Jesus Builds His Church | Becoming a Jesus Church: Week 1

Well, good morning, Grace Church, and good morning to everybody who's joining us online.

If you have a Bible or a Bible app, I'm going to encourage you to open up to Matthew chapter 16, verses 13 through 21.

Matthew 16:13–21

Again, Matthew 16, verses 13 through 21.

Matthew 16:13–21

Today we're beginning our all-church journey called Becoming a Jesus Church.

And I've been thinking about this and praying about this for a very long time.

Our elders began having this conversation over a year ago, formalizing it about six months ago, and now we're ready to lead our church into this next mandate that we have to become more like Jesus individually and as a body together.

Now, as you drove in this morning, I know it was a little wet out there, but as you drove in, you drove into this big, beautiful new asphalt welcome mat, didn't you, this morning?

Wasn't that fun?

And so uh we can clap for that and celebrate that.

For those of you um who do not know, a couple of months ago we began a capital campaign to reseal the asphalt driveway, which needed to be done desperately.

Uh, and through your generosity, through God's moving among us, you know, we were able to raise a little over$850,000.

Half of that is going towards the asphalt.

The other part will be to the back of the building and some other areas we have to fix up and the bathrooms.

And eventually, Lord willing, sometime next spring or fall, we'll have a beautiful playground outside the cafe for our kids as well.

So I just want to take a moment and say, Lord, thank you for your graciousness to us as a church.

Uh, that you used your people to really be generous, to meet the needs of the physical building and to also bless the future children.

God, thank you for that.

So, church, thank you for being responsible and responsive to how God has worked in you.

Thank you so much.

Just one more time.

I mean, just seriously, that's a big deal.

It's a big deal.

Now, when I first heard the Lord call me to be a pastor, I had no idea that a part of that calling was going to be leading God's people in this kind of a parking lot campaign.

In fact, uh, when you feel called to be a pastor, there's all kinds of things you want to do.

You want to preach, you want to shepherd people, you want to spend time with people, helping them become more like Jesus.

But there's this lovely little title in your job description, and you've probably seen it in yours too.

Other duties as assigned.

You know that?

You know that title?

That was one of those other duties as assigned.

I never wanted to do that in life, but God equips you to do those things wherever He is gonna call you.

But do you remember when you were a kid, do you remember the first time that you wanted to become something?

Do you remember that in your life?

That first time, you're like, oh, I want to become this thing when I'm older.

I want to be a doctor or a teacher or a nurse or a firefighter.

There's a moment, it usually happens when you're a small child, when you want to be this thing in life.

And maybe you are that thing, or maybe your life took you in a totally separate direction.

But what happens is when you have an idea about what you want to become, that idea will motivate you to begin pursuing things that transform you into the thing you would like to be.

And so as you get older and you say, I'm gonna become this thing, you start making intentional decisions, both personally at the personal level, but also at an organizational or a corporate level.

So on a personal plane, you do all kinds of things.

Like if you want to become a craftsman or a DIYer at your house, what do you do?

You pursue personal things.

I'm gonna get YouTube open, see how they do it, I'm gonna learn how to do it myself.

And you start reading books, you might be watching listen to some podcasts, but there's this individual pursuit of becoming something.

But if you want to formalize that, if you want to make it more of a profession or a career, or you want to be considered a uh sort of a master in an area, you have to pursue it organizationally or corporately.

And so as you get a little bit older as a young person, you start saying, well, maybe if I want to be a nurse, then I should probably go to a nursing college.

Because I can only learn so much on YouTube.

Right?

So I have to go somewhere with people who are trained that can help me become the thing that I want to become.

If I'm going to be a tradesman, I need to go apprentice with somebody, and then I need to get licensed through the state or other organizations.

And even if you want to be an entrepreneur, thinking to yourself, I don't need school, I don't need anybody else, even entrepreneurs they form networks and associations.

So everybody, if you're trying to become something, you'll do it in these two areas.

First is the personal pursuit, but then you're going to fall into the corporate pursuit.

And so as we begin this all-church journey becoming a Jesus church, we crafted this journey with those two things in mind.

First are the individual tools you need to become more like Jesus.

And we have this devotional book.

And so today, on your way out of the auditorium, we're going to give you an all-church journey workbook for free at no cost.

It's for you to individually, throughout the week, read the devotions, understand the content, wrestle with the questions, help it shape you.

But also we have this thing called the church.

And it's a corporate gathering where we will come together every single Sunday.

