The Apostolic Church | Ecclesia: The Church Can Change the World - Week 4

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It's just it's special to be in on this season, and I'm really excited about what God's up to.

And uh I'm convinced of this, that this season probably won't last very long.

And that there is more coming, and God's got just such rich things in store for you.

Um wired as a visionary.

Some of you, how many of you would say I'm wired as a visionary?

Yeah.

Chris is catching up.

What I had to fight a whole lot of my life was actually living so far into the future that I didn't enjoy the present.

And realizing, oh, I could actually, and what would happen is two or three years, I would be living what I had been dreaming two or three years ago, right?

And yet discontent because I'm not two or three years ahead, and so God's been teaching me for a while just to enjoy what he's up to because it's really, really rich.

And it's it's interesting.

We we often talk about the presence of God, and the presence of God is present in the present.

He'll be there in the future.

He was there in the past, but to enjoy him, you have to be present in the present.

Hey, so yesterday was Christopher Ball's birthday.

He's halfway to 90.

And he's just getting started.

Man, Chris, it has been just such a privilege to run with you.

We've known each other for a dozen years or so now, um, but but for the last about six, been running pretty closely together.

And man, I just I want to honor who you are.

Like you are so humble and so full of joy.

You continually lay down your life for others.

And what I want for this body of people to know is that you're so trustworthy.

Like I would trust you with my life.

I I would um functionally not put you in a place where you're just hanging out with my wife, but I would trust you with my wife, with my kids.

Like I'd give you my wallet to guard, like I just trust you.

And um, yeah.

And man, I am so excited for what God is unlocking in you in this season.

I really feel like this year for you, um, it's it's going to be like you're you're you're gonna be probably running harder than you've ever run before, but you're gonna look back and say, wow, I can't believe who I was and who I've become in this year.

And I just feel like God is just uh He's honoring your hunger.

Yeah.

And so, yeah, God, we just thank you for Chris.

He's a gift to us all, and Lord, we bless him today.

Lord, we thank you that your hand is on his life.

Lord, we we just see him and honor him before you as a humble man.

And we trust, Lord, that you give grace to the humble.

And so, Lord, we just ask even that this year would be a year of the radical grace of God, saturating every facet of Chris's life.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Oh, it's good to be here.

Maybe I'm still waking up, I'm not sure.

Gavin, man, there's a call of leadership on your life that's significant.

And I feel like your like journey with the military uh was not what you expected it to be, but it's not an accident that God has actually reassigned you and it's bigger than your work.

And I just see you as a magnet that God is actually for UNCD, He's just gonna bring people to you, but I really feel like He is uh intensifying the leadership call in your life, and that uh you don't need to hide it, like the passion and drive in you.

You don't have to like settle in to be like everybody else around you and kind of play it cool, because I just feel like he's unlocking something that the world needs.

Does that resonate with you?

Yeah, cool.

Awesome.

Well, this morning as I was, man, you guys, God is just so so all over this place, and what he's up to is incredible.

And so as I was like worshiping, I'm like just sensing so much of what he is up to, and it's really, really exciting to you, to me, and not to you.

Maybe it is to you.

If you catch up, it will be.

Oh, there's like a thousand different things to do, and it's not because I'm divided, but it's because God's up to so much.

Let's just wait on God for a minute.

Can we do that?

It's a little bit awkward in our fast-paced American way of doing stuff.

But there's there's such strength and grace in waiting on him.

So you're not waiting on me to wait on him.

I just feel like God wants to speak to us, to minister to our hearts, to renew our strength.

Tim, I I just feel like God is highlighting you as a dual sport man, like a Dion Sanders kind of guy.

Uh I think it was Bo Jackson, actually, who was playing two sports back when we were kids.

And uh and one time his wife was giving birth, and so he intentionally got hit and then went after the pitcher so he could get thrown out of the game to go be there.

Um yeah, he wasn't disappointed at all.

Uh and I feel like you're a family man, like that's a big deal, like you'd sacrifice it all to be there with your family, but I I I feel like your excellence in building will intensify, but I feel like he's going to diversify some of your intention and your skill set into a whole other area.

And I feel like the the call of leadership I feel like the call of leadership on your life is intensifying, and there are some things that disappointment has tried to steal and disqualify from your life.

And that God is restoring with a locust of eaten, and that you are not disqualified.

And that part of it is that God and others see you.

