Is to say one of our aims as a church, one of our fundamentals

as a church is to have strong godly people in place to serve

and shepherd the needs of our church.

And so again, we've spent pretty much the year of 2025 studying

the pastoral epistles. And if without having, you know,

time to give a whole sermons on just the characteristics of what

makes a good leader, I'll just summarize our lessons.

In this, we want to have people who are qualified by the

character qualities of Scripture.

There are 15 qualities that a godly leader needs to adhere.

By to be blameless in the categories that it has to do

with his godly character representing the virtue and

character that God wants people to be led by.

And we also want leaders who are not just from the stage leaders

or from the pulpit leaders, but leaders who are judged by the

health of their own households. So people whose?

Primary ministry is not the the pulpit or the guitars or the

Bible studies, but their children.

And their their wives and the health of the the foundation of

their life, which is their homes.

We also want people of good reputation, people that could

leave. Leading our church and walk into

any store or any neighborhood or any, you know, team that they're

a part of and people would know that they are quality and.

Reputable people. And then we also want leaders

that hold to sound doctrine. So we want to, we want to be

people who are committed to do what the word says, to not be

swayed by culture or the opinions of people, but to take

an honest dissection of the word and try our best to lead

according to what it says. And so it it's.

My, my joy and also I, I lead with hopeful optimism that God

has graced our church. And one of the reasons I think

we've gone through the storms of just the trials of church life

is because He's graced us with people who have a heart to lead.

Well, a couple weeks ago, I'll share a story about the

excitement of just our leadership.

A couple weeks ago, there was a couple who'd been tuning into

our live stream from Tampa, FL and they, they reached out to me

and said, hey, we are, we have such a love for this church from

afar that we're thinking about selling our house and putting in

a transfer for our job so that we can move to Boise to join

your church. And I thought, wow, how blessed

are we? We only had to drive 20 minutes

to get here. They had to take a whole flight

to get here and a connecting flight.

And so I was like, welcome visit.

And so they did, they visited, they visited our church not long

ago. And they, they, they found

someone to show them some houses and they were dead serious about

moving and they came to our church.

And one of my favorite parts that I got to do is their tour

guide. You know, I got to show them our

sanctuary. They were like, wow, it's.

Like we like we see it online. Like, yeah, it's like it.

And you know, they got to sit in the sanctuary and and worship

with us and they were so pleased.

But my favorite part was taking them to on tour of all of the

amazing leaders of our church. I got to introduce them to

pastors and I had the elders pray for them to get direction

on the decision. And I got to introduce them to

all of the people at the welcome center.

And we had that night, they went to our our Calvary community's

kick off and they were thinking about joining a Calvary

community and they live in Tampa.

So that's a pretty that's a pretty impressive example.

But now I get to do that for you guys.

I'm like, you know what? That was so fun.

If there's anyone here who doesn't know who we are as the

core leaders that are called to serve in our leadership, I want

to just give you kind of a fly over of our leaders.

And, and once again, I'll just point this at the youth.

Someday you guys will graduate youth group and I hope that

you'll be welcomed into our church and this kind of a

preview. Of the the the leadership team

that will be. Welcoming people into into the

big the gathering. So first, of course, we have our

pastoral team. So these are men who have

endured just serving our church, qualified by the qualifications

of Titus and Timothy. And honestly, as I look at this

list, these are some of I, I, I, I don't have real brothers, but

when the Bible says that, you know, anyone who follows Jesus,

that they, they receive more in this life.

Brothers, sister, these, these guys are like my brothers in

life. I've served alongside of these

guys for the better part of 10 years as the, the lead of this

team. And, and I just love each one of

these guys so much. And, and I didn't put their

exact roles. These are just their names.

I hope you can put a face to the name, but each one of them has a

flock within the flock that they shepherd.

And if they are, if you're being shepherded by these guys, then

you know they're just men who want to serve you and love you.

And if you don't know them, I'll also say apart from just the

flock they're shepherding in kind of the under shepherd way,

they're also just available to our church as general servants

for pastoral needs. So any one of these guys would

would respond to a request. For a house.

Visit to anoint the sick with oil and lay hands on people who

who need prayer. Any one of these guys would do a

funeral for anyone who has a need in our church family or

weddings. We're we're always happy to pray

for people who come into the church.

All of them are qualified to cheat to to teach and share the

word and to to offer any kind of spiritual counsel that any of

you may need. And so just know that.

They're here. To serve in their specific

flock, but they're all in love with our church in just the

general pastoral way. So apart from these guys, we

also have a few people going through kind of the, the hands

on experience of pastoring and what what I'll call pastor in

training. These are guys that I think it's

just healthy to always be looking for that next

generation. I think that's in it.

