Oh When The Saints | Build - Pastor Christian Lake

Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week.

For more information about our church, please visit the RockFamily.

Now to join us for a message from our special guest speaker.

How many of you guys have enjoyed our All Saints series that we've been doing for the last three weeks?

There's going to be a lot of call and response applause type thing, so just be just keep it in the hopper, just ready to go.

Hip fire those applause breaks as I do them.

But this All Saints series is really a series about the church.

What is it?

What is it comprised of?

What is its purpose or its mission?

What is the church?

Or ecclesiology is a fancy word for it.

I promised myself that I wouldn't say it and just came out.

I couldn't get it back.

What is the church?

And we started with kind of a framework for what the church is.

Obviously, the church is made up of believers in Christ.

Did you guys know that?

And uh hopefully you're a believer in Christ.

And if not, then by the end of the service, we'll we'll, you know, you know, there's somebody in the back that's praying, they're looking at you in the back of your head and they're praying for you right now.

Uh but there's something that happens sometimes in believers.

Maybe you're in this room, and you know that you're a believer in Christ, and you have this mindset or you have this identity of uh uh uh I'm a sinner.

And I'm gonna be honest, there's something, there's something helpful about recognizing your need for a savior, recognizing maybe a nature or a pursuing holiness, or something important about that, but there's something that happens in the New Testament that's actually interesting.

The designation or identity of sinner is ambiguously used for believers in Christ a mere three times.

And all three of those times are like disputed whether it's actually talking about believers or not.

Over 60 times believers in Christ and members of the church are referred to as saints.

Saints with zero regard to prior behavior.

So not saints.

You did something really, really awesome.

Not saints, look at you how holy you are, but if you are a believer in Christ, the New Testament seems to identify you as a saint, whether or not you've actually lived like it yet.

I'll give you examples.

You know, Paul calls the churches, you know, the church of the saints and all of his letters that he writes to these churches.

So to the to the church in Corinth, to the saints in Corinth is what he writes, and then he goes on in a great detail uh describing their immorality.

To the saints in Corinth, stop sleeping around.

To the saints in Rome, stop being racist, kind of.

To the saints in Ephesus, stop letting pagans preach at your church services.

I think Pastor Scott said it like this.

I first heard it from uh my friend Daniel Jackson that this identity as a saint or this designation as a saint for a believer is an identity that's received, not achieved.

Received, not achieved.

And this is the framework for the whole series that we've been doing the last three weeks.

Pastor Scott kind of took a more individual approach for the saints.

Uh oh, when the saints believe.

That's kind of an important marker for a saint.

Oh, when the saints pray.

Are you guys remember that praying moms?

There's something about praying moms.

I hope after this weekend you guys have a mission to pray.

I believe that.

I don't know.

I it kind of felt like during that message, maybe like it was just a couple of us that were like, yeah, moms that pray really move stuff.

They really make things happen.

They grab God by his garment and they're like, please save my son.

Please save my daughter.

They're acting like a knucklehead.

Owen the saints obey.

You guys remember that?

The wedding of Cana.

Go, do whatever he tells you to do.

Again, a praying mom.

Owen the saints, but today we're going to talk about something a little bit specific.

Uh, let's see.

A saintly responsibility that is both individual and corporate.

So we're gonna read first before we go to the slide, we're gonna read a passage in Matthew 16.

It's not gonna be on the screen, so you've got to hear it or look it up in your Bible, Matthew 16, 17 through 19, and then we're gonna pray.

And it says this, this is Jesus talking.

Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.

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

I will give you the keys of the kingdom, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for today.

We thank you for your providence, your provision, everything that you've supplied in this house today, and we recognize it, help us to steward it well.

Holy Spirit, we ask for your presence to manifest in a unique way in the room today.

That it will move on hearts and minds.

It will prepare the seed for the soil and the soil for the seed.

It will prepare our minds and hearts to hear your word, receive your word, and obey your word.

Jesus, we pray your word would come alive to us in the room today.

That it would no longer just be a list of propositions or historical narratives, but it will be your word, living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, able to divide soul and spirit, joint and marrow.