I feel like this is, you know, we make the prophetic goofy sometimes, like when God's speaking and we're we're looking for certainty.

Oh man.

And we're looking for certainty.

And actually the prophetic is not certainty.

It's actually an invitation.

You're gonna give me more, man.

You're just gonna keep me loaded up.

It's not about certainty, it's an invitation to intimacy.

So it's not about do you trust my words?

It's do you hear God on my words?

And then will you run with that into the secret place so that the seed of prophetic actually comes alive and springs forth an intimacy, something that lasts for generations and continues to give seed.

And and I just feel like God's just inviting you to trust him with some places where maybe your heart has just grown cold.

I don't know what it is.

You know what it is.

I don't need to know what it is.

That's the beautiful thing.

But God's eyes are on you.

And it's time to step into the next sport while maintaining the one that you're already in.

It's like he's just he's doing it in you.

Amen.

I would ask if that resonates, but I I think it does.

One of the things, you know, we we have this culture where we really love to encourage people and listen into what God's saying and just bless them with that.

But we always want to empower the hearer.

Right.

Right?

Because it becomes spiritually abusive when I tell you what God's up to in your life, and I don't give you the invitation to respond in the authority to actually decide, is that God am I going to receive that?

It's really dangerous.

Um, and so what we want to do as a people is continually just say, hey, this is what I'm sensing.

I've been like attempting to hear God for a long time.

I'm still a student, though.

So this is what I'm sensing, and I just want to share this.

If it doesn't mean anything to you, it's really okay.

Put it on the shelf, stick it in the toilet, whatever you want to do.

But but it's not about trying to get our way, it's about joining God in His way.

Does that make sense?

So we don't have to be goofy with it.

Um just say, hey, I was just praying for you and this was on my heart.

Like I don't have to say, like, thus saith the Lord, this is what you're doing with your life.

It's like, if the word has authority, it has authority.

It doesn't need your qualification to have authority.

Um I I really feel like this series, we're actually doing this series, we're a couple weeks behind you guys.

Um, which I actually think is the way that it's meant to be.

Because our our heart in San Marcus is not that Kyle would be a daughter church.

It's that we would be siblings that would be running together.

Does that make sense?

And and we're not trying to start an empire, we're we're extending a family.

And so there's just going to be things that you guys are ahead of us in and that we're learning from.

Um but we're in this series called uh Ecclesia, and in this series we're really talking about what the church that Jesus is building actually looks like.

I'm not saying that we have it all figured out, but there are some things I think that got lost through history that um that have really kind of turned the church into a zoo.

I feel like God is saying, hey, I want to do something different.

I was processing this with my my brother-in-law just the other day while we were fishing.

Um he uh is leading a house church, and there's people you'll hear people say, oh, the future of the church is in houses, and then there's other people like, no, it's it's small churches and it's big churches and it's mega churches.

Let me say this to you.

I I don't think the future of the church is about how we gather, I think it's about who we are becoming.

And the future of the church is the church that makes disciples that impact the world around them.

And so size is not the primary thing, it's actually, and how we gather is not even primary.

It's are we making disciples and are we making impact on the world around us?

And so, anyways, this is a really, really long, I call this a pre-ramble, it's kind of like the preamble, but it's a ramble.

That that I I feel like what God is doing for you guys, for us in San Marcus, is it's that moment in the Matrix where Neo has been talking to Morpheus.

Have you seen the Matrix?

Neo's been and he and he's been given like a couple of clues, and he's had this hunger in him for more, but he didn't know, and so he's trying to figure it out all on his own with the computer, and then the white rabbit girl shows up, and it's just this like trip, and he's like, How did I ever end up here?

So Morpheus kind of lets him in on a little bit, and then he offers him a blue pill and a red pill.

And if you take the red pill, if you take the blue pill, you can just go back to normal.

And I feel like for so for some, you may just say, Hey, I I would rather go back to church as normal, but I really feel like God is saying, Hey, here's a red pill, there's something more that this thing was supposed to be about.

Will you take it?

I'm not talking about drinking Kool-Aid, by the way.

Will you step into, as the people of God, who the church was always meant to be?

And the church, if you look at church history, the church got institutionalized and it changed everything about who the church was becoming.

But the church was always meant to be a family and a movement, and it was supposed to be grassroots, and it wasn't supposed to be high control, and leaders were not supposed to be exalted.

They were actually supposed to be servants, and they were often the ones that are looked down upon and on the run and giving their lives and suffering, not the ones that are benefiting on the backs of everybody else.

