Unapologetically Whole | Zac Hudson | Definition Church

Collective, what's going on, y'all?

Y'all good?

So good to see all of you.

I hope you guys had a great memorial day.

I miss you guys.

We still had the collective, but apparently y'all didn't want to show up.

No, I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

I hope y'all had a great memorial.

Was it Memorial Day?

Labor Day! Whatever.

The day that we were off.

If we've never met before, my name-that's so funny I said that.

Um my name is Zach.

I serve as the college pastor here at Definition Church.

If we've never met before, I would love to meet you after the service.

Just come up and say hello.

Um, guys, we had a great week last week.

Um, we're in this new series that we're calling Who We Are.

And basically, what this series is all about is who we are as the collective ministry.

Like, what are the unique things that God has called us to to run after and to just like full force give all of our energy towards.

And we've been talking about that over the last couple weeks, and we talked about how there's three statements that we live by here at the collective, where we want to be students who are radically honest, who are spirit sensitive, and who are unapologetically whole.

And last week we gave a sermon all about what does it mean to be radically honest?

And we just talked about the beauty of confession.

Because if you don't know, if you're new here, we do confession every single week here at the collective because we just believe that it changes lives.

Like it is one thing to show up and kind of consume church.

It's another thing to be willing to humble yourself and confess your sins to your peers and the people around you.

And so we do confession every week.

As we kind of talked about that last week, and it was very powerful.

I mean, the altars were completely filled up with students confessing sins for the first time.

So that was just amazing.

Just so thankful for how the Lord has worked.

And tonight we're gonna continue down this path, just continuing to talk about who we are as a ministry.

And tonight I want to talk to us about what does it mean to live unapologetically whole?

Say unapologetically whole.

That's what we're gonna be talking about tonight.

Now, usually I do this huge long intro to kind of get into the text, but I just want us to go ahead and jump straight into the text.

Is that okay with you guys?

Sweet.

So if you have a Bible with you, go ahead and hold it up.

Let me see it, let me see it.

Amen.

Amen.

Those are some beautiful Bibles.

Oh my gosh.

Whew! Feel the Lord.

I feel the Holy Spirit, mighty God.

If you need a Bible, let us know.

We would love to gift you one completely for free.

We believe in the living word of God here at the collective.

But we're gonna be in Acts 2, verses 42 through 47.

Acts 2:42–47

If you want to go ahead and turn there in your word, Acts 2, 42 through 47.

It'll also be on the screen behind me if you need it.

Sweet.

I'm gonna go ahead and read it for us.

It says this and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and prayers, and awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Lord Jesus, thank you for the living, active, breathing word of God, that it is still true today as it was two thousand years ago.

Lord, I just pray that your text will pierce the hearts of these students.

May you speak directly to them.

May it not be my words, but your words in the holy and righteous name of our Lord Almighty.

Amen.

Now, anytime we read, we gotta read in context is key.

Anytime that you are reading Scripture, let me set some context for what's going on here in the book of Acts.

Jesus was just crucified and he raised from the dead.

And the disciples had this picture in their mind that Jesus was gonna conquer Rome with a sword, he was gonna overturn the entire government, and that they were gonna be kind of the kings and rulers of the earth.

And instead, what Jesus does is he's like, I'm out.

See you later.

Good luck.

And he says, Instead, I'm gonna send one of my helpers, who is the Holy Spirit, to help guide you along this path.

And so the disciples, they're kind of like losing their minds, they don't know what's going on, and then the Holy Spirit falls at what we call Pentecost, and all these crazy things start happening, signs, miracles, and wonders, and that all happens at the beginning of Acts 2.

And then we join the disciples here in Acts 2.42, right after Pentecost has just happened.

So these miracles happen, and then there's this establishment of what we would now call the church.

So this is our first instance of okay, what is the first instance of church look like in biblical history?

That is what they are talking about here, and that's what this verse is all about.

And the main point I want all of us to take home today is that holistic faith is flourishing faith.

