Every Minute Matters Refresh | Pastor Zach Weihrauch

Colossians 4:2-6

Colossians 4:2–6

Continue steadfastly in prayer

being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

At the same time, pray also for us,

that God may open to us a door for the word

to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison.

That I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak.

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Let your speech always be gracious,

seasoned with salt, so that you may know

how you ought to answer each person.

Ephesians 5:15-16.

Ephesians 5:15–16

Look carefully, then, when you walk.

Not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time,

because the days are evil.

Well, good morning and welcome to the weekly

gathering of Christ Community Chapel.

My name is Zach.

I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm so glad you're here.

I'm glad we get to be part of your weekend.

Hey, let's just get the awkward thing out of the way.

It's.

It's weird to be up here on a weekend where you're voting on me.

Probably a little weirder

for me, to be honest, than it is, for you.

It is an honor and humbling

to even be considered the stand in the legacy of Jim Colledge

and Joe Coffey of the long history of this incredible church.

But I just want to encourage you with this.

The what makes this church amazing

is not the guy holding the microphone.

This church is led,

it has been led,

it will always be led by Jesus Christ.

And that's my commitment to you.

If the Lord wills for us to continue to move in that direction

for as long as the Lord allows.

But today we're taking a little break from a sermon series.

We're gonna start a new one.

Next week we're really excited about.

But we want to hit the pause button just for this weekend

to do what we're calling an Every Minute Matters refresh.

Now, if you're unfamiliar with the language of Every Minute Matters

it's probably because you're new here, and we're seeing so many new people

all the time.

It's one of the reasons we want to talk about it

is because if you just started

coming in the last few months, you don't know what that is.

But also vision leaks.

And so if you're like me, I got a lot going on in life.

I get distracted.

It can be pretty easy to forget what we're doing and why we're doing it.

It also makes sense to talk about it because, believe it or not,

one week from Monday, there will be construction equipment here,

and we'll be breaking ground on the first of the projects.

I know it feels like it's taken forever for learning a lot

about different committees

and commissions and building codes and all that kind of thing.

But, it's here.

We're going to be building soon.

By the way, if you really don't know what every minute matters means,

if you just go to our website in the upper

right hand corner as a search bar you can type in, every minute matters.

It'll take you to a web page is also a kiosk right here in the atrium

that you can check out that shows you all of the projects.

It's an initiative, a resource initiative to build some things here on campus

that we think will be vital to reach the next generation.

I want to take a little opportunity to remind you

of why we feel it's so important.

So if you have a Bible,

would you take it out and open it to Colossians chapter four?

Take out your phone, your tablet.

Hey, by the way, if you're new here, maybe you're new to church.

Didn't know to bring a Bible.

You don't know where Colossians four is.

Don't don't worry about that.

This service is as much for you as it is for anyone.

And every time I reference some scripture, it's going to be on the screen

behind me.

But if you want to hold something and follow

along in the pew in front of you or in the back of this hall,

you'll find in these Bibles, and Colossians four is on page 926.

Thanks for being here.

But however you get to Colossians four, let me hold out to you an outline

that I'm going to use to guide our time together.

Three points. Very simple.

I want to talk about kingdoms, subway

stops and expectations, kingdoms,

subway stops and expectations.

Let's start with the first one.

Kingdoms.

I want you to notice something interesting in this passage.

This is at the end of the letter that Paul,

the apostle Paul, writes to the church in Colossae.

This is what he says.

Chapter four, verse three.

He says at the same time, pray also for us

that God may open to us a door for the word

to declare the mystery of Christ, on account

of which I am in prison.

Paul writes this letter from a Roman prison.

He is a prisoner of the Roman Empire for preaching the message of Jesus.

Now that's interesting to me.

Here's my here's my question why would you throw

a Christian pastor in prison?

I mean, maybe you've heard of,

treating other people the way you want to be treated.

That's us.

Maybe you've heard it said love your enemies.

Also us.

Maybe you've heard that hospitality is treating strangers like their brothers.

That's us.

Christianity is a message of mercy and forgiveness,

of reconciliation and grace.

Why would you ever take someone who's preaching that message

and throw them in jail?