And Lord willing, many of you throughout the week inside of your small groups to together become more like Jesus.

And just I want to give a quick shout out to Pastor Rob and his team and to all of our group leaders.

You know that we have 650 people going through small groups this season.

650 people.

That's a lot.

Rob smiling at me because he said, Dan, that's not accurate.

The real number's 535 adults plus 110 students, but our students are doing it too, so I'm counting them, Rob.

I'm counting them.

I know the real numbers, but our young people are people, and they're all going through it.

If you're a part of a grace church, uh, and we want all of you to be a part of grace church at the deepest of levels, then this journey is for you to become more like Jesus, both individually and together as a body of Christ.

Now, the day that you said yes to Jesus, you may not know this, but the day that you said yes to Jesus, you said yes to learning from him to become like him.

You said yes for your salvation, you said yes for your forgiveness, but there was another little agreement that you made, which was to be transformed into his very own likeness.

Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 11, 29 about being his follower.

He says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

Did you hear that phrase?

Learn from me, learn from me, learn how to be like me, learn how to worship God like me, learn how to pray like me, learn how to love other people like me, learn from me.

When you take my yoke upon you, learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Now I know it's easy to read the Bible and think, well, this sounds very individualistic, right?

This is just for me.

I will take on Jesus' yoke, I will pursue him, I'll become like him.

And while there's all kinds of ways you can personally become like Jesus, whether it's prayer or meditation on God's word or serving other people with the gifts that God's given you, when Jesus called his disciples, did he call one or did he call twelve?

Twelve.

That's not a trick question.

Okay?

I know it's math, but ain't that hard, okay?

Did he call one or did he call 12?

He called 12.

He called people in community to follow him, to take on his yoke, to learn from him.

And those twelve became the first church.

And so here's what all of us need to grasp about God's intention for the church.

The church is God's design.

Okay, it's God's design for people to gather together to be with and become like Jesus.

That's why this thing exists.

It is for us to gather together to be with and become like Jesus.

And so this invitation of becoming a Jesus church is not something that I'm asking you to do individually, it's something I'm asking all of us to do together, because this is the way God intended it.

But there is a huge difference between Christianity and following after Jesus than any other kind of occupation or becoming you might go through.

You see, in this world, if you want to become a doctor and you get into medical school and you get teachers and people around you to help you become a doctor, at the end of the day, whether or not you become a doctor is still entirely up to you.

You've got to do all the work, you've got to attend all the classes, you've got to take in the information, you've got to put the skills to practice.

It's all up to you and every other worldly system to become the thing that this system wants to produce in you.

But following Jesus is different.

The church is not some man-made institution.

This is a divine body established by Jesus.

And because it is a divine work, the work of becoming like Jesus is not ultimately up to you.

It's entirely up to Jesus.

You see, the reality is you cannot transform yourself into the image of Jesus.

You cannot try harder to simply become more like Jesus, do more of the things that Jesus did, discipline yourself into becoming a holy and transformed person.

Only Jesus has ever been able to do the work of Jesus.

So here's a couple questions.

Can you save yourself?

Yes or no?

No, Jesus does that, right?

Can you give yourself the Holy Spirit?

Yes or no?

No, only Jesus can do that.

So when Jesus gives you the Spirit, he gives you the Spirit of God internally to transform you, and he gives this thing called the church, where we all in fullness have the same Holy Spirit, being more transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

And that's why Jesus says in Matthew 16, 18, I will build my church.

It is a declaration and it is a promise and it is a statement that Jesus is going to the work, going to do the work of building his people into what he wants them to become.

And so as we begin the all-church journey, the first thing I want you to understand is that Jesus is the builder of his church.

He is the builder.

Let's listen to Matthew 16, 13 to 18 in its entirety.

Now then Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, and he asked his disciples, Who do people say the Son of Man is?

And they said, Well, some say you're John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.

And he said to them, But who do you say that I am?

Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjonh, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

You know, there's always been a lot of debate about who Jesus is.

Just look online today.

You'll find all kinds of people arguing over the historical Jesus, the person of Jesus, Jesus the Son of living God, all kinds of things about Jesus.

Lots of debate.

But Peter in this statement moved out of the realm of debate and into the realm of concrete declaration.

He wasn't trying to figure out who Jesus was.

He knew who Jesus was, that Jesus was the Christ.

The Christ simply means the promised Messiah to the Jewish people, the one who would be redeeming all of Israel and all of mankind, who is also the Son of the living God.