I pray that it would discern the intentions of our hearts today, and that it will be written on our hearts and reflected on our words and our thoughts and our actions.

Holy Spirit, we pray that you would move in the room more than any worship team can make happen, more than any speaker can make happen.

We pray that your Holy Spirit would be evident, it will be manifest in a unique way, and all of our hearts and minds will be transformed and changed forever by it.

Holy Spirit, we yield to you today.

And Lord, we recognize you've already accomplished it this weekend.

And if you did it yesterday and the day before, and the day before, Lord, we know, recognize, and expect that you can do it again today.

Lord, we're no longer tired from all the hours that we've put in.

We're no longer tired from this week of work that we've had.

We are expectant of a move of the Holy Spirit right now to place a cap on the things that you've accomplished this weekend, to place the demand on the things you've accomplished this weekend.

Holy Spirit, stir our hearts this morning.

Any barrier, any distraction, any hindrance in our minds and our hearts from receiving the word that you have for us today.

Not that I have, the word that you have for us today, the ideas, the mission, the calling that you want to release in individuals and families represented in this room.

Lord, let us be aware of it today.

We give all the room, we give you all the glory and all the honor in Jesus' name.

Everybody said.

Today we're talking about a new concept, and it is oh when the saints build! Did I do that or did David do that?

Do you know?

We'll find out.

I'm gonna just be pressing this button.

Like it like my mom when she's trying to change the input on her TV.

Everybody say build.

Oh, when the saints build.

Now, before some of you get nervous, I want to clear the air.

No, I am not announcing a new building project.

We are not trying to build another building.

We have buildings at home.

And before we go out and get you another building, you have to go home and finish the building that your mom made for you for supper last night.

I'm skipping that.

Delete, delete, delete, delete, delete.

It's a ridiculous joke.

I have no problem with building projects, obviously.

At this church, we've done about a thousand.

I love building projects.

Uh, and you may not know this.

There's some people that only actually want to be a part of a church that's in a building project.

I don't know if you know this.

There's a church in a building project, and these are your leaders, these are your top givers, these are the people that show up to every workday.

They're rallying the troops, they're getting everybody involved, and they're a part of this.

I mean, Pastor Chris and Jim, you guys know this.

They're involved in every step of the way, and they cannot wait to see that building get built, that property get expanded.

They can't wait to see God to move and build this amazing structure so they can see souls come in and they're all in.

They're all about the building project.

And then as soon as the building gets done, a week later they say, I just think the church is stagnant.

We just don't do anything anymore.

I don't know.

Uh there's just no more momentum.

And then a week later you see on Facebook and they post a part of the new uh church plant that they're a part of.

And they're helping build.

Does anybody know?

Is this am I making this up?

This is a real thing.

There's people that only want to be a part of something that has this material object in front of it.

There's something that think building the church means having this physical goal right in front of them.

There's people that only want to be a part of something that they can put their hands to and they can't sit back and grow roots in the place that they're planted.

These are people that want growth, but they don't want roots.

Again, I'm all about building projects.

You have to place to put people, right?

And I believe that God has given us not only a unique ability to speak into the lives of our moms and daughters and wives in the room, but God has also given us a unique responsibility for this community.

The people of the dream.

And this is a place that we built for the people of the dream.

I remember uh uh as a kid, I don't know if you remember this, when we moved into uh Memorial Park or I know you remember this, Alex.

Uh 2300, we had a building project because we were trying to build out the building because everyone was meeting in the kids' area.

And I remember uh in children's church, Kids Quest, what we called it, they they let us be a part of it, and they called it Gideon's 300.

Does anybody remember that?

And what they did was they gave out uh these tubes of mini MMs.

Do you remember this?

The three of us, the three millennials that did this, they gave out these tubes of mini MMs.

And what you would do as a kid, as an elementary age kid, is you would go home and you would eat the MMs, fill the tube with pennies, and bring it back in to raise, I think,$300 or something.

It was some sort of contribution to the building project.

And I remember loving it so much.