Maybe I have a conviction for that because that's how a lot of

those pastors on the screen got there, including myself, the the

founding pastor of this church. Bob was always just looking for

guys that he could pour into and disciple and give them

opportunities to step into pastoral roles.

So we're doing our best to do that.

I'd like to do that more, but we do.

Have some pastors in training and then we also have as a way

to try our best to lead beyond the limitations.

We also have a team now of bi vocational pastors.

I've been blessed by the example of men who are are serving in a

vocation to provide for their family in in in the.

World, but also. Just willing to take on a

specific area of ministry within our church.

And so these men are are allowing us to expand our our

pastoral offering and they will they they have found specific

ministries to do that in. So very quickly, Frank

Kaprimnikar and his wife Kathy have taken on the, the, the

family ministry of our church. So something like parenting

commissioning, they have organized that and the teams of

people that do it, all of the family classes, all of the

premarital discipleship, all of the things we do to think

through how we're caring for people beyond marriage.

That's all Frank and Kathy. He does that apart from being a

pilot for Delta. So amazing brother of the, of

the church. Then we have Chris Smith, who

has been in the ministry with me since I can remember.

I started at the District coffee house in the year 2011 and a

couple years later a guy got out of prison and started to help me

stack chairs and, and put them out on Sunday mornings.

And he has just never left my side.

And so now he is, he has a vocation as a plumber, but he

also helps with all of our the outreach to kind of his old

life. So he goes into the prisons and

he helps with the homeless and he's here on Thursdays to preach

to those who are struggling with addiction.

And he, he does Thursdays in part with Marcus W, who is, who

is maybe the future of things to come.

He's just somebody who, who has been serving at our church

faithfully and he's serving in a Calvary community.

He's helping Chris on Thursdays, helps with the hospitality team.

And, and he he stepped out in faith to do a wedding.

And I said, I think maybe we can get more people like you who has

a vocation. He's a family trust planner, but

he also will be willing to do all of the pastoral duties that

he can as well. And then we have John Whitaker

and you guys know John Whitaker from the times that he's taught.

A couple weeks ago, he he taught in our kickoff to the the Titus

series. And, and this is a a cool role

that he plays in our church. And so just so you know, every

Wednesday I get together with the what we call the teaching

team. And these are guys that are

going to be teaching similar passages of scripture at our

church. So guys that are going to be

walking with Titus that can come.

And we all just kind of think through and talk through the

best way to share and John Whitaker overseas that group.

So I, I, I look to him to offer any kind of guidance and help

that that he can to me as your guys preacher and to the other

guys that we want to raise up to offer more men who will preach

the gospel in in the day that we live in.

And so John Whitaker had many years of experience doing that

at Calvary or at the Boise Bible College.

And now he does it for us and just to keep them on our

forefront. We also have partner pastors.

These are guys that you'll recognize if you've been around

our church for more than a couple years as guys that were

once on staff as our pastoral team.

And a few years ago, the Lord opened up a door for us to be

stepping out in faith to take part in revitalization of

churches in our valley. So after COVID, there's just

this sad reality that smaller churches were really struggling

to survive. And so we were able to partner

with two of them, Trinity Boise and Cole now Living Stones, by

sending pastors into those churches that would revitalize

the effort. And we sent some people from our

own church. To those churches so that that

could. Happen and I would love to have

more opportunities to help the smaller churches in our valley

as well. And I'd love to see more guys go

from the pastoral team into the partner team.

And so we have partner churches. So if you're new to our church,

just know that there are two churches that we try also to do

kind of bigger mission ministry opportunities with.

So this this year in the park, we baptized with two other

churches. This summer we're planning a

mission trip where the other churches would all be able to go

and visit some of our missionaries together.

So that's the partner pastors and we covered this next

category as we went through First Timothy.

But I want to talk about it again because so far I've talked

about our core leaders and you've seen a bunch of men on

the screen. And I want to encourage you that

there are some amazing, godly gifted women who are part of the

core leadership and direction and vision of our church, but

they're just not in the role of elder.

And for this, I just want to read to you something that we

have put together as of this year called our leader Training

manual. So Connor and the other pastors

and I went through Connor's leader training manual and we we

brought it up to date for 2025, everything that a leader of a

community group would need to know.

And I really like what we tried to explain for our answer on

role of women in the ministry. It says this.

Through our unique design, we have been given unique roles.

