God's Plan with Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaCurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

We're so glad that you've continued to join us.

If you're new with us, my name's Clayton.

I'm the lead pastor here, and during this season of pandemic, we're very simply just going to God's word and we're asking him to speak to us.

I'm very excited about today.

God has laid something on my heart in a really, really strong way.

And I'm excited to share that with you.

You know, over the last couple of years, there have been few songs as big as Drake's God's plan.

Now, I don't know if you like rap, and if you do like rap, I don't know if you like Drake, and if you like Drake, I don't know if you like rap.

If you like rap, I don't know if you consider Drake a real rapper, but regardless, he is a hit machine.

Everything he puts out goes to the top of the charge, and God's plan was no different.

This was a song, quite simply, just about his life.

And he looked back at the good moments and especially at the bad, the positive and the negative.

And somehow in writing this song, he had the retrospect to see that all of it, the good things and the bad things, were responsible for getting him to where he is today.

In fact, he saw it as God's plan for his life.

We also believe that there is a plan in this moment, a plan in this crisis.

My message today is called God's Plan, and I'm excited to share it with you.

Would you pray with me?

Father, we love you.

We thank you for Jesus.

We thank you that He's changed our life, that He's hope.

God, today I want to uh pray especially for the behind the scenes people who make MetaCurch what it is.

God, we are able to stream together and then continue serving together because of the incredible work they're doing and the hours that they're putting in.

And I pray blessing on them.

I pray for everyone who is streaming with us or who is watching this on an archive that you would give us just open hearts and open minds to whatever you're wanting to do with us today.

Speak to us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Today my message is called God's plan.

And it's the perfect timing because you may not know this, but this Sunday is a very special day in the church world.

We call it Pentecost Sunday.

And it's so significant because Pentecost is the day that this movement we call church actually started.

It was at this specific moment that the movement emerged.

And it's really appropriate on this Pentecost Sunday because it started in a tension that we are all too familiar with right now.

It started with waiting.

The disciples, the people who had been following Jesus throughout his life, the people who had watched him die and come back to life, who just a short time earlier had watched Jesus ascend back to heaven were together.

They were in the upper room and they were waiting and praying because Jesus promised that he was sending the Holy Spirit.

Now they believed Jesus, no questions asked.

When someone tells you they're gonna die and come back to life and they pull it off, you just go with whatever that person says.

And so they prayed and they waited.

And finally, on the day of Pentecost, they went out in public.

In Acts chapter 2, we learn about what happened.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

It says suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying, and they saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them.

And then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, literally different languages, as the Spirit enabled them.

Now, what did Jesus say right before he ascended back to heaven?

He said, Go into all of the world and preach the gospel.

And the gospel is what we call the good news, the good news of what Jesus has done for us, and that by believing in him, it actually changes everything.

These disciples would do just that.

Over time, they would go into all of the world, but it was Pentecost in Jerusalem where they were staying.

And on Pentecost, people came from all over the known world and they emerged on the city of Jerusalem.

And so as they came out in public, there were people from every tribe and every tongue, different languages and dialects all assembled together.

And as the disciples began to preach the gospel in their minds, they were speaking the only language that they knew, but in reality, the Holy Spirit was sending out of them every different language.

And how crazy is it that before they went out into the world to preach the gospel, that Jesus brought the world to them to preach the gospel.

And as the message of Jesus went forth, it was accepted, and 3,000 people were baptized on day one of the church.

It was a celebration.

The church had begun in full force.

The day of Pentecost is what we look back on as the beginning of it all.

We stand in the lineage of Pentecost today, and because of that, many churches have raced to open up today.

It just made sense after this time of being shut down and not being in our buildings.

What better day than Pentecost to begin meeting again?

It's a celebration.

This is when the church started, and this is when the church is gonna meet back together.

It makes a lot of sense, and I'm so happy for all of the churches.

If I were to bet, I would say that more churches are gonna open today than any other time in pandemic.

And why not?

It's Pentecost.

And at Metachurch, we're still streaming.

And at MetaCurch, we're not yet meeting together and moving together.

We're still streaming together and serving together.

And if we're not careful, this can be a source of agitation for us.

Because church doesn't look like what it used to look like.

When I say go to church, for many of you, I mean roll over, turn off your alarm, unplug your phone, and stream church right there in your bed.

Or maybe you're at your kitchen counter, or maybe you're on the porch, or maybe you're in the living room, maybe you're listening to these words through a high-definition sound system, and maybe you just have your airpods in.

