Essentials (Part 5): Collaboration

Welcome to Heaven Earth Church.

My name is Ross Stackhouse.

I'm the founding pastor of Heaven Earth Church.

From the beginning, our heart was to be a church for people who

don't fit neatly into church.

Our heart is to meet people where they are, to learn their stories,

to honor their stories.

Because in every human story is God's story.

In this podcast, you'll hear more about the people who now call

Heaven Earth Church home.

Their stories, in many cases of misfits who are discovering or

rediscovering faith.

If you want to know more about us, you can go to heavenorthchurch.org

Otherwise, we invite you now into the story.

Hello, good people.

Brad Miller here, the producer of the Heaven Earth Church podcast.

One of the main benefits of being a part of the Heaven Earth

Church community is our Sunday morning conversations taught by founding

pastor Ross Stackhouse.

You can watch and participate in the Sunday morning conversation

this Sunday morning, 9:30am Eastern time at YouTube.com heavenerthchurch.

The audio version of the Sunday morning conversation is available

here on the podcast, which you can find at Apple Podcasts, Spotify

and on the website, which is heavenearthchurch.org Here now is

part five of the Essentials Message series, collaboration with

Pastor Ross Stackhouse.

All right, let's pray, and then we'll have our conversation

together.

God, I ask that you would illuminate our minds.

You'd help us to see something that we could not see on our own.

Help us to understand you in a way that we could not on our own

and ignite our lives so that we go from this space and live out

our purpose, the purpose to which you call us.

It is good to be in community.

We can't do this alone.

You've created us for community, so we thank you for that.

And with that in mind, we pray for the prayers of someone in our

community.

Kara's prayer for Lauren.

We lift her up into your light and her family.

We ask for your intervention.

We ask for your glory to shine in and through this moment.

Hear the prayers of our hearts, the ones that are unspoken.

Lord, receive them and help us to see you active in them.

In the name of Jesus, amen.

So I told you the story about how the summer after my senior year,

I started working for a contractor.

Told you that before learned it was like, you know, they say fire

hose experience, man, this guy was not the guy who would, like,

walk you slowly and teach you something.

He's like, hey, just go over there and frame that wall.

And he would do that knowing that, like this wall, he could fix

it after you framed it, but that was what he taugh.

That summer, I learned so much.

I learned, honestly, there are many things I'm not so good at, but

I had some natural kind of skill.

I took to things quickly working with that guy.

But the coolest thing was later I brought some of those skills

back home.

And at my dad's house, we ripped up the carpet in the living

room and the hallway, and my dad and I together laid a new hardwood

floor.

Like, both of us on our knees, just plank by plank.

I mean, we got fancy with it.

We even framed in the fireplace.

I mean, I looked like I knew what I was doing.

And this was, like, my second hardwood floor ever.

I learned because the first one I did, the subcontractor, who

was supposed to help me again, my boss was like, hey, I want you

to go over to this house.

You're going to rip out this ceramic floor on the entire downstairs

of this house, and then we're going to put in a new cherry hardwood

floor.

I was like, cool.

I don't know how to do that.

But.

But there was a subcontractor there who was going to kind of.

I was going to chip in and help him.

Well, the problem with the subcontractor was the homeowners

had put plastic on the couch.

Well, that.

The subcontractor was his invitation to sleep in the house.

So I showed up one day, and I started working.

He was like, hey, it looks like you're doing pretty good.

I'm gonna lay down and rest for a minute.

He just fell asleep and started snoozing on the couch.

So now it was just me doing this.

He laid these hardwood boards in the threshold.

He put a piece of hardwood down, and then imagine two.

The hardwood coming together to meet that.

Well, the.

The hardwood was coming up like this because he had, like, glued

it down.

And I learned a lot that summer.

Did I tell you?

So by the time I got to my dad's house, man, I was an expert.

I knew what I was doing.

No, I didn't.

But how cool is it that I grown up and I got to bring something

back to contribute to my dad's house?

I got to build with my.