Well, to understand that, you need to understand that Christianity

is about love and mercy and grace and forgiveness,

but it's also subversive

and competitive.

Here's what I mean.

Two words get thrown around in the church and in the Bible.

A lot to explain Christianity.

Those words are gospel and kingdom.

Now, I might even use those in this message.

Gospel and kingdom.

Those are two really important words.

The word gospel is used to describe the message of Jesus.

We'll talk about the gospel of Jesus, the gospel message.

We talk a lot about the word, the gospel.

Gospel just means good news.

That's all it means.

So when we say the gospel of Jesus, we're just saying the good news about Jesus.

The good news that Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth,

he lived obediently in our place.

He died sacrificially on the cross, carrying our sin,

coming up under the judgment of God that was exhausted on him.

He died and three days later was rose risen from the dead,

so that we might know that he's king, so that we might know

that God accepted his sacrifice, that we can be forgiven and included

in the kingdom that God is building that will last forever.

It's the good news of the life we're looking

for, the good news of the life that will not end.

Now, the reason I say that is because Christianity

is not the only worldview or religion that talks about gospel and kingdom.

In fact, I've spent much of my academic career studying

other religions and other worldviews, and I can tell you

that every single religion, every single worldview,

every single person has a gospel and a kingdom.

They're looking to some good news to bring them to the life

that they want, some good news to bring them

to a life that will last.

Now, the old way of teaching this would have been to tell you to walk

down, go to a Barnes and Noble.

Remember those poor won out Barnes Noble.

But you would

go to Barnes and Noble, and you would walk down the magazine aisle.

And when you walked down the magazine aisle,

what you would see on the cover of all the different magazines are different

gospels that if you want life, real life, if you want a life

that really will last, then you need muscles like that guy.

You need to cook like her.

You need to drive that car.

Buy this shotgun. You need to get married.

You need to get unmarried.

Depends on the magazine.

Now no one reads magazines anymore.

And no one goes to Barnes and Noble anymore.

So instead, think about this.

Is this not what social media influencers do?

Aren't they selling different ways?

Different? Good news of how you can really live.

Maybe they're telling you you should eat more or eat less.

It depends on if you follow chef, Instagram or fitness Instagram.

You see, our world is full of gospels.

It's full of kingdoms.

Whether that gospel is Islam or Buddhism or Hinduism, or whether it's materialism

or conservatism or liberalism, all of them are selling a message.

Here's the good news if you listen to us, you will really live.

And you might say, well, big deal.

So we all have our own gospel.

We all have our own kingdom. Live and let live.

But here's the problem.

What the Bible also tells us, and this is what got Paul in prison, is it?

Only Christianity is actually true?

Does make sense if you think about it.

Because God made us.

God knows what it means for us to really live.

God knows what paths lead to life.

God knows what leads to his forgiveness.

God knows what leads to his eternal kingdom.

So Paul doesn't just show up saying, hey, maybe you follow this on Instagram,

or that maybe you read that magazine or this, maybe you vote this way or that.

But let me add now he's not adding, he's saying all of those are selling you a lie.

Here's the good news of Jesus,

of how you can actually be included

in God's kingdom.

Because you see, what the Bible is telling us

is that each of us must find a way out of the Gospels.

We're believing out of the kingdoms we're seeking,

and into the kingdom of Jesus.

That actually leads me to my second point, which is, say, not just kingdoms,

but subway stops.

Early on in my career, I lived in Washington, DC.

It was before I worked in ministry.

I lived there by myself and I didn't have a car.

So to get around I use the subway system, which in DC is called the Metro.

And I learned this lesson the hard way.

The Metro doesn't run 24 hours,

so if you get

there late enough, you are on the last train.

And speaking here purely hypothetically for a friend, not me.

If you fall asleep and missed your stop,

then you end up in northern, I mean, Northern Virginia

or Southern Maryland, and they don't care.

They're not going back.

You're going to have to figure it out.

Now, I say that because what the Bible says

is that that's a great metaphor for actually our lives.

Every one of us is born

a rebel in a world in rebellion to God.

We are born on a train that is going the opposite direction from God.