Scripture delineates between the roles of women and men in

marriage, home, and church. Women are crucial in their role

in the marriage and family, and they're just as crucial in the

church. Marriage and family don't exist

without women, just as the church cannot exist without

women fully functioning in their roles in the church.

So Scripture teaches us that women lead in the church in a

variety of ways, but God has reserved their roles of elders

and pastors for men. So the the overseeing preach,

give direction to the church, the complementarian set aside

for a man, and then all sorts of ways that women lead with

direction and overseeing things like woman's ministry and

serving with the kids and doing Bible studies.

We have an amazing. Part of our core leadership team

that are women, so I'll just share their faces on the screen.

Some of these women are behind our unfiltered conference that I

just announced. Carrie leads our hospitality

team every week, so I'd love for you guys to all.

Know her more. Stephanie Smith is Chris's wife

and she goes to, she overseas a lot of those outreach ministries

as well. And then Corinne is our

accountant and I don't know where we'd be without her.

So amazing women. We have women leaving leading

our school and preschool as well.

And we have a women leading our mission in send Hope as well.

So thank you for the women who are serving and leading and

caring and, and by God's grace, we are a church that I hope in

both of our roles we complement each other well.

So the final thing I'll say about strong leadership, which

is important and it's a question that I've heard some of you ask

which. Is a good question.

What about elders? So we've got pastors and

partners and by vocational guys and women.

Leadership. As I said, pastor, elder,

Bishop. It is a synonymous term in the

Bible, but for us we delineate the word pastor and elder.

By the the the work that they're commissioned to do so pastors,

as said have a specific boots on the ground ministry that they

are committing their mostly the guys are committing their life

to vocation to elders are called to an overseeing role.

So they are a little bit more life experience.

They they give final direction, final word on things we do with

money and direction. And so these are our elders,

Monty Aldfric, Tom Velasco, myself and John Meyer.

So we, we look to those guys for accountability, for the wisdom

that I know I need to try to serve and lead this church well.

And so there's also. As you as you saw on on the

screen, there's in addition to those guys.

I have two elder candidates that we are praying through that you

may know their names are Brad Westam and Dave Johnson.

So many of you know who they are and we have invited them into

our elders meetings and invited them into times with the pastors

and we went on retreat and they came.

And the, the hope is that as they just learn to operate as

the elder team that we would see in them the qualities and the,

and the heart posture of godly men who will be qualified to

join our, our team. And by God's grace, it has been

an amazing journey that they've been on with us.

So we're very close to presenting them to you and so

that we can pray for them to have God's grace to be part of

our, our leadership team. So very quickly, I'll just say

this another question. How do you get, how do I find

these men? How do?

How do we get the? To go from coming to church to

to serving at the core leadership, that's a great

question. And we actually have a little

answer to that as we study the church that was being born in

the book of Acts. And so Acts chapter 6 we get a

Acts 6 · chapter mention

story of some challenges that were happening in the early

church. With the widow care, so some

widows weren't getting enough food.

They needed to appoint men to oversee the widow care ministry,

and this is how they did it. Acts chapter 6, verse 3.

Acts 6:3

Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you 7 men of good

reputation. Full of the Holy Spirit and

wisdom whom we may appoint over this business.

So I love it. It's like you find some people

among you who are doing the work of the ministry to be known and

good reputation and they're they're known to have the Holy

Spirit. So they're making themselves

known in the church, active, and when it's time for leadership to

to be called. On there are in the book of Acts

there were seven guys that just came to people's minds so it

says in the Bible he who desires to be an elder desires a good

thing. Here's how you can start in that

pursuit one, as we've been going through the characteristics of

an elder and Titus and Timothy, just apply them to your life and

by God's grace live them and then start getting a reputation

in our church as someone who wants to help and serve and and

care for the needs of specific ministries and when it's time

for. Leaders to be.

Risen up what we'll say, Well, what about this guy?

And that is by my estimation, how we have got all the elders

that I just mentioned to you now.

So that is strong leadership. There's a lot to it.

I need a ton of grace. And I I I I someone told me

happy. Appreciation day today, I was

like, I don't know, just just continue to pray all the time

for the leaders of this church. Don't wait till one month.

But thank you if you, if you're celebrating a month of pastors

or something, I don't know, but just pray for the leaders of

this church because it requires so much grace.

To do these things and continue to focus on the mission of the

church without losing focus on what makes the church healthy

from the inside out. So second thing I mentioned was

corporate worship. We're all doing it right now.

So this one should be a vision that is fairly easy for you to

buy into because you woke up this morning.

And you said I'm going to go to church.

