Set It Into Motion | Nate Ruch

It's so great to be here and uh love your pastors.

Just amazing people.

I've watched one church as a stalker on Instagram for a long time.

So it's fun to come here and be in the place where I've watched him walk down the hallways when he does his little behind the scenes journey in.

I've seen the new basketball court and everything that's beautiful there.

I've seen the projects that you guys have worked on, the faces of people and the worship music that you have.

And what a this is a God thing.

This isn't just a church, it's a movement.

Come on, somebody.

I mean, like, what is God doing?

Truly love being in this place, and uh, I know this, it's not over.

The best days are still ahead for this church.

Can I get an amen to that?

Uh today the title of my message is this Set It Into Motion.

Set it into motion.

Turn the person next to you and say, Set it in motion.

My grandpa Roosh, my dad's dad, was born into a dysfunctional setting for his family.

He was the son of his mom, was married three times.

His dad wasn't around.

And as a part of the family story goes, my part of my grandpa's life when he was a toddler is they he and his mom lived in an apartment above a bar.

And uh, we don't talk too much about it, but there were different men that came in in and out, and that's how she made money.

My grandpa's bed was a toy box.

Literally, he would crawl into the toy box at night, and that was his bed.

And then years later, as a young adult, a teenager and a young adult, he was a very frustrated, angry kind of guy and tried to take it out on the world around him, and he was thrown in jail, had a whole bunch of different things that happened.

And then Jesus found my grandpa.

And Jesus changed my grandpa's life.

He found a new future for his story because of Jesus.

How many of you found a new future because of Jesus?

Well, my grandpa, as he grew, he had to figure things out, and he went into the military, he went to Bible college and then went into the military for World War II.

Came home from World War II.

My dad was born, several of his siblings were born.

And uh the only way that my grandpa knew how to parent his kids out of his history was the way the military trained soldiers.

So my grandpa was very disciplined, very structured.

Used to have my dad and his siblings stand at attention in the living room.

And then they then he would say, at ease, and they would be at ease.

And then my dad grew up in that environment, and my dad grew up to become a somewhat frustrated, angry man.

So even though he knew Jesus, some of the outward family style of training still was there, and he still felt frustrated because because he had to live perfect for his dad.

And then I was born.

And uh, as I was raised in my family, I remember when I was 11 years old, my dad went off to a camp for the church, and he came back from this retreat, and and he took me into my bedroom and he sat down and he had tears running down his face, and he asked for forgiveness for how he had parented me.

And I'm looking at him like, okay, dad, like what's going on?

But it was a very real thing that happened in my dad because he had broken a chain from previous generations.

And because of that, I did not grow up as an angry, frustrated man.

And what I want to tell you today is this is that what God does and he sets into motion isn't just about you and this generation, it's also about the generations that come behind you.

There is power in the gospel, and no matter what has happened up to this moment, there is a potential power in the decisions and the actions that you take.

You might have stopped trying to improve, given up on believing for a breakthrough in your family or in your life.

But here you are on Sunday morning, back, and your story is not over.

It's not over.

God is sending new things into motion.

I want to take you back to Genesis chapter 1 when God was creating the earth.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

And it's He is, it says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

And then God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

Now many of us have read this particular passage before, but I want you to notice that when God speaks, his words create worlds.

After that initial light part of things, there was land, there was sea, there were animals, there were trees.

All of creation were the result of God's words.

And then he created humanity and he created us in his image.

And the fact is that because we have his image on us, when we speak, our words create worlds.

This is true for all of you that have children.

As you're raising your children up, you're giving them the very world that they will live in someday.

The mind.

And hopefully you're speaking in such a way as they're not stuck in a toy box like my grandpa was.

But that you're removing the barriers of previous generations so that your kids can go further than you.

Can I get an amen to that?

And the fact is that the Holy Spirit still hovers over formless empty things, broken things on the ground.

He knows how to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

And He cares about broken things, and He wants to restore those things for a different future.

He cares about this city, he cares about you, and He cares about the people that are in your life.

I want you to look at Jesus' words that he set into motion 2,000 years ago in Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

If you've got your Bibles, go ahead and turn there electronically or the old-fashioned paper Bible.

I think we need a paper Bible revival in the church.

Amen?

Just to bring it back and I mean they're changing the words digitally online.

You better have yourself a paper copy.

It'll never change.

In Matthew, Jesus has his disciples who are following him.