I feel like God's saying, hey, church, will you return to who you were always meant to be?

I want to read this, if I can see through my watery eyes, I want to read this really analogy to you, uh, that I think is a good picture of the church and maybe the moment we as a church find ourselves in.

It says, in the years following World War II, the United States helped build one of the most remarkable ships ever to sail the Atlantic.

It was called the SS United States.

The ship was massive, nearly a thousand feet long, and incredibly fast.

In fact, when it crossed the Atlantic on its maiden voyage in 1952, it shattered the transatlantic speed record.

But there was something unusual about this ship.

It was designed with two very different purposes in mind.

In peacetime, it would be a luxury liner.

It could carry about 2,000 passengers across the Atlantic in comfort and style, and it did.

Presidents sailed on it, kings and queens, celebrities and dignitaries traveled aboard it.

There were elegant dining rooms, lounges, ballrooms, and first-class accommodations.

Everything was designed for taking care of the passengers and making their journey enjoyable.

But the United States government had helped fund the ship for another reason.

If war broke out, the SS United States could quickly be converted into a military troop carrier.

And when it was configured for that mission, instead of carrying 2,000 passengers, it could carry roughly 14,000 troops.

Think about that.

Same ships, same engines, same basic structure, but one version carried 2,000 passengers, the other could mobilize 14,000 soldiers.

What made the difference?

One thing.

Purpose.

When the purpose was the comfort of the passengers, the ship was designed around spacious rooms, excellent mills, and enjoyable experience.

But when the purpose was accomplishing a mission, suddenly the question wasn't how comfortable can we make everybody?

The question became how many people can we equip and mobilize to accomplish the mission?

And I think that's a picture of the choice the church constantly has to make.

Are we building a cruise ship or a troop carrier?

Because if we're not careful, we can begin to think of church like a cruise ship.

Did I like the music?

Was the message what I wanted?

Are there enough programs for me and my family?

Am I comfortable?

Are my needs being met?

And slowly, without even realizing it, the people of God become passengers while a small group of professionals operates the ship.

But that's not the picture Jesus gave of his church.

In Ephesians 4, he says, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers were given to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

In other words, the pastors aren't supposed to do the ministry while everybody else watches.

Our job is to equip the saints because you aren't passengers, you are the army.

You have a calling, you have an assignment, you carry the presence of God, you have been given the Holy Spirit, and Jesus intends to send you into the world.

Can I get a better amen from just the baby?

By the way, we like baby noises around here.

It's a sign of life, it's not a distraction.

And God send us more babies.

And here's what strikes me about that ship.

Its capacity changed when its purpose changed.

About 2,000 passengers or about 14,000 troops.

I wonder if the church, the same thing is true about the church.

Maybe we'll never discover the true ministry capacity of the church as long as we're measuring how many people we can serve.

Maybe we discover it when we start asking, how many people can we equip and send?

Because the church Jesus is building isn't a cruise ship carrying religious consumers.

It's a people on mission.

Equipped, empowered, and sent to change the world.

And we get our mission from our founder, Jesus.

Hebrews 3:1 says that he is the chief apostle.

Hebrews 3:1

If you're to read in John 20, 21, it says, As the Father sent me, so I'm sending you.

But if we go back to the beginning of John, we learn how Jesus was sent.

In John 1, it says, verse 1, it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And then if we go down to verse 14, it says that the Word became flesh, and he made his dwelling among us.

This morning I want to talk to you about the apostolic mission of the church, the apostolic nature of the church, but I think we first have to realize that Jesus is our example.

And as the chief apostle, the primary sent one, that word apostle is not religious language, it's actually Greco-Roman military language.

So when Alexander the Great and his father before him, Philip II, when they were conquering new lands, they realized that as they would conquer new lands and then they would extend the territory beyond those lands, that those lands would revert back to what they had always been.

That they actually weren't making an impact on them.

They had some people that they could tax and extort a little bit of money out of, but they didn't actually change anything.

And so the Greeks established this role that the Romans then copied, and the role was the role of an apostle.

An apostle very simply means sent one.

In our language, probably the word apostle has so much baggage to it and so much misunderstanding that we could probably better replace it with missionary.

But the role of apostle was this, that they would conquer new lands as military, and then they would send in this political envoy with the rank of general for the purpose of Hellenizing, that would be to make Greek to Hellenize the culture so that the culture of the newly conquered land would reflect the culture of Greece.