And what you decided to commit to, at least for this morning,

was what is commonly called corporate worship, or a time for

the body of Christ to come together.

So here's a vision behind this in a verse that will forever

remind me of one of the hardest pastoring seasons of my life,

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25. Not forsaking the assembly of

Hebrews 10:25

ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting

one another, and so much more as you see the day.

Approaching I am so glad we have navigated through the

challenging and trying and maybe most difficult pastoral part of

my 10 years, which was not assembling during COVID.

How many of you look back at that and think, man, that was so

frustrating so hard. I will tell you it was nearly

impossible for me to pastor a camera and broadcast it.

It it is not the design of God for us to all scatter and just

TuneIn. It was very challenging and I'm

so glad it's over and by God's grace I don't ever want to do

that again. So if anything ever happens in

the. Future of the World.

I'm going to come. You don't have to if you don't

feel safe, but come and we're going to keep worshipping

through whatever may come, OK? Amen.

And the reason? It was so hard for me, and the

reason for those of you who are believers and churchgoers before

2020, the reason it should have been so hard for you is because

we're not meant to pursue Jesus alone.

We are meant to have a fellowship in the gathering, a

corporate worship time and and I'll just say the the author of

Hebrew says don't neglect that as is the manner of some, which

means it's not just government shutdown that causes this

sometimes to happen. Sometimes we get this thing in

our heart that says, OK, I love God, I love Jesus.

I like the Bible, I don't like the people.

And so people don't want to come to church.

And you've probably all felt that there are probably some

empty chairs right now that once were people who tried church or

went to church and said, you know what?

I don't want to go anymore. I remember growing up, I had a

grandpa who said my church is the mountains.

I don't need to go to church. And he didn't make it to the

mountains much either. So he.

Didn't really go to church at all.

And you know, you get other people who say I like it, I just

can't stand. Church Structure.

Church Leadership. I've been burned.

I've been hurt. I'm so sorry that's happened to

you. But I'm going to say it again.

Do not neglect what we're doing right now.

There is power in the. Corporate coming together of

believers to sing in one voice and to sit under one teaching

and to leave here in one charge to live for Jesus.

Here's here's one way to put it. The corporate worship of the

church moves believers beyond individual faith and into

collective participation of worship, teaching, and the

breaking of bread. As many members of one body, you

are not meant. To pursue Jesus alone.

And this gives a vision. What I just read gives a little

bit of a vision for the purpose not only of church, but the

purpose of Sunday. The purpose of Sunday is to.

Inspire our church to love Jesus and to instruct our church.

To live. For Jesus, so as you.

Come Sundays, here's what I hope you leave with inspiration to

live for Jesus and instruction on how to love Jesus.

Here's some framework for those words inspire you to magnify the

person of Jesus in your life, and to instruct you is to apply

the ways of Jesus to your life. Inspire you to know him more,

inspire you to make him known more by living it out.

This also informs our liturgy. Now that's where we are a come

as you are pretty laid back church, but we still have a

liturgy. Don't think liturgy is just for

the you know the the highbrow churches that have chanting and

incense. We have liturgy too.

We have an organized. Structure to our service.

And the organized structure of our service.

Is. To accomplish what we just read

about the purpose of Sunday gathering, taking individual to

the collective gathering. And here's what it is in our

liturgy. We want to organize around

worship, the teaching and the breaking of bread.

We want to do those three things every time we gather.

Those three things will inspire and instruct us all together.

And those three things will ensure that we keep Jesus at the

center of everything that we do as a church on a weekly basis.

And so let's just talk about those 3 three things very

quickly to to worship, to magnify Jesus is not a warm up

to the sermon. I know I've I've fallen into

this. I know that we all are running

late to church. For let's at least.

Get there for the sermon or you know, I'm going to hang out and

then the sermon starts. The sermon is.

Part. Of inspiring and instructing you

but. Worship is so.

Important corporate gathering of worship.

There is so much power in a song sung together by people.

I mean, just think about people who aren't at church right now

and they go to the football game or they're watching it and it's

like, you can't help it. You're going to.

You're going to. Set the whole.

Thing right as you sing the anthem to your country and then

you know, in in other countries, songs break out as they're

worshipping their teams. They just break out in these

soccer soccer chants. And it just brings this

collective focus on the thing that you're all there for, and

that is what worship can do. For your life, worship is

something that God can use to open your heart to receive the

word, open your mind to understand who he is and meet

you right where you're at. My wife is a story of this and,

and the reason I, I know this is true because I, I was, you know,

I know my wife's testimony. She grew up Mormon.