And so what we see about the church, if Jesus is building his church, the true church, the true church of Jesus, are people who share in Peter's confession as it is revealed to them by the Father who gave them this divine knowledge.

Now, Matthew chapter 16, 18 is the first time you see Jesus use the word church.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

It's the first time he calls his followers, not just his disciples, but his church.

A church is an assembly of people gathered together with common purpose, and it can be more than simply twelve learners or twelve disciples.

And then Jesus makes a declaration.

On this rock I will build my church.

Now, what is the rock that Jesus is going to build his church on?

There's a lot of debate about this too.

Some people say, well, Jesus was talking about Peter, and partially maybe he was talking about Peter.

But the reality is, can a divine institution like the church really be built on weak, instable, infallible man?

It can't.

So what is the rock?

Jesus is saying, I am the rock, I am the profession of faith.

Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, that profession is the rock upon which Jesus will build his church.

Jesus is the Son of the Living God.

And here's what Jesus says about that.

That profession, if you profess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, that profession is not man-made knowledge.

It's actually divinely given to you by God the Father.

If you have that knowledge and you have that profession of faith, that's a divine gift revealed to you by God the Father.

And so what we see about the true church is that the true church is really the same kind of person with one profession.

That we all profess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and we make that profession because God the Father in heaven himself revealed the truth of that to our souls, and we submitted to it.

You know, if you're wondering how conversion works, that's really how conversion works.

When you hear the truth of the gospel preached, the Holy Spirit of God speaks to your soul and reveals to you the truth that this Jesus really is the Son of the Living God.

He really is the one who died to take away the sin of the world.

And when the Holy Spirit of God speaks to you, when God speaks to you and you say yes to that information, you give your life over to it fully, you have now professed faith in Jesus, the true Son of the Living God, and you've entered this thing called the church.

That's your story.

That's what we see recorded for multiple conversions in the New Testament.

Look at the conversion of uh Paul and chap in Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Paul is walking down the road when Jesus reveals himself to him.

And when Jesus reveals himself to Paul, Paul says, Yes, Lord.

He he recognizes immediately that this is the Lord.

And Paul gives his life over at that day to following after Jesus.

And on that day he became a part of the church.

This is how every single person enters the global body that is followers of Jesus.

And on the day that you got saved, you know this.

You didn't become a member of Grace Church that day.

You didn't become a member of whatever church you got saved in or whatever VBS you were at.

You became a member of the Christ of Christ's church, the church that he died for, the universal body of believers who are all of us eternally indwelled by the Spirit of the Holy God.

That is the church.

You belong to something so much bigger than just grace church.

You belong to something so much more fantastic with such a long history, 2,000 years of history in the world, changing people's lives, giving the good news to many nations, healing the sick, establishing hospitals, education.

This world has been transformed by the Church of Jesus Christ in the last 2,000 years, and you're a part of that story.

Isn't that awesome?

It's cool.

Maybe.

And so Jesus has saved you, and Jesus is using his Holy Spirit and this church to build you and to make you more into the person of Jesus.

And that makes sense when you think about who Jesus is.

You know, in 1 John chapter 1, we're told that in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and through Him all of creation was made.

1 John 1 · chapter mention

That means that Jesus, since before time even existed, was a builder.

And his first act was to build the universe and build creation, and then he built mankind.

So it only makes sense that when he incarnates and becomes a human being, what's his trade?

He's a carpenter, he's a builder.

That's what he likes to do.

And then when Jesus ascended into heaven, do you know what he told his disciples?

I go and prepare a place for you.

So what is Jesus doing now?

He's building an eternal living dwelling for all of us who are his followers.

And he says when he comes back, he's going to complete that work.

Jesus is a builder.

That's what he does.

And while he's not bodily with us right now, he has sent his spirit to dwell among us and in us to continue the building project.

That's what he wants to do.

Now, uh, my wife, Amy, some of you know her, some of you don't.

She works for a builder here in town.

And uh one of the things they have at that organization are architects.

Architects are pretty cool people, they have a special gift.

They can envision things before they ever actually exist down to the smallest of details.

Where every electrical line is going to go, where every joist is going to be hung, where every part of decoration is going to land.

Architects really can see things that other people can't.

And uh, this last week I was digging through a bunch of old paper here at Grace Church, and I came across the original blueprints for the 1979 Grace Church Building Expansion.

These are really cool, and if you want to see them afterwards, come up here and take a look.

But when you start getting into these blueprints, I mean, they these had plans.

I mean, they knew where things were going to go, where buildings were going to be laid out.

And half of these plans came true.