And the problem with that, the Bible tells us,

is that every time we move away from God, we move to less life, not more.

We move away from God.

Your marriage withers. It doesn't get better.

You move away from God. Your parenting withers.

Your career withers, of course, because God knows how life works.

God is the source of life. He's our creator.

When we run away from him, we wither.

If you don't believe me, consider this we have never been freer in society.

We've never been more anxious,

never been more depressed,

never been more conflicted because we're moving away from God.

And when you move away from God, you wither.

But here's the other problem. When you move away from God, you

not only wither, but you're headed towards death.

And the Bible says, after death comes judgment.

After judgment comes eternal separation from God.

We're on a train and the last stop is not one we want.

But the Bible also

tells us that so great is God's love, so great is his mercy.

So great is his kindness, that from time to time he will stop

the train we're on, the doors will open, and he will say to us,

do you want to get off?

Do you want to get out of this gospel,

out of this kingdom and step into mercy, step into forgiveness.

Step in to love. Step in to grace.

Maybe for some of you, that's what he's doing this weekend.

That's why you're here,

is God is saying, don't you see if your career

was going to fix your life, it would have done it.

If getting married was going to fix your life.

If getting unmarried was going to fix your life, it would have done it.

Don't you see you're on a train going the wrong direction.

God invites us off of that train and into the one that is led

by Jesus, headed towards eternity with God, not away from him.

And Paul says, this is the Christian message, this is the Christian mission.

And he also says is urgent.

Look with me. Colossians chapter four.

He says, verse five, walk in wisdom towards outsiders,

those believing other gospels, those on other trains going the wrong direction.

Here's what he says making the best use of the time

in Ephesians, the passage that was read, he'll say, make the most of the time

because the days are evil.

What is he saying

every day our friends and family members and neighbors are on a train.

Going away from God is another day further

into withering and closer to judgment.

Every day.

What Paul is

saying is he says he's in prison for preaching, and he's saying,

pray for me, that I can get out so I can do this right back again.

It's like, Paul, don't tell your parole officer that. Why?

Because they're on a train and it's going the wrong direction.

Listen, everything this church does,

everything that we're doing and every minute matters,

is designed to create as many subway stops as possible

for our friends and family members and neighbors.

Why turf a soccer field so that we can do soccer camps?

Why put in a walking track so that you can walk with your friends?

Why do an indoor playground?

Why do a preschool? Why why why why why?

To create as many opportunities as we can

for the doors to open and for God to whisper.

Do you want to get off?

People say,

Zach, why are you targeting the next generation?

Why not everybody?

Well, first of all, we are targeting everyone.

We want every single person to come to faith in Jesus.

But here's why we're targeting the next generation.

Two reasons. Very simple.

Number one, everyone here in this room loves a child.

The best way to build a relationship with them, the best way

to build commonality with them, the best way even to invite them

to hear about Jesus is to love the kid they love

to bless the kid.

They love to serve the kid they love.

Do you remember? Of course you remember.

If you're here for the outdoor service, we had 4000 people.

I had to write a lot of apology notes for you.

Driving through people's yards.

I appreciate that.

You know why we had so many people?

Because the week before was kids camp.

You love the kid they love.

They want to know why.

Here's the second reason.

Did you know that 72% of people

that become Christians become Christians before the age of 18?

That's not accidental, because actually, as children were more open than we ever.

You get the older we get, we get more stubborn, more set in our ways.

And we be honest. We get more guilty, more ashamed.

It's harder to believe that God could forgive

us, harder to believe that God could love us.

We carry a lot of baggage.

By the way, if you're here and you're older than 18, God will take you.

That's not what I'm saying.

I'm just saying, on average, 72% of people.

Can I tell you that last year, within a ten mile radius of this church,

last year, 2383 kids graduated from high school.

Most of them to this church are gone.

They're going to move away.

They're going to go to college.

They're going to take jobs.

We miss them.

This year, another 2300,

then another 2300, then another 2300.

And what we're saying is we need to create as many subway stops as possible

before we list, before we lose them.