My wife did and she left the Mormon church, spent about five

years in the wilderness of didn't know what she believed

and eventually she got invited to this church.

And before she even understood what the Bible was all about,

before she said, OK, I'm coming here to submit myself to the the

red letter words of Jesus. She sat up in the balcony and

she started weeping over worship.

I mean, just think about what we sang today.

We're singing about the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

The name above all names. There is power when you open

your heart to worshipping Jesus that will bring you so much

inspiration to live for Jesus. Then we have preaching as part

of our liturgy, what we're doing right now.

It's not just because it's good for us to be, you know,

knowledge of the historical person of Jesus or we want to

memorize Bible verses. There is power when the word of

God goes out, it goes with and does not return void.

And it, it is supposed to stir in us an inspiration to know

Jesus, which is our mission to know him.

How do we know him? We don't know him by.

Going up to the foothills. And waiting for the clouds to

spell a word about the Bible. We know him by studying his

word. And that is why we are a church

that in in all of the ways we've had to navigate through Charles,

one of the anchors. Of our church.

Every Sunday without fail has to say Let's open the Word and see

what God has to say. Here's what Jesus says of the

word after he meets his disciples.

They're confused about his death.

They don't know he's been resurrected, so he meets with

them and it says in Luke chapter 24 verse 27 and beginning at

Luke 24:27

Moses and. All the prophets he expounded to

them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself says

He began in Moses, which is the first five books of the Bible.

He went all the way through the prophets, and then it says all

of Scripture concerning Himself, which means every word.

Of the Bible is inspired to help you know the person of Jesus, it

all points to him. There is not a wasted moment,

not a wasted page, not a wasted sermon.

If you want to know Jesus, and if we're a church that wants to

make him known, we need to know his word.

And there's also powerful instruction that comes from the

word. You know, James says, don't just

be a hearer of the word, but be a doer.

Jesus says anyone who hears my word and does them is wise.

If you don't do them, you're a fool.

Galatians says chapter 6, verse 9.

Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we

shall reap the reward if we do not lose.

Heart. And to me that is just a such a

picture perfect example of the word of God being preached to

inspire and instruct you. It should inspire you that

Paul's saying don't grow weary, don't lose heart.

And This is why I want to double down on your commitment, our

commitment to gathering weekly as is possible because we.

All grow weary of following anything.

Let alone the narrow gate of Jesus in a culture that is

totally against him. I grow weary and everything.

I'll use my kids as another example of this.

I there are good things the Bible says don't grow weary and

doing good. There are really good things

that I have on my heart for my kids.

One of them, and I know that when this season is gone, I will

miss it so bad, is our bedtime routine.

I love getting to read to them and pray with them, answer their

questions. And they love it too.

Every night. They're like, will you read?

Will you lay on my bed when you read?

Will you? And, and they love it.

And you know what? I love it and I'm going to miss

it. And sometimes I don't want to do

it. I'm like, pray for each other

and go to bed. I'm weary.

I, I'm tired. It's been a long day.

I I I don't have it in me to do every night and.

I'm weary of a lot of good things in my life.

I have a beautiful vision for the way I want to be as a

husband and the way I want to care for my wife, and sometimes

I'm so tired. I don't want anything to do with

laying down my life for her. How much more are you going to

grow weary of whatever you're inspired to do when the Word is

preaching God? Put something on your heart to

love your enemies to go the extra mile.

To to be bold in your workplace, to live for the mission of

making God known for such a time and as this.

That may cost you some slander and you're going to get weary

week by week, but you can always come back to this weekly

gathering or where the word can be preached.

And it says don't grow weary, keep on going and it's going to

instruct us. He says don't grow weary of

doing good. There's so much good that God

has for your life as you listen to the Word and as you worship

Him and you leave those doors to go.

Do good to keep Jesus at the center not only of your church's

mission on a mission statement Sunday, but on your life.

Don't grow weary. How can you leave this place

after listening to the Word preach and spending time with

Jesus and the body of believers to do good in knowing Jesus and

making him known in your life on Monday?

Don't grow weary of doing good. And then we also have breaking

of bread, and that's the third aspect of our liturgy.

We have worship, we have preaching, we have breaking of

bread. And this is our way of keeping

Jesus, making him known through the remembrance of what he did

to give us the citizenship into the city of God.

It's our weekly reminder lest we forget.

Sometimes we need to remember more than weekly that we are

part of the family of God because of not our own good

works, not sitting in a chair at a Sunday service, not the the

ideas we have to help other people and be a good person.

We are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven because.

He died on the cross for our sins.