Holistic faith is flourishing faith.

Now you may be wondering, where did I get this desire from?

Like where did this kind of come from?

Well, I've grown up most of my life in kind of megachurch, big church world.

I moved here from Dallas, Texas, about a year ago, which is just the epicenter of gigantic churches.

And what by like this passion point that the Lord just kind of placed in my heart was how so much of what we do, we just surround ourselves with people spiritually who look, act, and perform exactly how we do.

And the tension that I always feel, and I think the statistics surrounding Gen Z kind of uh uphold this, is like we're not supposed to just be surrounded by people who perform and do exactly what we do when it comes to our faith.

Instead, the the disciples were holistic beings.

They were experiencing God in a multitude of ways.

And so we're seeing this in Gen Z right now.

If you don't know, the two fastest growing denominations in Gen Z right now, currently, are Pentecostalism, which is like very like a Holy Spirit throwdown.

I don't really know how to describe it.

It's just like big Holy Spirit culture, speaking in tongues, prophecy, all that type of thing.

But then on the other end, the actual fastest growing denomination is Catholicism.

Catholicism is the fastest growing and most attractive denomination to young people right now.

And so what we see is this desire to have a holistic experience of Christ, where one is high tradition and one is high experience.

And so that's where this desire kind of came from.

And it's what I'm very passionate about here at the collective.

Because, in my opinion, if there is one of these between radical honesty, spirit sensitivity, and being unapologetically whole, that I believed the most difficult to accomplish, it would be this one.

More than showing up for confession every single week, like we talked about last week, and more than being sensitive to the Spirit, like we're gonna talk about next week.

Learning what it means to be a holistic disciple of Christ is one of the most challenging aspects of our walk with Jesus.

And here is why.

Because we live in a culture that is not unapologetically whole, but that is instead unapologetically discipled us into selfishness.

We are all wired for selfishness.

Now, I don't think this is entirely our own doing.

Some of it's not really a conscience choice.

It's more so the culture that we have been born into.

I mean, our phones are just feeding us the feed that they think we want.

Colleges are telling us to follow our dream, fight for what's yours.

Social media has made everyone a politician, everyone a theologian, everyone a philosopher with no credentials, just a few followers.

I mean, even the way that we order food is gauged towards what we want.

American culture is built on the personal success of you.

You.

What do you want?

What are you passionate about?

You, you, you, you, you.

And sadly, this has crept its way into our church.

I mean, this is where denominations come from.

There are over 2,500 denominations in the world.

2,500 denominations.

We are so wired towards selfishness that we can't even worship in the same places as people who happen to believe differently than us about something.

We are so discipled towards selfishness.

Like I just said, I moved here from Dallas about a year ago, and Dallas, like I said, is the epicenter for this problem.

So many people there are wired towards selfishness.

I remember I was in a conversation with a college student one time at DB at Dallas Baptist University, and I was like, bro, where do you go to church?

And he said, Okay, well, which day of the week?

And I was like, Okay, um, I don't know, Monday.

And he's like, Okay, well, Mondays I go to this church for worship, but then Tuesdays I go to this other church for young adult ministry, but then Wednesdays I go to this one for leading in youth, and then Sundays I go to this church, and every single day of the week he had a different church, different experience that he was chasing after.

He was uncommitted, but just spent his time bouncing from church to church to church to build some kind of counterfeit, holistic experience of Christ, which is not the call.

Philippians 2 tells us this: therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and one of mind.

Do nothing, listen to that word, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Rather in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but to the to each of you the interest of others.

Paul is literally saying here, if you confess Christ as Lord, if the Holy Spirit is dwelling within you, if you found any comfort from Jesus or from His love, then you should be finding it a joy to be like-minded with the believers around you.

He says, Do nothing out of selfish ambition.

Nothing.

Not the way we attend service, not the way that we worship, not the way that we do small groups.

We should do nothing out of selfish ambition.

And this includes the way that we approach church and that we approach community.