Some of you are watching with your family, just praying, God, could I please get through one stream without my kids fighting?

If you're anything like me, you're desperate to get back.

You want to get back to meeting in the building.

I I'm really, I promise you, I'm tired of preaching to empty rooms.

I am ready to be preaching and looking at all of your beautiful faces.

There's like a really small segment of society who this has kind of worked out well for, you know, especially people maybe who are married, but you don't have kids yet, and so it's relaxing, and you get to go to church in your pajamas, and you don't have to put on clothes or brush your hair, you don't have to brush your teeth, no one's here to judge you.

You really get to relax.

Even those people are ready.

They're ready to meet again.

And then you think about the people who are single right now, living alone.

And every Sunday, while the chat is helpful and it's connecting you, it's also a reminder, magnifying you just how alone you are.

And there are others who have kids in the house, and you can't get through a worship set from meta church without kids fighting or changing a diaper or walking your teenager through whatever their newest source of angst is.

Some of you have grown kids, and Sunday was the day that y'all all got together.

There are others who are in a really difficult spot because you're in a vulnerable age group, or maybe you have some pre-existing medical conditions, and if you're honest, you don't know when you'll get to come back to a church building, even after they open.

It can be difficult.

This is this is what church looks like.

This is where we're at.

Once again, we're in the waiting.

And if we're not careful on Pentecost Sunday, the day that so many people are racing back to their buildings, it can become really discouraging for us.

But today I'm here to bring good news.

To bring a different perspective.

And this whole thing that just feels like a massive mistake, we can find so much meaning.

The good news is none of this took God by surprise.

That God is not in heaven wringing his hands, just worried, hoping someone discovers a vaccine, unsure of what the future holds.

God is in control of all of it.

He sees it and he has it, and there is a plan.

And it's not just a plan from this moment moving forward, it is a plan that has been in the works all the way from the beginning.

And to really understand it, we're gonna have to go back.

To understand it, we're gonna have to get a broader perspective.

We're gonna have to increase our view.

To understand it, we don't just go back to Pentecost, we go way back, back almost to the beginning.

Today I want to show you God's plan.

I grew up in churches that were very different from Metachurch.

And we look at it and we say, well, it's different because of style, it's different because the music's different, it's different because of the dress code.

Today I want to suggest that it is different for such significant, deeper reasons than that.

And that whether you have a piano, an organ, or drums, an electric guitar, that it doesn't actually matter.

That's not what God is making his decisions based off of.

That's not how the movement is classified or clarified.

The reason that a lot of the churches I grew up in felt so different wasn't because it's not table and chairs, it's pulpit and pews.

The reason is because so many churches today are still living with a temple mindset.

Pentecost changed everything.

And yet, for many, it changed nothing.

We gotta go way back, way back, way back.

At the very beginning, God creates it all.

And over time, you know, man, we have this thing we do where we sin and we are evil and we go against God and we rebel.

And what was the first sin?

We wanted to be our own God.

We still struggle with that.

Every day we struggle with it.

And eventually, man had grown so wicked that God inherited just one nation for himself.

It wasn't forever, but it was for a specific time and a specific purpose, the nation of Israel.

Now, Israel would get itself in trouble.

At one point, it was trapped in Egypt, slaves to the Egyptian Pharaoh.

We know that God brought Moses in and he rescued them, and as they were on their way out, they were led by the actual Spirit of God.

God would lead them by day in a cloud and by night in a pillar of fire, and everywhere that God went, they would go.

And eventually it was time to set up a house for the Spirit of God.

In Exodus 25, 8 it says, They are to make a sanctuary for me, says God, so that I may dwell among them.

And you must make it according to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, as well as the pattern of all of its furnishings.

And this was very symbolic.

See, what would happen is the cloud and the fire, they would stop moving.

And when it stopped stopped moving, it means that you are to set up the tabernacle.

And the tabernacle is pretty much an elaborate tent.

And when they would set it up, the spirit of God would descend and dwell in the tabernacle.

It was a sign that God lived among God's people.

When it was time to move, the cloud would move, fire would move, pack up the tabernacle, move it down the road.

Eventually, they made it to the promised land.

And in the promised land, they settled in.

And the twelve tribes of Israel, they all got their pieces of land, and over time they said, Other people have a king, we need a king.

And they put a king up, and eventually the lineage of kings landed at King David.

And King David is living in a palace that could be on cribs.

Like everyone else is living in mud huts, and the palace is baller.

The palace just stands out.