Okay, that's most building projects.

You got one thing you're starting with and you end up with something else.

But they had a really good vision.

I mean, right here on the map, what you can't see is the original design for this auditorium.

Now you're sitting inside of a gymnasium that's been converted into an auditorium, but the original auditorium had a design for 1,400 seats on the floor and 600 seats in the balcony.

A 2,000-person auditorium.

Now, in 1979, when these documents were written, Grace Church was 300 people.

You know what that tells me?

Either they were highly delusional, or they had real vision for what God could do here in Lancaster and Linetz.

Which one is it?

They believed that God was going to do something magnificent and reach thousands of people with the gospel through this church.

That's what these plans represent.

Now here's the thing when Jesus said he was going to build his church, this is not what he's talking about.

He's not talking about buildings.

Right?

People think in terms of structure, people think in terms of buildings, and these things show us vision for what's possible inside the future.

But when Jesus talks about building his church, he's not talking about buildings at all.

He's talking about people.

Because Jesus builds people, not buildings.

You know, and Jesus said, I will build my church.

I love that phrase, I will build my church.

So many powerful realities are true in those few words.

The first word he uses is I.

That's ownership, isn't it?

That is a man with a plan.

I'm going to do this.

I will do this.

Those are his blueprints.

Jesus knows exactly how he's going to work in your life to build you into something different than you are today.

He knows how he's going to gift you, how he's going to test you, how he's going to transform you, how he's going to challenge you, how he's going to instruct you, also that you become more like himself.

He's going to do it.

He's got the blueprints, he's the builder.

He also says he will build, which was a promise.

It's progressive and continual.

Throughout your entire life, Jesus is going to continue the work in your life of making you more like him.

Listen to Romans 8 29.

For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.

That's a pretty powerful statement, by the way, but you got to take time to look at it.

For those that God foreknew, he predestined, in other words, he planned, he architected, he has put something in motion that will conform you into the image of his very own son.

And for 2,000 years, Jesus has been doing this with people from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

You know, believe it or not, here's a little secret.

Christianity didn't start in the United States.

It didn't start here.

It began in a country called Israel, somewhere in the Middle East and Asia, and those people there began through a concentric means of sharing the gospel.

The gospel didn't arrive in the United States until 400 and some odd years ago.

I mean, this is a very new age era of Christianity for many of us that we're living in.

But it has existed where God has been at work for millennia bringing people into his very own likeness, using his spirit and using his church.

You know, one of my uh heroes in the faith, I guess, if you will, somebody I read and study a lot.

His name is Bill Bright.

And Bill Bright is the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ.

And if you ever read Bill Bright's stuff, you're gonna come across a phrase that he says a lot.

God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

He says that all the time in every talk and every book.

God loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life.

And I need you to hear something from me, okay?

God loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life.

And that wonderful plan is that you will become more like Jesus.

That is the Plan.

That through the Spirit of God, your holiness, your love, your compassion, your prayer, your lifestyle becomes more like the person of Jesus.

Now I know it's easy to think that just maybe the church was some man-made institution, maybe some haphazard plan, but the church is not a haphazard plan.

It's extremely intentional.

Just like these blueprints are detailed down to the very last piece.

The church has been detailed down to the very last piece.

Listen to Ephesians chapter 1, verse 11.

Ephesians 1:11

In him, Jesus, we are also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan, right?

Hear that?

According to the plan.

So if this is haphazard, there's no plan.

If you're just flying by the seam of your pants, there's no plan.

Jesus is architecting a church in the world to bring about the kingdom of heaven according to his plan.

And what does he do?

He's got all power and all authority, so he works out everything in conformity with his will.

The will of God will be accomplished on earth.

There is nothing a man can do or that the gates of hell can do to prevent the will of God from occurring here on earth as it pertains to establishing the church of God.

It's going to happen.

So no matter what enemies we perceive that we face, no matter how culture changes, no matter what kind of persecution we're going to have to go through, the church of Jesus Christ will move forward and go forth, and lost people will become found people.

More found people become more like Jesus, and that is a fact according to Jesus.

It's going to happen.

Then Jesus goes on to say that this is my church.

You know, we use the word my, or it's derivative mine a lot, don't we?

That's mine.

That's mine.

What makes something mine?

You know, when we uh had our first child ever, we had a friend give us these little tag blankies.

I don't know if they're still popular or not, but it was this really cute little blanky.

Had these little tags that were silky or textured on the end.

And his second word, his second word was not blanket.

His second word was mine.