My dad when he had.

He had spent so much, like, providing for me.

And I just felt invigorated.

I felt proud to be building in my father's house.

And so every time we walked on that hardwood floor, like, we could

look down and be like, hey, we did that together.

I want to talk to you about our last essential.

Today we've been talking about the HEC discipleship essentials.

And it's just that that illustration I just described is

how.

Here are the five essentials, by the way we've been talking about.

Oh, wait, no, I forgot.

Before I get to that, we're going to see how you do five essentials.

No cheating.

Can you name any of them?

Because you saw it up there.

What was that, Katie?

That is two number discipleship Essential number two

is humble, hungry and willing to seek Jesus's way.

Scent is the fourth essential.

We just talked about it.

Maybe you saw it up there.

That essential means like we're willing to take seriously that,

that Jesus is sending us to places and people and we're willing

to go.

Before we really know exactly why, we just show up and we're going

to do it.

So there's two.

The first one's long, so it's kind of tough.

We want to be shaped from the inside out by continuous companionship

with God.

Short version, we want to be shaped from the inside out.

In other words, we're not trying to perform religion.

Jesus was always speaking against that.

Like, religion is not an opportunity to perform.

Build your resume.

It is an inside out transformation that happens in friendship

with God.

A continuous friendship.

It's not just something that you do on Sundays for an hour, though.

This is good.

We need this community time together.

So second, that's first.

Second one is humble, hungry and willing to seek Jesus.

Number three is grace and the great commands at the core of our

lives.

Grace and the great commands.

Great commands.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.

And the second is like it, love your neighbors, yourself.

For Jesus, that was kind of the core.

Not kind of, it was the core.

It is the core of who he is and what he does.

Today we're talking about the fifth one.

Great collaboration with Big Good News.

Great collaboration with big good News.

That's what we're going to talk about today.

So the sermon basically breaks down those two things.

First in reverse order, this big good news.

And then the second part breaks down how we are called to

serve with Jesus, collaborate with Jesus in this big good news.

So just like I grew up in these skills, I discovered a skill

that I had honed that craft and brought it back to my father's

house to build.

That's what Jesus is inviting us to as well.

So I want to talk to you about that today.

First, I've asked you this before.

I'll ask you now again.

We're Just going to keep doing this.

What is the good news in like 30 seconds or less.

Online, folks.

Let's hear from you too.

What is the good news of Jesus?

So if you don't.

Why am I asking that?

Each there are four gospels that give the account of Jesus life.

That word gospel is a word in Greek that also means good news.

You could either use good news or gospel interchangeably.

So each person said they wrote a book called the good news according

to Matthew, the good news according to Mark.

What is the good news of Jesus?

Natalie says the good news is that when we messed up, God didn't

abandon us.

God came to us and gave us the tools to make our way back to God

and help others make their way back to God.

Okay, dig that.

What's the good news?

Don't be shy.

It's not like we're like, ha ha, you're wrong.

I got you.

Let me prove you wrong here in a minute.

Jim.

Jesus came to seek and to save.

It's good.

Yeah, you get credit for conciseness there too.

Jim.

That was like seven words, man.

Way to go.

Come on, be bold.

It's.

We're just.

We're just learning together.

We're all beginners here, Jill.

Forgiveness and grace and hope.

I'm no longer a slave to sin through Jesus Christ.

Okay, what's the good news?

Pt.

Pt quotes John 3:16.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son

that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal

life.

Everlasting life.

Okay, anyone else want to chip in some.

Adam, the kingdom of heaven is drawn near.

You saw my notes, Adam, you cheater.

No, I'm kidding.

He.

No way he could have seen that kingdom of heaven has drawn near.

Anybody else want to chip in something?

Julie.

Jesus took on our sins with his sacrifice.

Our church's name is.

You may know this by now.

You may get tired of hearing it.

Well, better get used to it.

Our church's name is what it is because it is built directly off

of the big good news.

I can tell you right now, like, spoiler alert, everything that

you have said is a part of the good news.