And then would later reflect the culture of Rome.

And so when Jesus was choosing the original twelve apostles, and you need to catch this, by the way, in Scripture we find actually about 25 people named apostles.

And so when we talk about being apostles, we can revere and we should the original eleven.

Not so much Judas, but the original eleven.

Because they have a unique place.

We're not trying to place people beside them and not trying to say that their role is anything near what those eleven were.

But what we're what we see in Scripture is that there's actually a whole bunch of people called apostles because it's actually sent ones who are sent out as missionaries, as ambassadors to transform culture.

Here's the interesting thing.

If you were to look at those 25 that we would find in Scripture, you would find among them at least two women.

Junia, we find her at the end of Romans, was an apostle.

In fact, Paul writes that she is considered of the greatest among the apostles.

And then we find Priscilla, who works with her husband Aquila, and they actually teach Apollos, who's a great teacher.

Here's one of the things, this is uh a whole nother sermon we're not going to dive into.

Um but often the church has not known what to do with women.

And we've taken some specific things that Paul wrote, and we've made rules around them, but we didn't actually look at what Paul did to understand what he wrote.

Paul was pro women.

And he grew up in a culture that was not, and so it was a big bias for him to overcome.

But man, he He was praising Junior.

He was praising Priscilla's ability to teach Paul.

I mean to teach Apollos.

That's a big deal.

And so I just think that the kingdom of God has a lot of room for women.

And a lot of value for women and religion.

And the one behind religion actually hates women.

He's so threatened by you.

But I just want to say, as a people, as a church, we really value you, ladies.

There's a lot of value on you.

And so they created this role.

The Romans didn't actually invent a lot culturally.

They just copied a lot of what Greece was doing.

And so they said, hey, okay, we're going to have this role.

And so Jesus, he doesn't choose to name his disciples rabbis, which is what a rabbi would have done had he just been a teacher, but I think he was also the chief apostle.

And so he names his disciples apostles, sent ones, because they're not supposed to be teachers that gather people to themselves, but they're actually supposed to be leaders who lay down their lives for other people and then send them into the very purposes of God.

And so apostle is actually the appropriate title for them, that they would be a sent one.

What church does when it stops living on mission is it actually gets very weird.

Mission actually keeps the church pure in many ways.

And so what we've seen, and even in our day, we have people that would that would look more for a title of apostle than a function of being apostolic.

And then they want to use that position to benefit themselves.

That's not biblical at all.

Jesus is the example of what a real apostle looks like.

That's somebody that lays down his life for the people that they have been given influence with and authority in their lives.

And so, and then Paul says that aren't we apostles like the bottom, the very bottom of the order?

And so apostles, it's not, as we talk about it, one, it's not about a title.

It's actually about a people who are apostolic.

That's what we're after.

Two, it's not about recognition for yourself, it's actually about laying down your life for the people around you.

But I think there's something apostolic that the church needs to recover.

And what we see, if we go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul's writing to a church that's in a pretty big mess.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

He's pretty corrective as he writes these, but then he gets into talking about spiritual gifts and order in the church.

And uh and he says, and let's see.

Now you're the body of Christ, and each one of you has a part in it.

Isn't that pretty awesome?

You have a part in the body.

Like you're a member, not like a member of a country club, but a member of a body, like an arm, a leg, a spleen, a gallbladder, a pancreas.

Like you have a part to play.

An eyelash.

And God has placed in the church, first of all, apostles, second prophets, third teachers, and then uh miracle workers, and then the gifts of healing and helps.

Here's what Paul is saying.

Paul would not have been approaching this from a perspective of hierarchy and position.

So when he says first apostles, he's not talking about rank, he's talking about order.

And the reason why apostles are first is because they actually go in as pioneers and builders to break new ground so that all of the others in order can come after them.

So the church that Jesus is building is apostolic.

Why?

Because it's ever advancing as the kingdom is advancing.

Here's what that looks like for us in our day.

We have to get outside of a religious mindset, because if we get a religious mindset, we'll start to confuse the church and the kingdom.

The kingdom is way bigger than the church.

The church is an agent of the kingdom in the world.

Okay?

And as we begin to understand what it looks like to be an apostolic people, we have to stop thinking about just church.

We have to think about the kingdom.

What I mean by that is this is that some of you have apostolic grace on your life, and it means that you're actually sent from the church into the places that God has placed you.