But when he said the word mine, he meant blanket.

It was his possession.

It's a thing he cherished.

He couldn't go anywhere without mine.

Mine.

Mine.

And he wasn't talking about his milky cup or a stuffed animal.

He wasn't talking about all his other possessions.

Just his blanket.

It was his.

Oh man, those were special days.

He lost it at a gas station, I think, a couple years back.

But at the time, at the time, it was mine, you know?

He loved it.

He possessed it.

He would have given anything for that thing.

Here's why Jesus calls the church my church and why nobody else can say it's their church.

Mark 10, 45.

The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Every person who follows after Jesus, who professes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, you are claiming that Christ gave his life in exchange for your life.

That Christ gave his life up as a ransom on your behalf.

In my own strength, there is nothing I can do to make my relationship with God the Father right.

Therefore, I'm claiming the blood of Christ over my frailties and my infirmities and my sin.

And Lord Jesus, I claim that ransom payment.

I claim it as my own.

And that's why Jesus says it's his church.

Because he paid for it.

What makes something yours?

You bought it.

You sacrificed for it.

You exchanged something that you worked hard for and you took ownership of something else.

Jesus exchanged his very life for the salvation of everyone who professes that they're a child of God.

And as the owner and as the builder, he also makes himself the foundation.

See, Jesus is the foundation of his church as well.

You know, the foundation of the gospel, Matthew 16, 18, Jesus said, On this rock I will build my church.

In other words, on that confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of living God, he's going to build his church.

And there's a funny little thing that happens as soon as you go to the next paragraph in Matthew 16, verse 21, as soon as he proclaims that that's the rock in which he builds his church, Jesus starts building his church.

Matthew 16:21

From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed and on the third day raise again.

Jesus declares that the Christ, the Son of the living God, and this is really important, because if you are a living God, a living God cannot die.

And yet Christ is saying that I, the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of Living God, who is God, I am going to suffer.

I am going to die, but fear not, on the third day I am going to rise from the dead.

That's the gospel.

So Jesus says on that rock he will build the foundation of the church, and on no other rock can the church actually be built.

The only reason the church exists today is because Christ resurrected from the dead and because he is eternal.

If you build the church on something that's not eternal, it fades away.

Every single man-made movement that's ever started throughout history has failed at some point in time.

But the church has existed for 2,000 years and will perpetuate if the Lord doesn't come back for another 2,000 years and more, because Christ is eternal.

And so we begin to see the gospel starts taking formation.

And Jesus declares that on that proclamation he'll build his church, that Jesus, the sinless Son of God, who is God, would give his life for sinful people, that he would take on the penalty of sin, which is death, that he would then rise from the dead, and his rising from the dead show that he has power to defeat death and give life and forgive sin, so that everyone who places their faith in him will be forgiven and given eternal life.

And one day all those people who are called the true church of Jesus will rise from the dead in perfect bodies, living eternally as an eternal church in total unity.

That's the gospel.

That's the foundation.

That's the message.

Listen to 1 Corinthians 3, verses 10 through 11.

1 Corinthians 3:10–11

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it, but each one should be built with care, for no one can lay any other foundation than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Friends, Jesus Christ is the foundation.

It's not some random idea.

And so if you ever come across a church, and that church says that the foundation of their church is something other than Jesus, you've not come across a church.

You've come across a cult.

At best, you've come across a social club.

And there's all kinds of modern examples of people who say they're Jesus adjacent, but they aren't actually founded on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And while I'm not trying to be theologically nitpicking here, I'm going to be very specific with you.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not a Christian organization.

They're not a true church because they removed the foundation of Jesus and this gospel.

There's so many other movements throughout history that have removed Christ as the foundation.

Ducetism is an example of that from the early church in the year 300.

People have always wanted to claim Jesus, claim church, claim organizational structure because they want power, they want influence, but they want to remove Christ as the foundation or not have him involved at all.

Anything that calls itself a church, they can use whatever language they want.

They're not a church if Jesus is not the foundation.

They're not.

And I'm sick and tired of them saying they are.

Because Paul tells us exactly what it takes, and Jesus tells us exactly what it takes for a church to be a church.

The true church exists because of the gospel.

If you take away the gospel as the foundation, if you take away the proclamation that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God, and He is the Christ, if you take away any element, you end up with something that isn't the church.

If you take away the resurrection, Paul tells us that our faith is useless, because in order for Christ to have power to forgive sin and remove the consequence of death, he has to have raised from the dead.