I didn't hear one thing that I was like, ah, not really.

That's out.

Part of the reason the church has suffered of late, has lost people,

is because we've talked about this a lot.

The big good news got reduced to something very small, something

we could easily explain.

Something formulaic.

The big good news is kind of mysterious.

We're going to look at that Today, and we're going to look at

it through the lens of like two verses.

So we'll do that really quick.

And then we're going to look at, like, what the part we have to

play.

So first of all, this is one version.

I'm going to show you why I came up with this version.

Jesus comes to restore all of creation.

He came to save the world.

Another way to say it.

So did PT For God so loved the world.

Jesus came to save the world, to restore all of creation, to renew

everything.

Revelation 21:5.

Revelation 21:5

Behold, I'm making all things new and to bring his eternal kingdom

of glory here to this wild earth.

That's one way to say it.

That's the biggest good news.

Jesus didn't just come to save individual people and to help individual

people get to a heaven that is elsewhere.

He came to restore the entire creation, to fix everything that

is broken, to face death, evil and the forces of sin, so that God's

glory just takes over, spills out into the earth.

Habakkuk says, the knowledge of the Lord's glory will cover the

earth as surely as the waters cover the sea.

Big good news.

And the good mission Jesus desire is that we would turn our

lives to him, such that we believe in him, trust his good news

and join in building this new creation.

So if I were to put it like the good news and like Jim Fisher

version short, the new creation has begun and it starts

in you, inside you.

Second Corinthians talks about, anyone who believes in Jesus

is becoming a new creation.

You're a new creation, joining and building the new creation.

Are you with me?

Summary all is forgiven.

All will be made new.

Heaven is crashing into earth.

Give your life to the restorer and join the work.

All is forgiven.

All isn't well yet, but it will be.

It will be.

So here, I'm going to show it to you in a verse.

First of all, I don't do this often.

That version is.

You're like, what's that Bible version there?

Well, those are my initials.

I don't do this often because it would be weird if all we ever

did.

You'd be like, that's not a reliable translation.

Because that's just one guy's thought.

But today, don't worry, I'm going to look at another translation

to hold me accountable.

This is my translation of the original language.

After John was handed over, he came into Galilee proclaiming the

good news of God's kingdom.

The time.

I put the Greek word in parentheses there.

The time has arrived and the kingdom of God has come near.

Turn your life around and trust this good news.

Can you read that last word?

On the count of three.

One, two, three.

It's in plural in the original language.

Or if you're from the south, trust this good news, y'all.

So if you ask Jesus what the good news is, there it is.

He says it real plain.

But Jesus did his Jesusy thing.

He says it plainly, but you're like, huh?

What is it?

We're going to talk about it.

Here's the niv.

I'm not that far off course.

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming

the good news of God.

The time has come.

He said.

The kingdom of God has come near.

Repent and believe the good news.

The time has come.

All right, we're going to travel through this really quickly,

and I'm going to show you.

Let's see.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Like, six things, but it's going to be fast.

To break this down to help you to take this big good news.

Keep growing in this big good news that you are invited to be a

part of.

You're not some, like, small, insignificant thing that Jesus is

like, yeah, I guess you can come along and be with it.

I guess.

No.

Trust this good news, y'all.

Everybody.

So first of all, really quickly, we could skip over this

part after John was handed over.

Don't overlook how John the Baptist does his part.

Our essential is right there.

Essential 5.

Collaboration is right there.

John the Baptist is practicing essential 5.

He prepares the way for Jesus.

And then Jesus shows up.

And also, it's at a cost.

John the Baptist gets arrested.

And it doesn't end so well for our guy John.

He might.

He might have lost his head.

Yay.

Isn't following Jesus fun?

But it's worth it to John.

All right, see, look, we already did one.

I told you.

We're gonna go fast next.

This is huge.

This is huge right here.

I think a lot of the times, what we're frustrated about as human

beings, we're frustrated with time.

We're stuck in, like, the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks,

months, years, decades, centuries, millennia, and so on.