All of us are disciples of Christ.

But in this particular story in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is going around and people are talking about him, not just in his inner circle, but people in the society are talking about him.

And his disciples ask Jesus, So who are you?

And some people are saying this, and there's this dialogue going on about the very identity of who Jesus is.

And then Jesus turns to his disciples in verse number 15, and it says, Then he asked them, Who do you say I am?

Simon Peter answered, You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

And Jesus replied, You are blessed, Simon, son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you.

You did not learn this from any human being.

Did you know that Jesus is interested in who you say he is?

I want to do a little like up to speed, check-in with your faith journey.

Who are you saying Jesus is with your mouth?

Who have you been saying?

I know maybe some of you came to faith years ago and you knew who he was, but who do you say he is right now?

Refresh the page.

What are you saying about who he is?

In this moment, Peter responds out of something that it didn't come from his mama.

It came from the supernatural source.

He says, You're the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

And those God-inspired words came out of Peter's mouth.

And Jesus begins to recognize there's something coming.

And he begins to send into motion what is happening at one church today.

He says in verse 18, Now I say to you that you are Peter, which means rock, and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

I would like you to see yourself as Peter in this moment.

He was called Simon.

Jesus gives him the name of Peter.

And he's able to look at something beyond what everybody else sees, and he says, listen, on not on who you are as an individual, but on the proclamation of the revelation that God has given to you about you and about who I am, I'm going to build something.

Did you know that God wants to build something through your mouth, through your life, through your efforts?

That he cares about you, but he's not interested just saving you, but he's going to build something through you.

And of course, as he's saying this, he makes the most famous statement about I'm going to build my church.

He says, I will build my church.

How many have heard that phrase before?

Maybe you haven't read it, but you've seen it, heard it.

It's even in songs.

He's going to build his church.

Where Jesus says this is really important to understand the value of this moment.

He speaks these words, not in Jerusalem, not in the holy city, but 149 miles away in a little town called Caesarea Philippi.

Caesarea Philippi was situated along a highway that went all the way down into Africa and Egypt, and then all the way north and east and west on trade routes.

And literally all of the merchants of the day and the trade of the day would go travel this highway.

And there, there's a rendition of it of what it could have looked like.

There's rock everywhere, like a rock outcropping.

And then there were gods, temples to other gods in this place.

Outside of Jerusalem, on the trade routes, it was okay to have temples to other gods.

It was like you pull over for the night to go to the holiday end, and then if you wanted to serve your God from whatever country you came from, you could do it.

And it's right in that place that Jesus determines I'm gonna do something that has never existed before.

The word church, this is the first time it's mentioned in all of the Bible.

Jesus starts to institute a new entity, if you will, and it's called the church.

And it's not in the holy place, it's out in the place owned by other gods.

And he says, I will build the church.

I want to break that phrase up a little bit.

I will build.

To build is saying it's gonna become more than what you see right now.

Jesus is saying, we've got a history in Jerusalem, we've got a history in what we've done, but I'm gonna build something brand new.

It's gonna become more.

He's not interested in remodeling, he's building something new.

I love what Psalm 127, 1 says, unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted.

If he's not building whatever it is that you're doing, you got a problem.

I want you to think about this right now.

Perhaps you're building a career, or you're building a family, or you're building something, not just this church that you're a part of it, or building something new.

I'm excited about what's coming.

But did you know what God wants to build something through you as well?

And maybe you've been working really hard on it, but if the Lord's not the one building your marriage or building your family or building that career or building that new place, then it's wasted work.

You need Jesus to build your house.

Come on, somebody.

You need him to build it.

He's building something new.

Then he says this.

He says, I will build my church.

That word my is possessive.

It's nobody else's property.

What Jesus wants to do, this church is not Pastor Greg's church.

This church is not the biggest giver's church.

This church is not the one who's been here for the longest amount of time.

This church is Jesus' church.

It's not owned by anybody else, it's Jesus.

Turn to the person next to you and say, You don't own it.

It's Jesus' church.

And in the middle of this moment, the ecclesia, that's the word for church, the called-out ones, where he'll call people from every kingdom around to be a part of a brand new community called the church.

In the middle of all these temples to other gods, in the middle of commerce and government systems, Jesus declares a building project, a new collective family.

And the body of Christ is not stationary, it's moving somewhere.

It's meant to impact more people.