Let me let you in on a little secret according to scripture.

When God looks down, he sees a lot less of you than you think.

He sees a lot less of you directly.

You see, God sees a lot less me and sees a lot more we.

We are the body of Christ, we are the image bearers of Christ.

I mean, this is true all throughout scripture.

Like God worked through people.

100% absolutely he did.

But more often than not, the narrative, when it came to things like judgment, reward, correction, or daily living with the Lord, God was looking at the people as a holistic thing.

This is why we have the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, not just Steve the Israelite.

It was a holistic view.

It was one unit of people, not a group of individuals who were doing what they wanted to do.

And this is why there's so much language in the New Testament surrounding the body of Christ.

Like Paul, he did a lot of amazing things, but he was talking so many times about the holistic experience, the body of Christ, how people who were completely different from each other in practice were under the same roof worshiping the same God.

It was all about this holistic body of Christ.

And if we're being honest, like man, we got a lot of churches filled up with a lot of ears and a lot of eyes.

This church is all the eyes they go here, but all the ears, they go to this other church, and all the feet, they go to this church.

We don't see a lot of holistic body of Christ people like the disciples would have been used to in the New Testament.

And that's just the culture that we live in.

Christianity has never been a solo journey based on your own desires.

It is a road that we all walk together.

So listen, this means, this is so important, this means there is a ceiling to your spiritual relationship with Christ as long as you put the people of God secondary in your life.

As long as you are blocking yourself off from community, there is a ceiling to the maximum potential that you can have in the Lord.

God saved us to be in community, to be around people.

And so if we are gonna be unapologetically whole here at the collective, we have to do it together.

This is why we do small groups.

It is so easy.

If I wanted the easy decision in ministry, I could just say, we're just gonna open the doors, we're gonna worship, we're gonna teach, we're gonna feed you, and then we'll say peace out, see you later.

That's the easy route.

But I care so much more about your spiritual formation and you becoming a disciple of Christ, which is why I say this, because if we just show up and consume, it becomes all about us and not about God.

And I don't want that for you.

So that's why I say let's humble ourselves, let's be okay with things needing an adjustment period.

Maybe there's a little bit of awkward tension in small group for a second.

Let's be okay with that because Jesus saved us to be around his people.

That is why we do small groups and why it's so important.

We were saved not to become a people who just consume and build Christianity in our own way.

You were saved for discipleship, not experience.

Here's why this is important.

Because one day, hopefully, you are going to move on from this ministry.

You'll get married, you'll have kids, get a new job, move cities.

Life will continue to move on when you leave this place.

And if I, as the pastor of the collective, have displayed to you the only way to experience Jesus is how you do in this room, then I am basically predestining you for a crisis of faith.

Because what happens if your only understanding of God is the consumption in this room?

What happens when this room isn't here anymore for you?

What happens when we're not around, when you're not a college student anymore, and you're going through this marriage struggle, and then you just have a crisis of faith because your entire ministry was built on experience and not discipleship.

And so I want us to be holistic disciples of Christ.

Our call at the collective is not to make you better collective followers, it's to make you better Christ followers.

That's what we're in this for.

In our American culture, we have so complicated this process because we just want to bend the knee to make sure everyone feels comfortable and okay, and then we'll be okay.

Like we've we've complicated this so much, but the text is so clear, it's so simple.

Look at Acts 2, 42 through 44.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers, and awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things in common.

A plus B equals C.

It's that simple in the text.

And a lot of churches, they do one of these things really well.

So we'll look at big churches and we'll say, okay, that's the church that's really good at the apostles' teaching.

And then we'll look at something like a house church and we'll say, okay, that's the church that's really good at table fellowship and the breaking of bread.

And then we'll look at like a Pentecostal church and we'll say, okay, that is the church that's really good at prayer.

We have just like we've just created the this map in our mind where it's like this church is good at that, but this church is good at that.

But the text is clear here.

We go to where we are comfortable with, and then we wonder why we feel like nothing is changing and we're just going through the motions.