He gave us newness of life, death, burial, resurrection.

We remember it every time we take communion as a church.

And that is another way to know that our mission is being

secured on Sundays. To to know Jesus is to know the

cross of Jesus and to know Jesus is to know the resurrected power

of Jesus in your life. And so this will give me an

opportunity. I don't do this every week.

Sometimes there's there's probably a a misstep in this,

but question comes up who's communion for Maybe you're here

and you don't consider yourself a believer.

You're visiting our church and you think you guys are all going

to pass out the the little wafer in the in?

The the the cup of grape juice. Should I take this?

Here's the answer. We have an open table for all

who believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of

Jesus Christ as their salvation. And here's the order of

communion in the believer's journey.

So you believe in the power of Christ.

You put your faith in him. The next step is to.

Take part in his death and burial in baptism.

That is your public declaration that you identify with death and

resurrection. And then you take part in a

weekly reminder of that symbol in your life through communion.

So that's the perfect. Way to see where communion fits

in to your journey with Christ. The only other thing to be added

is that communion, it says, is for people who are in good

standing with other members. So we're not.

We leave the gift of the altar, we have something against

someone else in in our lives, be reconciled and then come to the

Lord's table. The the other thing it says

about breaking a bread and why it's so important to every time

we gather, it says in First Corinthians, for as often as you

eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord.

'S death till he comes. Here's another thing that we

need on a weekly basis. It says we are proclaiming his

death until he comes. There is an acknowledgement

every time that we break bread at the communion table together

at the end of our service that we are leaving this place in

expectation that. Jesus is alive and is coming for

his church. He is coming again.

So let us leave this place with a readiness to live for him.

That he could come between now and next Sunday.

That would be great. I would love that.

And if he doesn't come, I want to remind you again that you got

six days to live for Jesus until you're reminded that he's coming

again. And every week we proclaim his

death, his resurrection, and he will return.

So live lives as though Jesus could return.

That's what Communion reminds us of.

And so this is our corporate worship liturgy.

We do it every Sunday to to know Jesus and make him known.

On Sunday. We worship Jesus, we preach

Jesus, and we remember Jesus as our hope and our salvation and

our great expectation for his return.

So we've got strong. Core leadership, we've got a

strong corporate worship gathering and we also have what

is so vital to that picture of a city.

You have to have communities, you have to have a part in the

city where you. Belong and this is what that

third leg we'll call community discipleship.

Jesus says in John chapter 13 a new commandment I give to you

John 13 · chapter mention

that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also

love one another. By this all will know that you

are my disciples. If you have love for one another

three times you will love one another.

Jesus uses the verse the phrase one another.

This phrase appears over. 50 times in the New Testament,

Jesus says to love one another. Paul says to serve one another.

He also says bear one another's burdens, forgive one another.

Ephesians Thessalonians says to encourage one another and it's

impossible to practice the one another's alone.

It's very difficult and now you might be tricked because it's

actually makes it a lot easier to practice the one another's by

yourself. It's like I thought I was I

thought I was going to be the best parent in the world until I

had kids and I'm like, actually, this is pretty hard.

I have, I have take back a lot of the things I said about you

crazy parents and it's a lot easier to follow in the ways of

Jesus. When you just have to keep it

between you and Jesus, the things that makes it require

prayer in the Holy Spirit and instruction from the Word is

usually the people. You're not going to have a big.

Problem with Jesus, it's the people that are going to test

your ability to live for Jesus. And so if we're going to have a

mission to know Jesus and make him known, you yourselves are

going to need to be known. And this is part of the

$1,000,000 question of every church, because the church is

like a city on a hill. That's a vision of the church,

the mission of the. Church is to make disciples.

How do you make disciples? The best way to be part of

disciple making is what Jesus says.

You'll know that you're my disciples the way you love one

another. The best way is to be in a

committed and consistent. Let's call it.

One another environment. It's not one another to hang out

with people that could care less about your following of Jesus at

the pickleball court, the soccer field, or the water cooler or.

The big football game one another implies there is a

community of committed and consistent believers being

together and Jesus says that discipleship is known in the way

we treat one another. And this actually answers one of

the great questions that I'll try to give a, an answer to at

least this Sunday that many people have when trying to step

into a church. How do you, how do you go from

outsider to insider? How do you go from visiting and

not knowing anybody to being part of a church?

How do you go from being unknown to being known?

And before I give the answer for the church, let me just give the

practical answer for life. So let's use the example of

moving to a city. Many of you have moved to Boise

recently and I won't have you raise your hands and wherever

you came from, you are now a new creation in Idaho.