The church that I pastor at in Minneapolis was started in 1963.

Did you know every church was once a church plant?

It was.

And in 19 since 1963, we've had three lead pastors.

The first one was there 43 years.

His son pastored it for seven, and I'm the first non-family member.

When I started at the church as a youth pastor, I was there for 10 years, I watched what God was building something new in our church over time.

And uh and there are prophetic words that were spoken about us being a house of prayer for all nations and how God had called us to become something more than what we were.

Church was started by Canadian immigrant pastors who came down, but it was planted in a mostly Caucasian area, all white church when I first came.

But the prophetic words were dropped in over time that this church would be something more than what we saw.

And I saw God begin to change our church over time.

We had a Hispanic ministry that started in our church that grew to 400 people.

And they were not a church within a church, they were part of our church.

And God had to break a racial backbone in our systems, in our way of seeing church and people.

And then I went away for 10 years to work at the university.

I taught and I traveled and spoke, and I was a vice president, and I came back as the lead pastor.

And God had done change even while I was gone.

But even since that point, 13 years ago, when I became the pastor, God is doing something so crazy.

God is building a house.

We have 43 different nations now represented.

And that's not easy, you guys.

It's not easy to do, but God's building something new.

If you looked at Mark chapter 13, you would see in the story where the beginning, Jesus comes in in this triumphal entry, and everybody's excited, he's gonna be the Messiah.

Mark 13 · chapter mention

And then he goes into the temple and he walks around the temple.

We don't know exactly what he did, but he owned the house.

So he was walking around like an owner would, and something ticked him off because on the way home, after walking through the temple, he curses the fig tree.

He was mad, he was kicking the dog.

Something wasn't right.

And now all of a sudden, the next morning, he goes gets up and he goes into the temple, and in the temple, there's tables set up where sales were going on, and he begins to tip over the tables.

And if this was modern times, he would be trending.

Every phone would be out, just observing Jesus.

And this is where Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56 and from Jeremiah 7 My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.

Well, if you looked at Isaiah 56, it's about God's original design for the temple was to be a place where people from all over the world would come in and worship one God, Yahweh.

But when Jesus walked into the temple, the outer courts were known as the court of the Gentiles.

There was no seats available for them in the church service.

There was no room because tables were up.

So what does Jesus do?

He gets rid of those tables.

He's trying to get rid of systemic racism things that are preventing groups of people from receiving the gospel.

And he's very, very passionate about it because he says, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.

In the same way, not just ethnically or racially or but socioeconomic-wise and what God has raised one church up to do.

God has not raised us up just to be the church that we are right now, but he has a vision for where he's taken this church to go into every stratosphere of Columbus for God to reach every group of people because his house will be a house of prayer for all nations.

Can I get an amen to that?

That's what he's calling us to do.

And Jesus says, I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

Some versions say, the gates of hell can't stop it.

The gates of hell.

Now imagine you're standing there in Caesarea Philippi and you're Jesus, and you see a temple over here to one God, and a temple over here to another God, temple over here to another God.

And he makes this statement.

I remember when I was a little kid and I would hear the gates of hell will not prevail.

I imagine flying gates coming at me, and Jesus would be like a force field and stop the gates from taking over me.

But that's not what Jesus was saying.

Jesus visualizes his church as being on offense.

Like literally, we're going in to those gates.

That our destiny is to go into spaces where the enemy thinks he owns it.

And the gates can't stop us from going in there.

No power on heaven or earth can stop what Jesus has raised this church up to do.

There are people in this city right now who say, I'll never go to a church.

I don't want none of your stuff.

The memory under the power or control of other forces, and Jesus has raised you up to not be afraid.

The gates of hell will not stop you from going after those people.

Can I get an amen to that, church?

Come on, somebody.

The church will penetrate wherever the powers of hell set up their walls, their gates.

And it's not just about what you do with your faith, but what you set into motion.

Because every action we take can lead to a new future.

How many of you have ever played dominoes or set up dominoes?

No, there's an annual world domino fall competition where they compete against each other.

The 2024 winner had 900,000 dominoes.

I mean, it was crazy.

Can you imagine setting up 900,000 dominoes?

Don't ever set up dominoes with a toddler.

A three-year-old, they'll be like, I just worked so hard on this.

Now, when you think about dominoes, there's a power to those dominoes.