It's because we have surrounded ourselves with people who have discipled us into comfortability.

But let me remind you of our main point: holistic faith is flourishing faith.

The disciples were flourishing and had awe and wonder and miracles and all the things that a lot of us desire.

They had all of those things because they were holistic in how they experienced Jesus.

They were holistic in their experience.

Look again at verse 43.

And awe and wonder came upon every single soul.

And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

So many of us want awe and wonder with God.

We want the miracles, we want to see God do something supernatural, but we're not willing to surrender our comfortability of theology to get around the people of God who may not fully agree with something that we don't even really know the answer to.

We have drawn these hard lines in the sand, say, I can't be around a person who happens to believe that women can't be pastors.

I would never worship in the same room with someone like that.

We've created these hard lines where that person could teach me something that could lead to awe and wonder with Christ.

Our priorities have shifted.

And man, I desire this so deeply for our ministry.

Not to be another ministry that fills an auditorium, releases a worship album, or has the best graphics, best sermons, best songs.

I want to be the ministry where the awe of God came upon every single soul, and signs and wonders were being done through us.

That's what I want our ministry to be defined by.

I want the New Testament to become common practice at the collective.

I want what the disciples were doing, healing people with their shadow, casting out demons.

I want all of those things to just be a normal everyday thing at the collective.

I want that for us because, man, that is a powerful testimony to the Lord.

But we will never get there until we're willing to surrender our pride and be surrounded by the people of God.

So I want to go over for us what this looks like exactly practically and what our mindset should be as we run after being unapologetically whole.

Sorry, I'm yelling in my throat.

It's like please drink some water.

So thank you.

Appreciate that.

So first, unapologetically whole people are humble.

Unapologetically whole people are humble.

Now I want to illustrate this in this way.

If you see these two chairs on uh the stage here, can everyone see what this is?

This is a communion cup.

Everyone see that?

Communion cup, everybody?

Okay.

This is gonna represent uh tradition.

This is gonna represent Catholicism, kind of orthodox teaching, those things like that.

That's gonna represent all of this.

So that's gonna go here.

That's where these people hang out, tradition.

So just picture like the traditional people in your mind.

Then on the complete opposite side in terms of practice, this is anointing oil that I have that my friend Mark gave me.

Mark, are you here?

I love you, Mark.

He's he's an Orthodox brother.

He gave me some orthodox anointing oil.

But I this is anointing oil because I know my Pentecostals, they love some anointing oil.

I know that y'all love anointing people.

So we have these two completely different realms of practice.

But in the middle, we have the cross.

The cross stands in the middle of all these things.

This is where a disciple of Jesus stands, looking at the cross.

If you remember a couple weeks ago I preached this sermon.

This cross does not belong to Pentecostals.

This cross does not belong to Catholics.

This is Jesus' cross.

And the cross, listen, is the great equalizer.

When we show up at the foot of the cross, all of this stuff, as far as like our theological practice, it falls flat before the cross.

You're either surrendered to Jesus or you're not.

It is that simple.

And our tendency is to go to one of these sides.

Every single one of you in this room falls on one of these scales.

You fall in the middle here, somewhere between these scales.

Our tendency is to show up at this place, like say you're not full-fledged Catholic, but you're just right here, and only surround ourselves with people in this area.

And then we look at that side with judgment.

We look at that side with they've got it wrong.

I've got the real experience with Jesus over here.

But the thing is, the people over here are saying the exact same thing.

What we should be doing is allowing, if I'm standing on this side and I'm a full-fledged Pentecostal, believing all those things, I should allow the people on that side to inch me closer and closer and closer and closer to the middle.

Because this is where a disciple of Christ lies.

Listen, like go back to the text.

The disciples were breaking bread and praying together.

That's two sides of experience.

And they were called disciples of Christ.

This is where God is oftentimes moving, but we can't see him because we're so focused on this realm of experience or that realm of experience.