An indoor playground is not about your kids having a good time

in the winter, unless your kids are having a good time with a friend

and you're sitting next to the mom or the dad, that's a subway stop.

Can you see that?

That's a subway stop.

And Paul says it's urgent because every train

that is not driven by Jesus is headed in the wrong direction.

That leads me, though, to my third point, which is to talk about expectations.

Listen, I don't want you to be pessimistic.

That's not my goal, okay?

It's bleak.

People are on a train borne on a train headed away from God.

I was born on a train headed away from God.

That's bleak.

But the Bible is not pessimistic.

Some of you Christians need to hear that.

If you're feeling cynical, if you're feeling pessimistic,

you're not reading the Bible.

You're listening to the wrong news source

because the Bible tells us, no matter how bleak the world

get, God is doing something incredible.

God is on a mission to reach people.

And by the way, if you think that isn't true, consider

this Paul wrote this letter from a prison in Rome.

We're reading it 2000 years later in a part of the world

he didn't even know existed. And there is no more Rome.

There's a city, not an empire.

It's.

Because that's what God does.

Listen, our hope here at the church

is not that somehow we might be so incredible

that God would say, hey, I like what's going on there.

I think I'll partner with them.

Everything we're doing, we're doing because the Bible tells us

that God is on a mission to reach people.

He's more passionate about it than we will ever be.

He he's more driven towards it than we will ever be.

All of our enthusiasm, all of our excitement, all of our dreaming

comes from him.

We're doing all of this because God is a God of reaching people.

That's who he is.

By the way, that's not just who he was in history, in the Bible.

That's who he is. Here.

We launched the reimagined vision in 2021.

In January

and four and a half years since launching that vision, we've baptized 817 people,

all of them over the age of 12.

All of them, having met with a staff

member, shared their story, articulated faith 817

if we keep that rate, that in 30 years we'll have baptized

5500 people.

Does that surprise you?

It shouldn't.

It shouldn't listen.

When you read the New Testament, the church, the local church

is supposed to be the most exciting place on earth.

It's supposed to be the very center of what God is doing.

Read the book of acts, miracles, life change, families restored.

All of that.

By the way, if you don't believe that, consider the guy writing

this letter was not a good dude before he met Jesus.

That's what the church is supposed to be.

But let me tell you this it's not just about having expectations for God.

It's about God having expectations for you.

He wants you to be part of it.

Look at what Paul says here in Colossians two different times.

He urges the colossian church, not him them, to get involved.

Here's what he says.

Verse two continue steadfastly in prayer,

being watchful, and it with thanksgiving.

Verse six, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt,

so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Paul says, look, I'm a professional Christian.

Paul is like me.

He does this for a living, but he says, But God's expectations

are that every Christian participates.

Listen, let me put it to you this way.

I coach junior high football.

You know, I talk about it probably too much.

And every year I have about 40 kids on the football team.

And I think football.

I got to tell you, I think football is the greatest game ever invented.

I think it teaches toughness.

Moms, listen, listen to me.

It teaches toughness.

It teaches how to handle adversity. It teaches teamwork.

It teaches trust.

It's a great, great game.

And every year there are a group of kids on our team that don't participate.

They don't get in drills in practice, they don't get in in the game.

And I hate it for them because I know at the end of the season,

what they're going to say is

football is boring, football is lame, football is not fun.

And I want to say to them, how would you know?

You never played it.

You wore the jersey, you

put on the pads, you put on the helmet, you stood on the sideline.

But the adventure of football is not on the sideline.

It's on the field.

I cannot think of a better metaphor for the American church

friends, if you feel like church is boring, church is lame, church is stale.

It's because you're on the sideline.

The action is on the field.

We're reaching so many people here.

All glory to God, reaching so many people here at Christ in the chapel.

In fact,

one of the things I'm supposed to tell you

in this sermon is we have so many people coming on the weekend, we can't fit them.

So on November 9th, we're going from three Sunday services to four

8:00, 915, 1030 and 1145.

We just got to make room, look around.

There's nowhere for people to sit.

That's awesome.

But it also means there's incredible opportunity

for you to participate.

Let me give you three ways that I think you can go from the sideline to the field.

Here's the first one. Invite someone.