A single domino sets in motion a domino fall that cumulatively unleashes more than 94,000 joules of energy, which is as much energy as it takes for an average-sized male to do 545 push-ups.

Anybody here can do 545 push-ups?

Now I want you to think about this.

One single domino.

I've got one right up here with me.

If you can't see it, imagine you can see it.

And that one domino has power to it, especially when you line it up with another one.

And then you put it side by side.

As it builds and it knocks it over, the power accumulates.

The more you line up, the more energy you've accumulated.

You line up enough, and with a simple flick, you can start a chain reaction of surprising power.

When one thing, the right thing, is set into motion, it can topple many things.

The American Journal of Physics discovered that domino falls could not only topple many things, but they could topple bigger things.

In fact, each domino can topple something 50% larger than it is.

So if you can imagine each domino becoming 50% larger as you move along, a single domino is capable of bringing down another domino 50% larger.

Two-inch little domino.

By the 10th domino, you can topple Peyton Manning.

Hall of Fame quarterback, 6'5.

You keep going 50% larger with each one.

By the 18th, the leaning tower of Pisa.

I mean, oh, you already got a head start on that one.

And then by the 23rd, 50% larger with each one, you can topple the Eiffel Tower, which is equivalent to an 81-story building.

And then by the 31st domino, you can topple something taller than Mount Everest at 29,032 feet.

We can topple mountains together.

God is leading one church with one mission.

He's not interested in any one of us being a superstar.

It just dominoes doing our part.

Every person here today represents a small amount of potential energy.

When one thing, the right thing, is set into motion, it can topple many things.

One person can make a difference in the direction of a family.

One can turn things around.

And this is why Jesus, when he declared, I will build my church, he was unleashing unbelievable power.

His words sent into motion an assault on the enemy's kingdom.

Jesus, in his lifetime, he was always on the move.

He came to seek and save the lost.

What do you say in John 10, 10?

The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come that you might have light.

Everywhere went, he was going after the darkness.

He was setting people free.

And Jesus declares that we are to be on the move too.

It's not just about coming and staying in church till Jesus comes back, but he's called the church to go into the world.

He declares we are on the move too.

Think of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

He says, You are the salt of the earth.

But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor?

Can you make it salty again?

It'll be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.

You are the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.

No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket.

Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house.

He's called us to be salt and light.

Salt was not just used for flavor, but in those days it was rubbed into meat as a preservative to keep things from decaying.

Did you know that he sends us into the world to keep the rest of the world from decaying?

He wants everybody to come to faith.

Can I get an amen out of that?

In a sense, he assaults the world.

He sends us out to go into the world.

And he wants us to change the world around us.

Anyplace that a church is established on planet earth, Jesus is making a revolutionary statement.

His church is called to do what he did, called to set the kingdom into motion, and hell can't stop it.

Don't forget the final part of what Jesus says to Peter in his statement.

He said, I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

And whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven.

And whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.

You need to see those verses connected to Jesus' statement about building the church.

Because he essentially says, Listen, I'm going to send things into motion and I want the kingdom to work, but I'm going to give you the keys.

It's your responsibility to do these things.

He's given us the ability to do it.

And he says, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven.

I'd like you to think of a stoplight or a stop sign.

You know, I'm driving down the road and we've got five grandkids now, Jody and I do.

And uh our our our sixth one is due in October.

It's gonna be awesome.

But we're getting used again to having car seats.

And the car seats now are like armored tanks that you put in the back seat compared to the ones that we had kids.

I mean, you know, face to back and all these extra things.

It's like a whole nightmare process to get them in.

But I can tell you, one of my grandsons, he's three years old, we're driving down the road and we stop, and I'm teaching them, hey, what does red mean?

Red means stop.

What does green mean?

Green means go.

And we're teaching them what those things mean.

Red means stop.

Jesus was saying, whatever you throw a stop sign up to in the world that you're in, I'm giving you the authority to stop things, supernatural forces that are against your kids or against your spouse or your family or against the workplace or the team you're on or the friendship group that you're in.

You have the power to stop it.

Even if your argument doesn't work any longer and it seems like they're not changing.

Maybe they used to go to church, but now they're under the influence of some other thing.

Maybe they don't believe in God anymore, or they got caught up in the church hurt movement, or maybe maybe they got a drug or an alcohol addiction or something, and the party scene has taken over, and you're like, I can't change their mind.

No, you can't.

But Jesus has given you authority to throw a stop sign up against them.