It doesn't matter where you came from and you know when you are

getting ready to move. To your city, it was a big

picture. It's Boise.

You're moving to Boise. You may have told your old

friends, I'm moving to Boise and it was this big picture, But to

actually be in Boise, you had to make the big city small.

You didn't actually move to Boise and the whole size of the

map. You moved to a very specific

street with an address and a few neighbors.

And once you move there, you move to a very specific

workplace or you move to a very specific school with classrooms

and teachers. You made the big city become a

small neighborhood, and that is how you become known.

And so I'm grateful that part of the way that you made Big Boise

small is by choosing a church. And now the operation continues

to make a big church small, you got to find a neighborhood.

You got to find an area in the church that you belong to beyond

the big. And so, you know, one of the

ways you can do that, I've seen many people become known just by

serving. It's a great way to say, OK, I

don't know a lot of people. You want to know a lot of people

quickly start helping out and people will know you.

You'll become a man of or a woman of reputation.

And hopefully you'll have something that will be a

blessing to the church and you will be blessed by it.

That's one way. The.

Best way the way that we've designed or we're trying to

design our church to offer a small committed and consistent

discipleship one another environment is with our Calvary

communities that is literally going to take you from the big

picture of Calvary Boise and put you into a neighborhood with

someone another people that you will commit to.

And so my encouragement for this community discipleship aspect

will be if you're not part of that, pray and if you're ready

to step into a more robust version of what church is, you

have to go be on Sunday. And my encouragement is pray to

see if you're be on Sunday would be to join a Calvary community.

Calvary communities can also answer some other really

important questions to have answered as a church.

One of them is. How can I get help when I'm in

need? You know, imagine walking into a

church and and we're people who want to bear one another

burdens, encourage one another, love one another, and you're an

unknown person. You're walking in or or maybe

you you are only in your capacity, which grace for you.

You can only come Sundays. You work, you travel.

Sundays are your spot. Maybe you're just not.

Ready to go? Beyond the inspiration

instruction of Sundays. So how do you get help?

I'm always trying to answer that question better.

And so this will be hopefully something that we continue to

come back to and say, here's here's our latest version of of

offering help to to those in need.

One way is that every Sunday you can come and we will have people

pray with you. And when they're praying, they

always will do their best to discern how to help you beyond

the foot of the stage. Another ways you can leave this

place and you can go right under that big sign that says welcome.

And there are people that are positioned there to be available

to, to answer questions. And I know that takes a certain

boldness to come to a stage or even to talk to people.

Sometimes your help is so personal that you don't want to.

So in an effort to offer even farther out help, maybe someone

who's in the shadows, who has an unmet need, I'd like to offer a

new effort. And I'm going to try my best to

continue to get this word out. But if you have help beyond what

I've just said, if you have needs that beyond what I just

said as an answer, we we've started an e-mail called.

Care. At calvaryboise.com care at

calvaryboise.com. If you have a need that you

don't even you're not ready to talk about, you just want to

send it in. I have the amazing team of

Jessica Guadalupe and Ashley Fiola and they committed, I said

I'm going to announce this, but you guys got to make sure it

happens. They have committed to having

you get a reply, not necessarily the the end of the road answer,

but get a reply that we're here, we see it, we're working on

within 48 hours. So if you have anything

financial need, you're in crisis, you have questions about

marriage, you're in danger of any kind and you just need a, a

lifeline and you just want to send it out without having to,

to, to come forward. We will get you the care you

need. We will take it in, in 48 hours.

We will get someone on the case at least.

And I'll, I'll just add to that that can include questions of

any kind. I think one of the hard things,

you know, every Sunday I stand over here and shake hands and

sometimes people just ask me their questions.

And sometimes people are like, I got to go.

I don't have time for that. And you can, you can send in

questions. I would love for, for these

ladies to just filter anything that's on your mind or your

heart as a need of our church. Just let us let it be known so

that we can serve you in that way.

So. That's the big.

Picture answer. Here's the small picture answer

the best way to be positioned in life for that when the trials of

life come up, which they will, Jesus says don't be surprised

they're coming trials of life he's overcome is to live your

life, not in the. Big picture of a church.

But in the small version of church, to commit to being part

of one another community so that you're in a rhythm of prayer,

you're in a rhythm of already helping those in need that you

know. And when your time comes, which

it will, all of us have a timeline over our head of the

hospital or the funeral that awaits us all.