And that's how we view things.

Like, everything feels like it's wrong, and it's wrong forever

to us because, like, something happens in our life, and we bear

the grief of that for the rest of our 40, 50 years.

But what this is saying to us is that there's some.

There's, like, human time.

Greek word for that is chronos.

We get chronology from it then it has this other word though, kairos.

This word means like God's time has come.

Peter says it this way in second Peter 3.

8.

A day to the Lord is like a thousand years.

That's not comforting, right?

In a way, like, I don't feel any better about what you just said,

Ross, but what this person is saying, like, hey, don't just get

stuck in your human experience of time.

Like God is doing something beyond you, what you can currently

feel, understand, like God is doing something.

It made me think of this, if I can find it.

There was, I was reading an article on Harvard and the Smithsonian

do this joint effort and I was reading an article on there that

talked about like what happened right before the Big Bang.

And then like in this, like short, short I I it that's not even

going to do it justice before there are all these gases compressing

and such, right?

Of course, you all know that, right?

You're astrophysicist in your spare time.

But then when it compressed, I think it was in a billionth of a

trillionth of a trillionth of a second, right?

You got that right.

You following me?

All of a sudden the universe expanded at a rate of 10 to the 26th

power.

So like there was nothing.

And then in a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second,

there was everything.

That's a small glimpse into God's time.

I wonder if it'll be like that.

It'll seem like there's nothing.

And in one day Jesus says the time has come.

Like God's time is crashing into this.

So that's point two.

Look, we did it.

We've done two.

We've got like three things left to illustrate this for you.

Next.

This verb in the original language is everything.

It's a word that means like the two things have joined together.

One thing has started to crash into the other.

The kingdom of God has come near.

It started to join up with Earth.

I'm going to send you out a video this week from the Bible Project

that illustrates this point.

The kingdom of God has like, started to smash in and join up with

Earth.

That's Jesus's good news.

The time has come.

This transcendent reality has started to join up with this reality.

It started.

It's begun.

Next.

Look, I told you, we're moving fast.

Any people who are English grammar nerds in the room like, you

love grammar?

Anyone?

Okay, we got one.

These verbs, I'm really going to nerd out.

Sorry for you.

Don't.

For all of you.

Don't care about this.

These are in the perfect tense.

Yay.

Oh, man.

Man, Ross changed my life today.

He told me these verbs were in the perfect tense.

Really hit me right here.

The perfect tense is something that happens in the past, but it's

still getting worked out in the present and in the future.

Like, it's not just a past thing.

Yes, it happened in the past.

It's already happened.

But, like, it's unfolding right now.

The time has arrived and the kingdom of God has come near again.

We're frustrated.

We're like, why isn't it happening?

Daggone it.

One time.

Jesus is like, do you not know that I could bring down legions of

angels right now and, like, do a thing?

And Peter's like, but go then.

But that's not how he works.

He works with you and me.

People have said it like this.

The kingdom of the heavens is here now and not yet.

Darn it, that's frustrating.

And then I already said it.

Last one.

I think we made it.

Everyone, this thing is not just about some individuals.

This is for every single person that you meet.

It's everyone, Every person you meet.

So turn your life around and trust this, like, be a part of it.

Oh, and this turn your life around thing, it's not just a one

time deal.

Like, oh, oh, I feel I had this, like, on this emotional high.

I went up and got baptized today, so now I'm good.

I'm just going to wait until I go to heaven after I die.

Nope, turn your life around.

Keep turning around.

Because guess what?

Within 30 minutes of leaving here today, you're going to want

to turn back to the things that you think make you well.

The things that you think heal you.

Things that you've come.

Your solutions, man.

We're solutions people, aren't we?

My life has been really hard.

I've got my solutions for it.

I've come up with my strategy.

How do your strategies work?

Is that funny?

We crash and burn with our strategies.

And then the next time we're like, I'm gonna come up with a strategy.

I'm gonna come up with my plan.

Sometimes they're good.