That you are a missionary, that you are sent one into your schools and into your workplace and into your neighborhood.

And it never looks like having a title, it looks like having a function.

And as we begin to understand that as function, then we're not in, and as we understand that our identity is as sons and daughters, not about our gifting or even our call, it begins to change everything.

So I'm not looking for a title.

I don't put on my business card Apostle Joel or Pastor Joel.

Why?

Because I'm a son, that's where I find my value.

And then we launch people out and we realize that there's there's room for everybody.

If we keep this into the in the confines of church, then there's a few people that do the work, and then everybody else, they're like the fans that just contribute to the work and show up and amen and cheer and sing along and raise their hands and clap all that stuff.

But if we're a family on mission and if we're actually an apostolic people, then this is the halftime huddle, not the main event.

And we actually come together here to get a game planned so that we can be sent out there to transform the world.

And so when we begin to think apostolic, we think order, and then we understand, okay, our gifts are actually best activated not here.

This is where we practice.

I just practice my gifts on you.

You just practice your gifts on the people around you.

This is why community groups are so valuable, because we need people that we can practice with and practice on and then be sent out from.

And then when we get our rear ends handed to us, which happens every now and then, we've got people that we can come back to and say, hey, that was kind of weird and that didn't work very well, and I got wounded and I got rejected, what do I do?

And you've got this safe place that begins to care for you and knows you and helps you heal up so that you can go back at it again.

And so the church is apostolic because the church is always supposed to be missional.

It's always supposed to be on mission.

And when we begin to understand that, we become true to ourselves.

Go with me to Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Start in verse 19.

We're gonna hop around just a little bit.

I'm gonna try to be faster than I am, so listen faster.

Consequently, you're no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household.

That's really good.

That how that word household means family.

It's the word uh oikos, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.

He's everything, he's the one that informs what it looks like for us to be who he's created us to be.

So if you're around people that talk about being apostolic and prophetic, which gets weird really fast, okay?

If it doesn't reflect a facet of who Jesus is, then it quite honestly could be pretty dangerous.

It could be missing it.

But when it begins to look like Jesus, as meek, as humble, as self-sacrificing, as authority that isn't self-serving but gives to others and makes room for people, then you know, okay, there's something happening here that reflects who he is because he's the chief cornerstone.

And if we go on to Ephesians 4, verse 1 says, as a prisoner of the Lord, live a life worthy of the calling you've received.

Ephesians 4:1

I love verse 7.

It's got my favorite Greek word in the whole Bible in it.

It's the word hakosto.

Say hakosto?

And the word hocosto means to each and every one, so not just to some.

It means everybody is included and everybody gets to play.

It says, to each and everyone, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

That word apportioned, you can begin to understand that there is custom-made grace, apportioned, custom-made grace given, hocosto to each and every one.

So you're not like David, given Saul's armor and sent into a battle.

You've actually been given custom-made grace from God for the assignment on your life.

And then he goes on to say in verse 11, he begins to talk about that grace.

He says, To some apostles, which are sent ones.

They make a way for all of the others to follow.

Others would be prophets, those that hear God and keep the people of God true to the word of God.

Both the written word of God and the spoken word of God.

And ultimately, the word of God in flesh.

The evangelists, they're contagious recruiters.

There's some of you around here that it's like, you're like, get me out of here so I can go out there and get people back in here.

And then teachers, they're illuminators, they make scripture come alive in a way that's really applicable, and then pastors.

And pastors are like the heart healers, the carers, they're the ones that are just like, oh man, like I know Joel's talking about we've got this mission to live, but my heart's really hurting for this person because I know they're beat up and wounded.

And it is not either or, it's both and because apostolic lays the foundation that's functional and makes room and values the pastoral.

Here's what I want you to catch, because you're gonna run into a lot of people who say, oh man, this whole idea of apostles ended with the first uh apostles and it's not even applicable anymore.

What are they talking about?

It's heresy, all that kind of stuff.

Okay?

So I just want to give you a very simple argument, other than that it never says that in Scripture and that it names other apostles.

It says the purpose of those is to equip the people for the works of service.

So those gifts equip others.

Your gifts are meant for the sake of others.

The word equip means to restore what is broken, to supply what is lacking, and to order what is disordered, mend what is broken, order what's disordered, supply what is lacking.

That's what equipping does.

So those gifts were given to equip the body for the works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.

Now here's the key.