It was so exciting as a kid.

Every Sunday I would bring home 15 tubes of mini MMs, and I think I brought back one.

They lost a lot of money allowing me to be a part of this building project.

But it's still at the same time, it was so encouraging, it was so exciting to be an elementary age student, kid, and be able to be involved in what God was doing in this project, to be able to see, like, alright, there's real visible uh uh uh uh progress, we're moving somewhere.

It was so cool.

But when you stake when you mistake material progress for spiritual development, uh asking for constant revival, you may be asking for growth growth when you really need roots.

Yes, healthy things grow, but so do weeds.

That is a thousand degrees.

Okay.

On the other hand, there's a polar opposite situation.

I had a friend text me a picture of a church this week in Boston.

Huge, beautiful historic church, hundreds of years old.

The oldest church in Boston, one of the oldest churches in America.

This is the church that uh Benjamin Franklin attended.

I looked it up online.

Gorgeous, gorgeous.

So the people that attend this church, they've not done uh their great-grandparents weren't in the building project.

I mean, this church has been there since the founding of this country, representing a time in this country where people would orient their communities and their social circles around the house of God.

And it's this beautiful, beautiful building with stained glass windows and these giant columns, and you look at it and you're like, man, I love that.

I love that people could put these resources into building something great for God, building something beautiful for God, something that would have services for years and years, over a hundred years, where people can dig in and grow roots and be formed by the Word of God.

And I look closely at the pictures that he sent me, and right there in between the two center columns of this beautiful old historic church was a pride flag.

And this is not uh a story that's unique to this old church in Boston.

This is something that you'll find in historic churches all around the country.

These beautiful old historic churches that have so much meaning and have so much history of the message of Jesus Christ.

But what happens when the stones that you've laid have outlived the message that they were supposed to contain?

It's the polar opposite.

It's this reformation idea without revival, it's this formation without the Spirit of God or the anointing of God on it, it's this going through the motions.

So there's these two polar opposites, right?

There's this, you know, revival, revival, revival.

I only want revival, right?

And this is what the church is, it's just revival.

But I mean, have you ever like like try to do CPR on somebody who's alive?

Have you ever been in the sixth grade at summer camp and got saved in the wave pool at Point Mallard, even though you weren't drowning in front of all your friends?

Hypothetically, that didn't happen to anybody that I know or me specifically.

It's awkward, but at the same time, if you try to do reformation on something that's dead, you're doing weekend of Bernies.

It's theater and you're moving around a dead body that doesn't actually have any life in it.

So what are we building?

And I guess the real question that I want to start with is what happens when building goes wrong?

What happens when building goes wrong?

Let's see.

Hopefully, you know that this isn't just about physical buildings, right?

Like that's not that's not what we're doing here.

But building actually has a huge benefit, narrative, uh uh imagery in scripture that has implications for us today.

God asked people to build altars, he asked them to build an ark, right?

He asked them to build a temple.

There's all sorts of things that God asked them to build, and then in the New Testament, that building image gets placed on a one thing the church.

Build the church.

We read it.

On this rock, I will build my church.

Believers now get uh uh uh imaged as living stones placed on a cornerstone.

That cornerstone that is Jesus.

We are living stones being built into a temple before God.

Alright.

So a little backstory before this passage is Genesis 11, so it'll go very, very quick.

This building project that God started starts in the garden, right?

And then his human family rebels and they get expelled from the garden.

Things get bad to worse, because in Genesis 6, God's divine family rebels, and the sons of God come down and lay with the daughters of man.

This is rebellion.

And so to destroy the earth, God commands the building of an ark.

This is a remnant, restoration.

Often building in scripture is about restoring or preserving a people of God or a remnant.

And then a covenant is made with Noah that we'll describe a little bit later, and then the building goes wrong.

If we look at that right here in Genesis 11.

Hey, alright, that wasn't that was definitely not me.

This is just a prop right here.

I'm gonna read this right here.

This is you guys may be familiar with the story.

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words, and as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.

And they had brick for stone and bit you men for mortar.

Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top and the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.

Ooh, I've been waiting for this.

Otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built, and the Lord said, Look, they are one people, and they all have one language.

This is only the beginning of what they will do.

Nothing that they propose to do now will be impossible for them.

The Lord comes down and confuses their language and scatters them across the whole earth.

I was always confused or perplexed by the story as a child, looking at this amazing building project that the people on earth want to do for God, a tower up into the heavens.

They want to build this tower, and the reason why they got in trouble is because they did not have the appropriate permits.

I think.

Is that no?

No, something else.

Every good general contractor knows you gotta get those permits, right?

This tower is actually described in extra-biblical text, ancient Babylonian uh writings, uh writings from the Akkadians, some from the Sumerians, and they describe this amazing big tower called a ziggurat, this amazing tower that they built in this area, the land of Shinar.

And uh the the other extra-biblical ancient texts describe it as a good thing.

They called it the gate of God.

This amazing place where it was the gate where God could come into the world, and it was a center of economic and religious society.

Right?

They called this a good thing.

The Hebrew narrative turns that on its head because we'll find out later in Deuteronomy 32 that this story is not just a one-off story about people building something for God and then it getting torn down.

This story is actually the implication or the setup for really, you know, one of the main reasons why Jesus came.

And we find out in Deuteronomy 32.

Moses sings a song, and in that song he describes the nations being dispersed over the earth according to the sons of God, according to the sons of God.

But Israel will be kept as God's inheritance.

So at this point, God establishes his people in Eden.

Rebellion happens over and over again.

God starts over with his people Noah, right?

They start to spread over the earth, and they said, Hey, come, we want to serve whatever God we want.

And God says, Okay, here you go.

And he disperses the nations across the whole earth according to the sons of God, according to other principalities and powers that now have dominion over these rivaling nations, these gods that are now rivaling against the one true God.

Right?

And then Jesus comes, and Jesus is crucified and resurrected, and then he says, What?

Go and make disciples of all what?

Nations.

Disciples of all nations.

This is not just figurative language, this is a specific regional dispute between God reclaiming what's actually his.

Right?

So this starts at Babel.

So now you see this is more than just like a permit situation, but there's something, there's two things specific that I want to point out in this passage.

Uh the first one is funny, it's a tower with its top in the heavens, and then how does God get to it?

He has to come down.

I like that.

It's really patronizing of God.

Oh, you want to build a tower up?

Well, let me come down and see what you made.

That's true.

I mean, that's it.

That's why it's there.

Let us make a name for ourselves.

That's important.

I want you to pay attention to that.

And then this part right here, this is the actual primary sin of the Tower of Babel.

Otherwise, we'll be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

Right?

This is why this matters.

If we go back to Genesis 9, there's a command.

There's a command that God gives to the people on earth, to Noah and his descendants, in Genesis chapter 9.

Genesis 9 · chapter mention

It says this Alright, now that I've preserved you, you've built a vineyard, your sons are here, they're going to multiply, and I want you to multiply and spread over the whole earth.

This is God's command to the people that He's preserved.

Go and spread across the whole earth.

And then two chapters later, what do the people of the earth say?

Come.

Let us build a city and a tower to God so we don't get spread over the whole earth.

Isn't that amazing?

The people of God come together.

The people that God has preserved, the descendants, the descendants of Noah, they come together.

Hey, let's build something amazing.

Let's build something great.

It's top to the heavens.

It's an amazing thing.

So we don't have to do the thing that God asked us to do.

Isn't it amazing the effort that we will put as human beings?

Because honestly, I think this is something, Tyler, you know this.

I think this is something that's like laid up in the human heart, right?

Maybe I'm the only one and you guys are going to be mad at me at the end of the story, okay?

Maybe at the start, honestly.

There's going to be a real quick turnaround on this.

But there's something laid up in the human heart that causes or allows us to put an insane amount of work and effort into anything except the thing that we know we're supposed to be doing.

Is there anybody else that's like that or knows somebody like that?

Typically, when I'm up here, I ask myself, all right, what would Pastor Scott do?