Like, man, it's all about Jesus.

Jesus is the great equalizer.

God has wired all of us differently, and that is a beautiful thing.

That does not mean that someone else is wrong just because they experience the Lord differently than you.

If you think you have all the answers in terms of practice, I'm not talking about core issues of the theology, like did Jesus rise from the dead?

Absolutely.

We all agree on that.

Is the Bible the infallible word of God?

100%, all those things.

We agree on those things.

But if we're losing ourselves in secondary issues, if you think you have all the answers because your secondary issues are correct, then you have completely missed it.

God will not bless your practice if you are prideful within it.

If you are looking to the other side with pride, saying, I could never, I could never experience God like that, that's crazy that they live that way.

You are prideful.

And God opposes the proud, but lifts up and exalts the humble according to scripture.

So unapologetically whole people are humble.

Next, unapologetically whole people are willing.

They're willing.

They're willing.

This is so important.

God, listen, God is a God of order.

I hear this all the time.

God is a God of order.

But things like spiritual expression and tradition fall in that order.

God is a God of order.

That does not mean He's not a God who will make you uncomfortable with things.

Your discomfort is not disorder.

Something can be ordered under God, still make you uncomfortable, and still be blessed by the Lord.

So, for all my Pentecostals in the room, like, man, you speak in tongues, you're getting slain in the spirit, you're casting out demons, you're doing all of these amazing things.

But when's the last time you were willing to sit down, be quiet before the Lord and do a liturgy prayer?

When's the last time you were willing to do that?

My Catholics, my orthodoxes in the room where tradition is really valuable to you and you love those things, you love liturgy prayers, silence and solitude.

I'm going for all that.

I know all the church fathers from top to bottom.

Praise God.

I'm so glad you know that.

When's the last time you were willing to open yourself up to spiritual gifts?

When's the last time you were willing to open yourself up to like maybe there's something more for me here that I am not seeing?

When's the last time that you were willing, and man, I lived this life, y'all.

I lived this life.

I spent most of my life in a what's called the seeker-sensitive movement, where it was like, man, we're just we're just gonna show up, consume, and then leave.

And one day I was praying, and I was praying like, man, like God, I just want to feel you.

I want to feel you, like God, help me go deeper with you.

And he just spoke to me and was like, Zach, you will never experience more of me until you get rid of your pride and be willing to experience me in ways you don't understand yet.

And that's what he wants for all of you.

And so listen, here at the collective, we are unapologetically whole.

Unapologetically whole.

This means you'll come to the collective sometimes and you'll heal hear people speak in tongues.

You'll hear people speak in tongues.

I'm just, let's be real here.

You'll hear people speak in tongues, you'll hear people prophesy.

I've stood on this stage and prophesied multiple times in the last year that I've been here.

But you'll also, at times, in the future, as we're developing this out, you'll hear written prayers, you'll hear liturgies, you'll hear, you'll see us have reverence for the communion of the Lord.

Like, man, okay, it's a symbol, it's his physical body.

Like, bro, this is the Lord.

And so we're gonna have reverence before the Lord because God can show up just as much in bread as he can in oil.

And so, like, man, I don't, we're not talking about theology.

It's not me making a theological statement.

I'm not saying that's literally his bread and water.

What we can debate about that later, all right?

What I'm saying is we're gonna believe that God can show up anywhere at any time.

Bro, if I get out a can of Duke's mayonnaise and say, Lord, bless this and heal this person, he may be like, I got you.

We're gonna be willing.

We're gonna be people who are willing.

So all I ask is be humble, be willing, and just show up.

Show up.

Duke's mayonnaise, got y'all.

That's not even a good joke, y'all.

Come on now.

Oh man.

Duke's mayonnaise mid, anyways.

Um, I'm sorry.

I'm running out of time.

We gotta lock in.

Everybody lock in.

Oh man, I lost my train of thought.

Um, my ask for all of you is just be willing to show up and be okay being a little uncomfortable.

Tonight we're gonna go to small groups.