Verse 13, it's not gonna be on the screen.

Lori, it's not your fault, it's my fault.

I didn't give you this.

Verse 13, the first word.

What's the first word in yours?

Until.

Until.

That means those gifts were given until something happened.

Okay?

So let me give you the until.

Glory is fast.

Lightning bolt lorry back there.

Until we all reach unity in faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

I don't know.

As I look around, I just don't know that we're there yet.

I think we've got some more growing up to do, and so we still need those gifts to grow us up.

So what apostles do when they're in action, they actually help us mature in living out the sent mission of God.

So if you are an apostle, grow from other people who are apostolic so that you can mature in that and give it away.

If you're not apostolic, find somebody so that they'll help you grow in that, that they'll equip you, that they'll supply you.

So if you're pastoral, you need an apostolic person in your life that's going to help you look more like Jesus.

That's the goal.

Titles and gifting are not the goal.

Looking like Jesus, attaining that maturity is the goal for the church.

If you don't know how to share the gospel, which I I was there for a good bit of my life, I realized, oh, I don't look like Jesus in this area, and the people that I'm leading are suffering because I don't know how to share the gospel.

So I went and hung out with some evangelists so that I could learn to share the gospel.

And it changed the whole ministry that I was leading.

We started seeing lots of people come to Jesus, not because I became an evangelist, but I realized that I needed to supply what was lacking.

It didn't change God's call on my life, it actually strengthened it.

Does that make sense?

So we don't just grow in the areas where we're strong, we also want to grow in the areas that we don't naturally lean in towards so that we can become more like Jesus.

But there's unique, custom-made grace on your life to look like Him.

And so when we do that, when we're all learning and growing together, we look more like Jesus.

And that's essentially the heart of being an apostolic people, an apostolic church.

I want to show you, Lori, could you put that chart on the on the screen?

I want to show you, it's gonna be a little bit hard to see, I'll read it to you.

The difference between a pastoral church and an apostolic church.

And here's what I want you to get.

It's not that we don't value the pastoral, it's that when it leads as primary, it causes disorder and anemia.

But when, so this isn't either or, it's what's the starting place and what's the focus.

So let me read it to you.

So the pastoral church is gathering is the primary movement.

The apostolic church, sending is the primary movement.

Pastoral church come and be cared for, apostolic churches come and be equipped.

In the pastoral church, which let me just say this, most of the Western church has a pastoral paradigm.

Success looks like attendance.

In the apostolic church, success looks like multiplication.

In the pastoral church, it builds primarily around the congregation.

The apostolic church builds primarily around the mission field.

Pastoral protects what's been established.

Apostolic pioneers what does not yet exist.

Pastoral leadership primarily cares for people.

Let's just take care of people until we get beamed up to get out of here, and everybody will just be safe.

But in the apostolic church, leadership equips people for ministry.

In the pastoral members are recipients of ministry, apostolic saints are participants in ministry.

Pastoral creates programs for people, apostolic releases people into calling.

Pastoral tends toward centralization.

Apostolic tends towards decentralization and multiplication.

Pastoral, the staff do ministry.

Apostolic, the saints do ministry.

Pastoral, primary question, how are our people doing?

Apostolic primary question, where is Jesus sending us?

Pastoral stability is highly valued.

Apostolic movement and mission are highly valued.

Pastoral church becomes a destination.

Apostolic church becomes a sending base.

Pastoral leadership maintains the organization.

Apostolic leaders pioneer, equips, leadership pioneers equips and releases.

Pastoral can become dependent on gifted leaders.

Let me just say this.

You could look at Sozo Kyle and the 7,500 people that are part of this family and think, oh, we only need like a dozen leaders to make this thing happen and care for what's going on here.

That's a pastoral paradigm.

An apostolic paradigm looks at the plus or minus 8 billion people in the world and says we need leaders for that harvest, not just to take care of this base.

Does that make sense?

Apostolic fivefold gifts equip the body.

Pastoral growth often means adding.

Pastoral growth means multiplying.

Pastoral, how do we get more people here?

Apostolic, how do we send more people there?

Pastoral care creates community.

Apostolic mission creates community.

Let me say this to you.

If I don't have much purpose in my life and I'm in a small group, then it's a bless me, make me feel good club.

But if I have purpose in my life, then I actually need the people around me to care for me at a deep level.

And so actually I think community is much stronger in an apostolic church.

Pastoral goal is a healthy congregation.