Invite someone.

Listen, you and I, we're a team. Here's how it's going to work.

You ready?

You invite people close to you here.

I will tell them that God loves them in Jesus.

Do you know how weird it would be if I invited them?

Just see me at the grocery store and say,

hey, Pastor Zach, you buy bananas.

You know what?

You know what else is bananas? God's love.

See you on Sunday.

It's weird right?

Smooth but weird.

When you invite him, I'll tell him about Jesus.

And then you buy lunch afterwards.

And here's how it works. That works pretty simple. You just me?

What you think? What do you think?

What do you think?

8:00. Now what? We're trying so hard. Is it church?

If you can't come on the weekend? We got Thursday night.

If Thursday night doesn't work, how about 8:00?

8:00 to early? How about 915? 915? Too early?

How about 1030?

1030 doesn't work. How about 1145? 1145? Does it work?

What do you do? It?

We're not a church.

It makes people feel guilty about their schedule.

We're a church that says whenever you are free, we want to tell you about Jesus.

Invite them second, second,

give,

give.

Those pastors are uncomfortable talking about money.

I probably shouldn't tell you this on a weekend.

You're voting on me,

but I'm not.

And here's why we tell you why I just told you.

I believe God is more passionate about reaching people than I will ever be,

than you will ever be if you don't give, God will bring it from somewhere else.

I really believe that this is God's mission.

It's God's church. It's God's bill.

I believe that asking you to give isn't about supplying our need.

Here's what it's about.

It's about you being on the field.

A week from Monday, there's going to be construction equipment in the parking lot.

And if you've partnered with us in every minute Matters.

I hope you get your kids in the car.

You drive by.

That equipment is everybody. Look, that's our equipment.

That's part of what we're doing as a family.

We get to be a part of what God is doing.

That's the adventure.

And then here's the third one you can serve.

You can serve.

I know we have incredible volunteers here, so it's tempting to see what's going on

and go, man, there, do such a good job. They don't need anyone.

Listen, we do such a good job, but it's a mirage.

We need people.

We need people.

Listen, I just told you, we go from three Sunday services to four.

That means we have a whole nother service. We need.

I need some of you to serve in two services.

I need some of you to serve all day.

I need some of you to start serving.

But here's what I want to tell you.

If you serve, you are on the field.

Listen, every one of those 817 people we baptized,

if you ever held them in the nursery, you were part of that.

If you taught them in children's ministry, you were part of it.

You greeted them at the door.

If you told them where to park, you were part of that.

That's the adventure of the Christian life

is you're experiencing what God is doing in people's lives.

Why would you want to be on the sideline?

In fact, take out your phone if you don't already have it out.

Most of you do.

Take your phone out

if you're not serving currently, it's easy for him to throw this on the slide.

Here you go.

You text, serve, seek.

This is is easy.

If you're like me, I don't. I'm just.

Full disclosure I don't do the QR codes.

I don't know about you.

Here it is five five text text to 55498.

Just text serve seek. We're going to do the rest.

That's all you have to do.

We're going to work with you

to find a time, your available talent that you have a slot that works.

You only got once a month, once a quarter, twice a year.

We'll find you a place.

But I want you to know it's because we believe the excitement

God has wired you for is found in the ministry of the local church.

Friends, I want you to

know that I think God is going to blow our minds

with what he's going to do here for the next 30 years.

It has nothing to do with me.

It has everything to do with him.

But I don't want you

to be part of it on the sideline.

I don't want you to miss

the incredible role that God has for you

in his mission to reach people

before it's too late.

Let me pray for us.

Father God, thank you so much for the mission you have given us here

at KCC that every minute matters.

It's your mission to your church.

It's your kingdom.

It's your gospel

God, would you raise our expectations of who you are and what you want to do?

Would you?

Would you show us the unique role that you have for us to play?

And even right now, I pray for someone sitting here who does

not yet know how much you love them in Jesus for them to meet you right now.

God, would you

make this local church for your glory, not for ours.

For your glory?

Would you make it the single most exciting thing that any of us do

for your glory, for the good of Northeast

Ohio and the world, and for our joy?

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.