It's one of the wonders of the world at that time.

And David's heart is grieved.

Listen to what he says.

He says, The king, speaking of himself, has settled into his palace, and the Lord had given him rest on every side from his enemies.

And the king said to the prophet Nathan, Look, I am living in a cedar house.

I am living in a palace, while the ark of God, representing the presence of God, sits inside of a tent.

And David, he was a screwed up guy, but he had a very real sense of who he was in comparison to God.

And yet, when you compared their residences, it would seem like David was greater than God.

He knew this to be false, he knew this to be a lie, and it broke his heart that he's in a palace and God is in a tent.

He wants to do something about it.

Now God has other plans.

David doesn't get to build it, but his son does.

And so Solomon begins the construction of the temple.

Now there won't just be a palace, but there will be a temple, and the temple will outshine the palace forever.

Finally, the temple is completed.

And a very important moment happens in 1 Kings 8.

It says, When the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the Lord's temple, and because of the cloud, the priests were not able to continue ministering, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

This is a transition.

The transition from tabernacle to temple.

And by the cloud, the personification of the Spirit of God moving into the temple, God was saying, I accept this, I take residence in it.

I'm no longer living in a tent, I'm in a permanent residence.

And the Spirit of God had a home.

The Spirit of God now dwelt in a building in the midst of Israel.

It was a phenomenal moment, a historic moment.

It was a moment that at that point changed everything.

I gotta be honest, God asked Moses to build a sanctuary.

And it's hard for me because I even hear the word, and uh it's like something happens viscerally inside of me.

If I'm completely honest, I have a little bit of baggage with the word sanctuary.

You see, I I grew up in churches that all had a sanctuary.

And in the sanctuary, there were a lot of rules.

Like as a kid, you don't run in the sanctuary.

You can't run in there.

And everything is very formal and everything is very fancy.

It's supposed to be that way.

And the reason that it's supposed to be that way is because many churches still live and exist with a temple mindset.

And in the temple, the Spirit of God lived in a building.

And maybe you grew up in a church, kind of like the churches I grew up in.

And again, it wasn't about piano and organ or drums and guitars.

It's a mindset, a temple mindset that says, This is the sanctuary, and the sanctuary, what will we say, is the house of the Lord.

We've talked about this before, even in translating the word church, we translated the wrong word.

We didn't translate ekklesia, which means a movement of people.

We went from the German kirche, which means the house of the Lord, to the English church.

And so now we have the house of the Lord, and now we have the sanctuary, and God dwells in a building.

And because God dwells in a building, it's up to us now to protect the glory and the sanctity of God.

And how can we protect it?

Well, the first step is to write all kinds of unwritten rules.

Have a dress code, have an expectation, and pretty soon you have churches where everyone looks the same, and everyone sounds the same, and everyone votes the same, and everyone is in the same tax bracket, and everyone is comfortable because there's no tension, and the only tension isn't about who's in the building, the tension is about the building itself.

And churches have split over trying to decide what pictures will go in the stained glass, and churches have split over deciding whether the pulpit will be wood or glass.

And why wouldn't you?

It's so important.

You're furnishing the house of the Lord.

So many people have been hurt because in the temple only the elite are allowed.

In the temple of Israel, the temple that God actually lived in in the Old Testament, only the priest could enter, only the high priest could go into the innermost part.

Not just everyone's allowed.

You can't just let some guy off the street.

You can't let someone who's living in sin.

You can't let someone with a different worldview than you have.

You can't have someone who doesn't fit this certain mold of what a preconceived notion of church should be.

And so we begin to protect and close off and segment.

And why wouldn't we?

If it's a sanctuary.

And in the sanctuary, that's where God lives.

And Pentecost changed everything.

But what if we're unwilling to change?

And I wonder what it would look like if we were able to really just strip it all away.

I wonder what it would be like to strip away all the pomp and circumstance.

What happens when all of our man-made rules about what church is supposed to look like and how it's supposed to go go to the wayside?

What happens when you're in a pandemic and all of a sudden your church buildings are completely empty?

What happens when you have built your whole church around the idea that the sanctuary is where God actually lives, that God still lives in a building?

What happens when you live with a temple mindset and all of a sudden you can't go to your buildings?

And if you can't go to your buildings, you can't worship God because you believe that God lives in the building.

And I'm so tired of people saying that church has been closed.

I appreciate it.

I appreciate the governor, I appreciate the president, church being essential, church is finally essential.

Church was never not essential.