If you take away the cross, you have no payment for sin.

If you take away the deity of Christ, you no longer have a living God who can live eternally as the head of the church.

And if you take away grace, you've replaced the gospel with human achievement.

And so Grace Church, Jesus is the only foundation for this church.

It's why we say that we are a Jesus church where the gospel is central.

It's the core of who we are, the foundation of what we believe, and we are only going to build on top of that foundation because if we ever remove it, we'll cease being a true church.

Some of our other saints in this room, if your preferred style of worship is hymns and they're wonderful.

I love the hymn.

Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

That's the hope.

If the hope of the church becomes something else, we're no longer the church.

Now here's the last thing that we learn about the church.

The gospel of Jesus is that Jesus appoints people to partner with him in building his church.

It says, So Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers to equip people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up.

Who gave these people to the church, church?

Christ Himself.

Christ Himself has given certain people to the church to teach you, shepherd you, equip you, help you understand the word of God, help you see truth, and help you use your gifts to become more like Jesus.

Ephesians 4 13 says, These people will continue at that work until something happens, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

So, church, I, your pastor, the elders of this church, the staff of this church, the men and women in positions of spiritual leadership in this church, they were all given to you by Christ Himself, appointed by the Spirit of God in the spiritual thing called the church, made manifest in the organizational structure that is Grace Church for one reason: to help you reach the full measure of maturity in Christ.

Look, when Christ returns, I'm not going to stand before him and say, Hey Jesus, I got good news.

I have a really big church.

Like, it's awesome.

We got a good parking lot, we've got cool colors, we've got a great bathroom, we got like lots of cool people here that are like morally great, you know, kind, wonderful Lancaster County folk, and we just we're doing it, man.

Jesus doesn't care a lick about that.

Not at all.

In fact, he tells us that there's going to be a day in which my work will be tested.

I take that very seriously.

My work, the work of the leaders of this church, it will be tested.

It'll be tested by fire, it'll be tested in the end of times.

It'll be tested through trial, where what we built will prove itself.

Did we build with precious things?

1 Corinthians 3.12 says that some build on top of that foundation with gold, silver, precious stones.

Some build with wood, grass, or hay.

Do you know what fire does to wood, grass, and hay?

Burns it up.

But when you have gold, precious stones, fire refines that into something else.

And so, church, my deepest desire and the desires of the elders of this church is to not have this wonderful organization, but to have people who are fully mature in their faith in Jesus Christ.

That is the goal.

The goal is Jesus.

We are becoming a Jesus church.

And the day that you said yes to Jesus, maybe you didn't see down there the job description other duties as a sign.

But the day you said yes to Jesus, you also said yes to becoming like him.

Yes to the indwelling Spirit of God, transforming your heart, purifying your mind, changing the very substance of who you are.

Not the way you look in the mirror, but your internal soul becomes like the person of Christ: holy, pure, pleasing, righteous to God Almighty.

So Paul in the book of Romans 12, chapter 1, he says, Therefore, brothers and sisters, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.

In other words, prepare yourself to be transformed, where the old dies and the new creation is made, where you allow the Spirit of God to enter in you, dwell richly with you through his word, through prayer, through using your gifts, through the corporate body of the church, so that your very own image and internal likeness becomes like the person of Jesus Christ.

That's what it means to become a Jesus church.

A group of people who gather together to be with and be, become like Jesus.

So here's what I'm going to ask you to do.

And I'm serious about this.

If you don't want to stand, really don't stand.

But if you're willing to make a fresh commitment, not to attending grace church, not to joining a group, not towards doing church things, but if you're ready to stand before God and say, Lord God, I'm ready to make a fresh commitment to become like your son, Jesus Christ.

And I'm going to ask you to stand.

If you're willing to do that, you just take a stand where you're at.

If you're not, don't worry about it.

Stay seated.

But if you want to become more like Jesus Christ today, drive deeply into it.

And I see some of you getting up out of your seats, like, oh come on, Pastor, I don't want to do this.

Peer pressure's making me stand.

Good! That's why the church exists.

Peer pressure's supposed to make you stand, supposed to help you make you come more like the person of Jesus.

And if you don't want to become more like Jesus, you're lost.

Because it's the most wonderful, incredible part of following Jesus that I can imagine.

Church, we're gonna sing a song now.

You've probably sung it before.

I build my life.

I build my life.

Your foundation of your life is Jesus Christ.

That's what we're building on.

That's what you're committing to, and that's your choosing to become.

So let's sing together and give Jesus his worship.