Apostolic goal is a mature body sent on mission.

We had a family member come hang in in Sozo San Marcus a few weeks back, and they got moved.

Lauren was preaching just an incredible word, and they got moved.

And then they went and Googled a few things, and they're like, oh, this is that.

Let me say this to you.

There's a lot of bud buzzwords in the idea apostolic and some of that stuff, or even uses of the name Sozo that aren't actually connected with who we are.

And so you go Google this stuff, you're like, oh, well, this is weird.

That stuff is actually not talking about who we are.

This is about a church being lit on mission for God.

And when we live that out, it begins to change everything.

Let me talk to you about a few types of apostle, and then we will wrap up.

And I want you to see this because to be apostolic does not mean that we're always the same.

We see in Scripture Peter and James.

And Peter and James were what we would call governing apostles or sending apostles.

They established something as a base that then launched people out.

They weren't going after they established they were sending, and so their primary function became sending.

Paul is a pioneering apostle.

Picture Paul spiritually with like a machete in his hand, and he's just going to go into new territory and establish new works and see things happen.

He was a trailblazer, and then Barnabas was a fathering apostle.

He actually was, he had a lot of pastoral grace on his life, cared for people, and then as a father began to launch them out.

We see that he even did that with Paul.

So when we begin to think this way, we begin to not put church at the center.

We put Jesus at the center.

And then his life informs ours.

And so our movement doesn't look like, oh, let me put Jesus at the center so that means that I go to church.

No, when I put Jesus at the center, I then live on mission and I make disciples, and what I find is that church is the people that I'm running with.

It's the family of the mission.

And so Chris probably said this a few weeks ago.

Often we talk about the church having a mission, but it's actually backwards.

Because the mission is greater than the church and pre-existed the church, the mission mission has a church, the mission has a family.

And we begin to realize that it changes who we are because we're a people with a purpose to see the kingdom of heaven come in a way that transforms culture.

What that then looks like is that you have an apostolic call on your life as the people of God that's all shared.

And so your goal in following Jesus and becoming like him means that when you leave this place, you're sent from here.

Wherever you go, you're sent.

When you show up to work in the morning, you are on mission.

And the mission isn't just how do I get a little bit of money so I can give 10% to the church.

The mission is actually how do I see the kingdom come to this place.

When you're hanging out in your neighborhood or your kids' sports or whatever it is in your school, it's like, no, I'm not here just to get something, I'm here to give something because I'm on mission.

When we do that, it begins to transform how we live.

Again, it's not either or, it's not apostolic or pastoral.

It's actually that the apostolic makes room for everything else to find its purpose and its order.

And it's inside of that that we don't get bored by playing church, but we actually become the church that transforms the world around us.

Would you stand?

I want to pray for you.

I want to give you a blessing.

My heart is that God would unlock some things in you, that you weren't just saved from sin, from hell, but you were actually saved for something.

Yes.

For the very purposes of God lived in your life.

If you're in a place where, like, hey, I just want to receive, I just want to pray for you.

You can stick out your hands.

It's kind of a just a practice, the posture we take of receiving.

God, we just say that you're really good.

And it's our hearts that we would embody your life.

And so, Lord, would you work that in us?

Would you even reorient our value system, our paradigm of church and following you?

And Lord, would we begin to take up your purpose, your paradigm for us?

And so, Lord, I bless each person here now.

Lord, with apostolic grace, would you increase their passion, our passion for the mission of God?

That we would join you in pioneering and in building.

And Lord, would the kingdom of God come and manifest itself in our homes and our lives and our family and our workplace and schools and our community and to the very ends of the earth.

Lord, would you come and have your way in us and through us?

Oh, we love you so much, Jesus.

God's up to something this morning, and I just want to give you a chance to respond.

It may be something that I've said, but but it's probably something that he's speaking to you.

So we're just gonna have the ministry team up here as we worship and through this last song, and they would love to pray with you.

Maybe you're here and you're like, man, I just need to surrender to Jesus and his call on my life.

They would love to pray for you.

Maybe you're in a place where you're you're wrestling, maybe it's physical pain, or maybe it's it's just you're wrestling with some difficult things in your life, and you'd like for somebody to come alongside you, they would love to pray for you.

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To experience other talks, videos, and live gatherings, visit us online at sozoktx.com, as well as on Instagram at Sozo KTX.

And again, thanks for listening to the Soto KTX Podcast.