If we believe that Jesus is the only hope for what comes after this life, then it is actually the most essential.

And would God have put together a plan that was contingent on the approval of man in order to be seen as something significant and essential?

What God put together?

God's plan, not our plan.

You see, our plan, when we get past all the facade and the splendor, and the stained glass and having the highest pulpit in town, when we get past our plan and really look at what God's plan was from the very beginning of it all, we see a movement that is unstoppable.

I get it.

I get why you would rush back to church for Pentecost Sunday.

And I'm so happy for people who opened up and I'm praying that it goes well for them.

I'm sure it's gonna be a great celebration.

I just see it differently.

See, the the first Pentecost, the Pentecost that started it all, we weren't celebrating people going to a building to meet the Spirit of God.

That first Pentecost we celebrate the Spirit of God leaving a building and coming out to the people.

See, Pentecost changed the mission.

It changed the mission from monument to movement.

The temple was a monument.

David looked and said, How can I live in a palace and God live in a tent?

God was location based, but all of that has changed now.

The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians, don't you know, don't you know that you are God's temple and that the Spirit of God now lives in you?

Church never closed.

And some of you, I get it, you you want to come back to church.

I understand it.

But we have to fight a temple mindset with everything we have.

We have to.

It is imperative.

A temple mindset is why so many people have disparaged us because one of our venues is in a bar.

And how can you meet in a bar where the Spirit of God could never show up and yet He shows up every time?

And we baptize hundreds of people every year.

Like God is here with us, and God right now is there with you.

Church isn't about what happens on the stage now, church is about what happens right here.

Lights, sound, audio, camera, CG, camera guys that you'll never get to see.

It's coming through you in a new way.

Because God in his movement, his plan of redemption, the hope that he is bringing to the world through his movement we call church, it can't be stuck in a box.

It's everywhere.

And churches right where you are, as lonely as you are, as pissed off as you are, as confused as you are, as worried as you are, as uncertain as you are, right where you are, their churches.

Church isn't something you go to.

That's Old Testament.

That's a temple mindset.

It's no longer about monuments, it's no longer about having the tallest steeple in town.

It is now about having the most effective movement that we could possibly create during our lifetime.

The only way we know how to say it at Metachurch is it's about creating a movement that is filled with people who will do whatever it takes to get people to Jesus.

It's not unwritten rules and formalities, it is real, raw people, jacked up people.

Who, because of Pentecost, because we don't go to a building to worship God, because we are now the temple and the Spirit lives in us, wherever you go, that's where the church is.

And if we can have that mindset, nothing can stop us.

We're gonna get back in our venue someday.

We're gonna open them up someday.

It's gonna happen.

We can be patient.

And the reason we can be patient is because God's plan.

This isn't something that He's having to make up on the fly.

He set the foundation from the very beginning for you to be right where you are, for His Spirit to be with you, and for the church to never, never be stopped.

Wherever you stream, church is there.

Wherever you serve, church is there.

Wherever you pray, that's where church is.

That's where the Spirit of God is.

Wherever you fellowship, wherever you're in community, wherever you sing, wherever you worship, church is there because you are the church.

Would you pray with me?

Father, we love you.

We want to just take a moment to recognize your plan, God, that as I really even in this moment, I just studied this text so much, and even still, my mind is blown.

I was not ready for this.

None of us were ready for this moment.

None of us were ready for this crisis.

The experts weren't ready.

But you were ready.

Your plan.

A plan that cannot be stopped, a plan that cannot be thwarted, a plan that cannot be thrown off.

So, God, we submit to your plan today.

We're grateful to be a part of it.

And God, wherever we are, we thank you that today, on Pentecost Sunday, we're having church.

We love you.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Man, we're so glad that you guys stuck with us today, that you streamed with us.

We're so glad to show you a little bit behind the scenes of how this is all going.

Because this, this is church.

If you're a part of this movement, we always want to remind you, we want to encourage you.

Continue to give.

This is part of what you're funding, the ability to send these messages out, to send this content out, to continue reaching new people, even in the midst of coronavirus.

If you are with us, follow us.

Follow us on social media, Facebook and Instagram.

Keep up to date.

We're going to continue sending encouraging content.

And as soon as we have an update about venues opening or how we're moving forward, that's where you will find it.

Man, we love you guys.

We love you.

And we hope that you continue to be safe and to be the movement.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast.

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If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv.

There you can learn how to take next steps.

You can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit.

And you can also give financially to help push this movement forward.

Man, I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.