When are they good, Emily?

What makes them good?

When they work.

That's another thing we'll talk about someday.

Okay, we made it through the first part.

Like, this is big good news.

Like, forgiveness is a part of it.

Like, hey, if you've got a rap sheet, like, you've spent your whole

life, like, doing the wrong things, turned toward the darkness,

forgiven.

Yeah, but don't I need to, like, go do some time or something.

Nope.

Forgiven.

Expunged.

You have no debt, no prison time waiting for you.

Forgiven.

But that's just to free you to join the work.

We stopped short of that part.

We stopped short of that part that just.

The only point was that you're expunged.

No.

Jesus came to break you out of prison.

The thing that you keep getting trapped in.

He came to set you free and say you have nothing to fear.

Watch, I'll show you.

I will confront the worst of human evil.

I'll confront death itself.

And I will raise up.

I'll be raised up on the other side.

You have nothing to fear.

Join me in the work.

Stop trying to save your own life.

It's saved already.

Go live for it.

Be a part of the new creation.

All right, here's how it's said in Ephesians.

And we're gonna have some fun.

I think it's fun.

Maybe it's not.

I don't know.

Fun to me is maybe not what's fun to you.

Ah, here it is.

Paul talks about it this way.

Oh, boy.

I'm gonna do it.

Emily, I shouldn't do this, but this is weird.

I swear.

It's going to get practical in a minute.

Just stay with me.

We're almost done today, okay?

Paul has this great chapter in Ephesians 4.

Alan Hirsch summarizes it this way.

Duh.

He says that Jesus came and did his ministry, the ministry of

Christ.

X is the first word for Christ in Greek.

The ministry of Christ.

He came and did his thing, but then he was dead serious when he

said things like this.

I'm leaving and I'm giving it to you.

So all of us are the body of Christ.

He left and gave the ministry of Christ to you, Eva, and you, Marnie,

and you, Ninja Turtle.

Mark.

I'll make sense of that in just a minute, okay?

He gave it to us.

Why?

So the fullness of Christ would take over the earth.

The mox to the box to the fox.

That's the beginning.

That's what?

Ephesians, the beginning.

Like, the good news is that the fullness of Christ, if you want

to undertake, is taking over the earth.

The fullness of Jesus.

Glory, his love.

All the cool things that make Jesus cool are taking over the earth.

The fullness of Christ is coming.

And he came to start it with his ministry.

But in the in between, he did this weird, dangerous thing.

He gave it to you, Adam.

He said, I'm leaving.

I'm going to give you my holy Spirit.

The Father's going to send the Holy Spirit into your life so that

you grow up into the fullness of Christ and the uniqueness of you.

And you join in building this new creation.

And Paul, now here's where it gets fun.

I hope.

I hope that's my son singing back there.

I'm glad they're having a good time.

I want to show you these real quick.

This is a personality test, like one of the first of its kind.

You love personality tests.

I'm about to give you a new one.

It's how Mark realized he was a Ninja Turtle.

Okay.

It's a new personality test.

So there are five categories.

We're gonna add a six called the Ninja Turtle because it's what

Mark Knutson is.

He says that he gave some apostles.

So this is like Jesus goes.

He shares all these gifts.

He's handing out his ministry to you.

So like Dave, you're either gifted as an apostle, a prophet,

an evangelist, a shepherd, or a teacher.

And right now, Dave is going, well, thanks, Ross.

I'm none of those things because I don't think of myself as

an apostle, a prophet, evangelist, a shepherd, or teacher.

But each of you has one of those primary giftings, and I believe

it.

Do you believe it?

Whether we want it or not, most of the time.

I'm going to break it down real quick, and I'll send these out.

It's called Apest for short.

Apostle, prophet, evangelist.

Instead of pastor, shepherd, teacher, Apest, you're going to be

telling all your friends about this personality test you did at

church.

Really quick, let's run through it.

Then you're like, oh, shoot.

Julie Knudson was like, I might be an evangelist.