And when you know things are going on in your their life, you can pray this way.

I know the devil's got a hold on her or on him, and and and and she's she's getting drunk all the time.

But I I just pray, Lord, that every time she goes to the bottle again, she would get sick when she wants to drink that, that you would break the bondage, the curse that's on her life.

Lord, I know my my friend is no longer in church and won't even listen to me.

I know there's demonic thought processes.

I pray that, Lord, you would end the friendship that is, Lord, destroying their life.

I come against that power in Jesus' name.

And there's an ability to throw a stoplight up against it.

We also need to, by the way, make sure that we throw a stop side up internally.

Because if we have those very things running through our own life while we're trying to rescue those around us, it nullifies our authority.

But then there's the whatever you permit on earth is permitted in the heavens.

That's the green light.

That's all the promises that God has given us.

They're activated wherever a church is gathered, so when we think of what's up there, we can pray God's prayer.

You're like, I don't even know what to pray.

All you got to do is open your word and begin to pray your word over other people's lives.

You can declare those promises so that they're not unaccessed promises.

I think that if you're beginning to pray, you can pray this way.

You can pray, Lord, my daughter, who's now a teenager and she doesn't want to hear anything and she's so upset and she doesn't want to talk to me, then you can pray, Lord, you got a whole lot of people up in your family.

Would you send one Christian after another at school next to her?

Would you would you send people that would influence her?

Would you give her an epiphany in the middle of the night?

Holy Spirit, would you give her dreams while she's sleeping?

I know I pray this way in our city where we have over a hundred thousand Somali immigrants now that are in our city.

And many of them culturally are Islamic and they they they don't want to listen to anything.

But one thing I know is happening all over the world in the Islamic communities, people are having dreams of Jesus.

And they're getting saved because God has gone past all the barriers, the cultural barriers, and giving them I I can pray that way.

I can pray, give them dreams and visions of you, Jesus, even when other things aren't working.

I want to see that happen.

Turn the light on.

I want to throw out a channelist to everyone here today.

How will you see Jesus' word set into motion at home and at work in the city?

He said, I will build my church and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

You gotta start with something.

You gotta start with keys.

How many have keys in your pocket right now?

Pull them out.

And some of you bougie people can start your car with your phone.

I know that.

Pull them out.

Jesus wants you to use what you got.

The keys.

Don't leave them in your pocket.

Don't acknowledge that, yeah, that's something preachers say.

Put it into action.

Put it into action for your family.

Put it into action for your friends.

Put it in action for your school.

Put it into action for this city.

This city needs one church to be a church that's throwing stoplights up and green lights to heaven.

This is using the keys.

Would you stand with me today?

I'm done using the keys, don't worry.

It's not part of this anymore.

I want you to do something now, though.

Everybody can do this.

Put your hands out like this in front of you.

Keep your eyes open.

I want you to imagine in your hands are all the people that God has sent you to be around.

You're around photos of people in your life.

Friendship groups, your family, your next door neighbor, the people you go to work with, the people that are on the sidelines that are your kids, ball games, whatever it is, those people.

Did you know that the photos that are in your hand aren't in mine?

I'll probably never meet any of those people.

Jesus has put them in your hands.

And he says, I'm gonna build my church, and the powers of hell can't stop it.

You are that church, and you're meant to go on offense to pray over those same people.

To throw stop lights up and green lights over their life.

And I want you to do this with me.

We're gonna pray for them today.

I want you to take those photos that are in your hands and probably aren't in anybody else's and lift your hands up to heaven.

Can you do that with me?

Lord, we come before you right now.

We thank you, Father.

Lord, that our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

We thank you, Lord, that you have set us free.

Lord, that there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.

You've given all of us the keys.

Now I pray, oh God, Lord, that you would go after the people in our life.

There's some in our hands that we're lifting to you that are under the power of darkness.

There's something going on that we can't control.

But Lord, would you break the power of demonic strength in their life?

Would you, Lord, shine your light into darkness and do things, even whatever you gotta do, Lord?

Put a green light from heaven over them.

Send every resource you got up there.

The yes and amen of heaven.

Let it be over our kids and our friendships and our families.

We pray in Jesus' name that Lord, your kingdom would come.

You would set things into motion.

We would not accept it as it is.

We would see things moving forward in Jesus' name.

We thank you when we put it in your hands today in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen.

Amen.

Amen.