And so very briefly, I'm going to pick on my wife.

Okay, alright.

I'm joking, I'm gonna turn it back on me to where by the end of this you'll know, like, I'm the problem.

This is just a funny joke.

Uh, my wife is an amazing mother to our three children, soon to be four.

Um, and honestly, many guys don't know this.

She worked here for a decade doing graphic design and doing all sorts of stuff after we had our first uh uh building website.

I mean, I'm underselling it.

She did everything, she did, she was infinitely more valuable than I've ever been to this church, and still probably is, honestly.

Uh, but she's An amazing mother to our children.

A few years ago, after we started having more kids, she decided, hey, you know what?

I want to stay home and raise them.

I want to be home with my kids.

I want to be a stay-at-home mom.

I think that's my calling.

At least for this season, I want to be home because I want to see my kids at every opportunity.

We'll make it work in the house.

And I said, absolutely, I love that.

You know, we'll orient our lives around it.

We'll figure something out.

You can stay home.

I love it.

I think it's going to be a great idea.

And if anyone, if anyone's ever done that, you know that going from being in the workforce to being a stay-at-home mom, there's a learning curve.

It's a transition, right?

I mean, you're going to work every day and you're meeting deadlines and guidelines and demands, and then you go home and you're like, wait, what am I supposed to be doing right now?

And I remember there's one day I think she was, she was pregnant.

She was very, very pregnant with our third child, I believe.

And uh second or third trimester, something like that.

And uh I remember getting up and getting ready to go to work, and she's at home, and she's like, you know what?

I have a uh a burst of energy.

I think I'm gonna clean today.

I'm gonna clean, I'm gonna organize.

We have a really rough Tupperware situation at the house.

Every lid is mixed matched.

I'm gonna take care of that tougherware situation.

I'm gonna organize, I'm gonna get the kids' toys all in the right place.

I'm gonna clean up the house.

And I gotta be real careful, right, fellas?

So I gotta be real careful.

I was like, hey, sweetheart, well, if you feel up to it, right, do what you can, but make sure you get plenty of rest.

Make sure you get plenty of rest.

Whatever you want to do, do it.

But hey, if you want to clean and organize the house, hey, go do it.

I'll be praying for you, you know?

Get up, go to work, come back a few hours later, workday is done, and I pull into the driveway, and my wife is in the front yard on a ladder, trimming branches off of the tree in our front yard.

Now listen, alright, I am the furthest thing from a misogynist.

This is not a gender roles thing, this is not like boys do yard work and girls do chores.

Like, this is not that at all.

But if you are in your second trimester, I don't think you should be on a ladder at all.

I think there's some ladders that even say not for use if you are pregnant or you know, something.

I don't know.

I know that's true.

Here's how I turn it back on me before anybody gets freaked out or anything like that.

Why was she cutting those branches in the first place?

Somebody knows.

Because for weeks and weeks and weeks, I had been telling my wife, I'm going to trim the branches on the tree in the front yard.

And like any good husband, I didn't do it.

And I went in the house and I organized the tufferware and I did the dishes.

I do this all the time.

Our dishwasher was broken.

And for a year, probably it was completely broken.

We washed every dish by hand.

Hours and hours and hours.

And then finally, after a year, I decided I'm the husband, I'm the man of the house, I'm gonna fix this dishwasher.

And in one day, I found out that the water wasn't turned on to the dishwasher.

A year of our lives.

A year of our lives hand washing every dish, every child's utensil.

And it was fixed in 20 minutes.

Didn't need a part.

Sometimes I'll go wash dishes by hand just for the nostalgia of that year in the wilderness.

We had a light fixture in our house that was broken.

I'm gonna fix the light fixture, I'm gonna fix the light fixture.

Six months?

How long was it broken?

Longer.

I'm not fixing it.

My mother asked me to fix a light fixture out at her house, and I fix it in a day, and I come home and my wife is standing there.

Oh, yeah, I knew there was something to fix the light fixture.

I counted yesterday.

There are nine light bulbs that are out in my house right now.