What we all think evangelists is someone who's like.

We walk up to someone on the street corner and be like, hey, how

you doing?

I'm Ross.

Hey, if you died today, do you know where you're going?

Not evangelism.

Here's what evangelism is.

Lots of stuff here.

We're gonna go through it quickly.

Apostles are the entrepreneurs and explorers.

They start new things.

I'm not going to read all this.

Apostles go to the horizon.

They go to the frontier in the church.

These are the sent ones who plant new things for new people for

the sake of Jesus.

Amazing mission.

So I'll tell you which one I am.

That one.

I started a bunch of new things in my life.

Some of them have failed.

Some of them have worked.

If the next thing fails, I'm gonna start something else.

Just how I'm Wired.

I feel called to go find the people who are lost because I felt

lost.

I have a heart for them.

These are the entrepreneurs and explorers.

They're mission centered.

They look to the horizon.

They want to reach people that are lost or forgotten.

The prophets are the truth tellers, advocates and messengers.

My wife is waking up in this prophet gifting.

I think it might be her primary.

They'll call themselves themselves.

Ooh, this is critical.

We got a lot of prophets on Facebook who calling everybody else

out.

Prophets call themselves out too.

They help people turn back to the heart.

They look deeply into how we got here, but also they look to where

we're going.

Evangelists.

I explained it to Julie this way.

Julie, is there a place that you love to go, like a restaurant

that you love to go and like, you keep going back there?

Was it yozos?

And I said, julie, have you told anyone about a yozos?

She's like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's what an evangelist does.

When they experience something good, they can't help but share others.

They want to gather people in.

They're networkers, gatherers and proclaimers.

They invite people to discover what they discovered in the church.

These are the ones who help others to encounter Jesus for the

first time or again.

They gather people in.

The shepherds are the caregivers, the empaths, the healers.

They wake up and they're just like wired with compassion.

In the church, they're the good Samaritans, the people who find

the people who are hurting and they move near to them and seek healing

alongside them.

And the teachers are the treasure hunters, like, not literally.

They're the truth seekers, the treasure hunters and the sages.

They're humble, curious and wise.

They're always searching for wisdom from experiences, relationships,

texts and more.

They're not satisfied with the surface.

In the church, they are the students who mine for the treasures

of God's heart through scripture, prayer and other practices.

And they intentionally communicate what they found.

Apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, teacher.

So in the coming days, I didn't say this so that you would,

like, know today exactly what you are.

And I'll bet you some of you got it stirring right now.

Like, man, maybe I'm this thing.

Holy cow.

Jesus came to activate that in you so you'd come fully alive in

it and you join in the work of building the new creation.

So what we're going to do, it's late, we're late.

We're running behind.

That's okay.

We're going to have communion together to end today.

And then maybe we'll have to rearrange a song or communion.

Do communion like the Big Bang.

We'll have to do it like really fast.

But I want to give you time to think about and sit with Jesus and

consider, hey, what have you called me to be?

What gifts have you given me?

So I'm going to pray and then we're going to do communion together.

Lord, help us in our hearts, in our lives to know your big good

news.

Like help us not to just know it in our heads, but to know it in

our hearts and our souls.

And help us to join you in it, to turn our lives around, to trust

you, to be a part of it.

Become alive in this gifting that you've given us and to know

the invigoration of just sharing that.

Guide us Lord, and be with us at this table so that we sit with

you.

We know you in Jesus name, Amen.

Thank you for participating in the conversation happening at Heaven

Earth Church.

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rating and your review.

Instructions on how to do just that and links are in the show notes.

You can always find out more by going to the church website.

Heaven Earth Church.

We want to thank you for spending time with us today.

My name is Ross Stackhouse, the pastor to Heaven Earth Church

and you may think out there that your story is over, but in fact

your faith story may just be beginning.

If you want more information about our church or you're interested

in the next step, you can go to heavenorthchurch.org otherwise

we look forward to being with you next time at the Heaven Earth

Church Podcast Podcast.