And the tension in small groups is if I'm uncomfortable, God's not in it, I gotta leave.

Just because you're uncomfortable does not mean that God is not in it.

So, yeah, there may be a time where you're like, wow, no one's really talking right now.

This is really weird.

I can't be here anymore.

Maybe God is asking you to push through for a reason.

Maybe God is asking something of you.

Next, unapologetically whole people are inclusive.

They're inclusive.

There's a tendency, if we're not careful, to kind of like tribalize ourselves and surround ourselves.

Like that's what I just talked about, right?

But unapologetically whole people, they run with the Lord, they run after the Lord and they welcome people who aren't there yet along their side.

And so, like, man, our practices may be different, we may be confused, we may not agree on everything theologically, but brother, I just want you to run this race with me.

Like, let's run after Jesus together.

Let's run after Jesus together.

We should be inviting people into the culture where we believe that God is present.

We are inclusive.

Finally, unapologetically whole people are transformed.

Unapologetically whole people are transformed.

Holistic faith starts right now in this space.

It starts right now.

Like a lot of you in this room, you want to do big things for God.

And I love that.

You want to bring revival to your campus, you want to bring revival to your job, you want to bring revival, revival, revival, you want to do all these big things for God.

I have no doubt if someone came in here and was like, deny your faith or die, like most of us would be willing to put our head on the blade.

A lot of you will do big things for God, but will you do the small things for God?

Will you sacrifice your comfort for a moment?

Will you reach out to a stranger?

Will you be will you befriend someone that you don't know yet?

Will you sacrifice your comfort, your pleasure, the way you expect to experience God?

And over the course of time, you will become a holistic disciple of Christ.

God will use the realm of experiences to shape you into someone that hell will fear.

Someone that hell is afraid of, man.

A lot of people don't experience freedom because they don't even have the chance to encounter God in a new way that will help them experience freedom.

So that's why I say, like, man, I'm just gonna lay it all on the table and we're gonna run after Jesus.

And I hope to God, if you get healed from a pornography addiction because someone spoke in tongues over you, praise the Lamb, Jesus.

If you get healed from anxiety and fear because someone read a liturgy prayer, praise the Lamb, Lord Jesus.

Like, I just wanna lift that up and exemplify it, man.

I'm not gonna disciple myself into what I'm comfortable with and cut off your spiritual formation.

I'm gonna lay everything on the table for Jesus and say, if God's willing to meet us, He will transform our lives.

So if you want to change the world, you want to change your faith, start now.

Go to groups, go to small group.

You want to start now.

If our prayer team can go ahead and come forward.

Some of you in this room a holistic experience may look like confessing something for the first time.

Maybe you've been looking at other people who experience God differently than you with pride and anger and all those things, and maybe you need to just come forward and confess it.

Like I said, we do confession every single week here because we believe it's important.

And when we confess, we do what's called radical honesty.

Where we confess the 1% that we're holding in our spirit that we don't want to tell anybody about.

Because the temptation is to show up here and just make it a sin thing.

This isn't just a sin thing.

This is like, man, I want to experience more of God, but I don't know where he is or what he's trying to tell me.

That's confession.

It's like, man, I feel like God is angry with me.

I feel like he is ashamed of me.

That's confession.

That's radical honesty.

And so what I want to do is just open the altar for anyone who needs prayer.

Now we do it here at the collective.

We don't close any eyes because we believe in a step of boldness.

And so what I'm gonna do is if the Lord's just pulling on your heart, then you have the opportunity to come forward.

I'm gonna count to three, and if you need to come forward, come forward and receive prayer.

One, God loves you.

Two, you are here for a reason.

Three, come on, come forward.

If you need prayer, anything at all.

You got something weighing on you that you need prayer for, go ahead and come forward.

Go ahead and come forward.

Girls go with girls, guys.

Go with guys.

Praise God.

Come forward, receive prayer.

Anybody and everybody.

If you need prayer for anything, praise God.