When our time comes, we'll be positioned in a place where

people already know us. It says in Galatians chapter 6

Galatians 6:2

verse 2 bear one another burdens and so fulfill the law of

Christ. I think the last question I'll

try to answer with the time I have is how can with the pastor

team that we have extended into by vocational care and the

leaders? Of our church, how can we pastor

all of these people that you are and how can we offer?

The care that is needed in the pastoral sense with just a

handful of leaders. And I'm asking that question

because it actually got brought up last week by Connor.

He was teaching through the word and he's he's so wise.

He taught through the word and he asked this question.

I thought that is so good. His question was essentially

this, if we are living on the precursor of a revival, let's

say God is stirring our country, our city, our world, and, and

awakening people's hearts and minds to not just come to

church, but to to long for one another community and

discipleship and care and and the the process of

sanctification, which is going to need some shepherds.

Would we be ready? To care for a wave of people

that came in. And I think Connor is wise to

ask it because Connor knows the answer.

It isn't possible for me or even the faces on the screen as a

handful of leaders to care for all of the needs that exist in

the sanctuary right now. It's just not possible.

And there's there, there's a a vision or a picture for how we

could make the big church small and the small church well cared

for. And for this, I'll just give

kind of a, maybe a picture of what we, we often call in the

Calvary Chapel worlds, the Moses model.

So if you've ever been around the Calvary Chapel, the, the

leadership style that exists in the Calvary Chapel is often

called the Moses model. So we have a lead pastor that

would be me. And then then I try to kind of

hear from the Lord and lead the, the, the, the people through the

wilderness. So you're the people in this

scenario. Sorry to hear, sorry to tell you

that, but just stay with me. And there's a moment in the the

life and leadership of Moses where he was trying to lead his

best, but he was it was becoming very apparent.

One guy couldn't lead all those children of Israel through the

desert. And so there's a very important

moment that comes into us in the life of Moses with an

interaction he has with his father-in-law.

It says Exodus chapter 18. So Moses father-in-law said to

Exodus 18 · chapter mention

him, the thing that you do is not good.

Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear

yourselves out for this thing is too much for you.

You are not able to perform it by yourself.

And then his father-in-law Jethro goes on to give him a

vision for taking the. Big group of.

People and making them small. And so my hope is that we would

be people who would be committed to small neighborhood versions

of the city on the hill that is our church and that people would

be qualified to care for and oversee our Calvary community.

So as I said, we're doing our training, training manual and

Connor and I would, we're going to step into a season of really

working with our Calvary community leaders to make sure

that they've gone through the qualities and the

characteristics and the tests of the Timothy and Titus Pastoral

Guide. And then put them in positions

to care for the house groups of our church in a way that is not

just a Bible study. But truly, if, if the revival

comes and we can get people into different homes and have them

led by people who are qualified, then we'll be living out the

true Moses model, which is Moses leading and a bunch of qualified

men caring for the needs of the masses.

So more on that as we go through the upcoming year.

But I'll, I'll end with this. Let me end with just a picture

of what we just did. So we just gave a, a version of

our church and as a city on a hill and what makes us through

the purpose of our church, how we commit to knowing Jesus and

making him known. We've got just a picture of a

desire for strong core leadership and, and, and a

picture for clarity on our corporate worship and, and a

call really to a community of discipleship in our church.

And all of those are really great if you're new to our

church, because you can tell this Sunday you're like, you

know what, this sounds great. I don't know if I'm looking for

something like this, but maybe I'll come back.

And so you know exactly what you'd be committing to.

And that's really what this is. It's a commitment, This is a

church that that that requires us to commit to each other like

a family would commit to the, the, the family meeting.

And as you've listened to that commitment go out for maybe the

newcomers, there's also a number of you that can recommit.

And for this, I have a picture of, of just going to a wedding.

You know, it's wedding season, it's the end of wedding season.

And I love when I go to a wedding where I'm watching a new

man and wife commit to the vows of marriage together.

And it's such a beautiful thing. And I've made it a practice when

I'm at the wedding. To reach over hold.

On to the hand of my wife and also commit to the same vows.

So if you ever invite me to your wedding, I'm I'm going to take a

little bit of it home with me and I encourage you to do that.

If you're married, you get invited to a wedding.

It's like those vows are for you recommit to them and the same

with what we just did. This is our church.

This is what it means to commit to our church.

And if you heard it from a longtime member?

Of our church if. You've been here and you've

known all this. You know the leadership and who

we are, and it's time to make a recommitment to our church and

let us be ready for whatever God wants to do to bring in the next

great harvest into our church. Thanks for joining us today.

If you would like to watch the full service, check out the link

in the description. For next steps and to learn

more, visit calvaryboise.com.