Nine.

She's getting alright, I gotta pull back.

Nine light bulbs in our house.

Pretty soon in our house, the only lighting is gonna be the hatch baby monitor that's in our kids' room.

My kids are gonna have to start feeling around the house like pilgrims.

And my wife is gonna get me one of those candles that has like a handle and a saucer and a little nightcap, so when I get up to go to the bathroom at night, I can walk around with a candle and I can snore like honk shoe, honk shoe, like Ebenezer Scrooge.

And even knowing all this, knowing how dark it gets in my house at night, knowing the dangers that are afforded to my wife and my children, knowing all of this, I will go home and I will build a gazebo before I change those light bulbs.

I thought I would have more backup from the fellows there.

Tyler did not say a word.

Alright, before you do an intervention for me, and you tell me all the church moms come up and beat me up after service, I'll change the light bulbs.

Here's my point.

It always amazes me how much effort we will put into building something great for God instead of building his church.

It always amazes me how we'll put three, four, five times the effort into building our own platform, our own influence, our own thing, our own evangelism tool, our own community, whatever it is, instead of taking any of that effort and putting into serving the church.

Building the church.

I got a little quiet in here, Pastor Brent.

I don't know if I'm off base.

But look how big my gathering is, look how big my community is.

We don't need a church anymore.

I'm just trying to reach people for Christ, so I'm building my own influences out.

But I have a gift, I have an anointing.

I'm gonna go kind of build my own ministry, my own thing, my own name, my own tower.

Alright.

I don't know, I don't know.

It's like do those things in the church.

I don't know what else to tell you, but I'm starting my own thing.

I'm starting this ministry, I'm starting this business.

It's for God, it's this amazing, great thing.

God's plan is the church.

That's his only plan.

There's not a plan B.

There's not a backup, there's not some other way that he has designed to reclaim the nations.

But I have a TikTok following.

That's great.

That's fine.

I'm not against any of those things.

All right, maybe I'll come back off that.

Build the church.

Oh, but the church just wants credit.

My brother in Christ, you are the church.

Build the church.

You have an anointing, great, build the church.

You have a skill set, great.

Build the church, you have an ability, you have charisma, you have a gift, great.

Use that gift to build the church.

I don't know any other way to say it.

And I'm not saying this, I'm all right, maybe this is I'm not saying it to you guys.

You guys are great.

This is for the other people.

I'm saying in this culture, something has happened in the last few years, at least to my observation, where people are infinitely more interested in building something for themselves, building something that has their name attached to it, building something that affords them some other benefit other than building the church that Jesus Christ established.

And I'm telling you this, young people are getting tired of it.

I'm not just talking about young people, I'm talking about people that are new to church.

People that are coming in and they see all these different things.

Wait, which who am I who am I following?

What am I supposed to be doing?

It's like I don't want to do something for the church unless there's an immediate benefit to me.

Alright.

I think this might be a long Sunday.

Okay.

Build a church.

This is what, uh Do I even need the Yeah, here we go.

I don't know.

I'm just gonna ask David's back there, just like looking at me, like, hey, what are you doing?

He's just this is just like this is what Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf said.

He was the bad guy from series of unfortunate events.

But he has a great quote.

This is really, really good.

He says, preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten.

This may sound extreme to some of you, but imagine how countercultural, how different this is.

Preach the gospel, die, be forgotten.

This is completely different.

This is completely countercultural because anybody that I know today that has any amount of charisma or influence outside the church or from other places, I'll build something as long as it has my name attached to it.

As long as there's a legacy.

What about my legacy?

What about my name?

What about my tower?

Man, I don't.

I'm just gonna be honest too.

And this is not, you guys are gonna think I'm bragging or something.

I'll explain why I'm not later on.

I could not care less.

I could not care less.

Man, I just I just want to preach and go home.

I'm serious and be with my kids, and pray with my children, and be with my wife, and I don't care.

Who remembers that I was here?

And some of you guys are looking and you're like, oh, that's easy for you to say.

You're up on the stage right now.

I get that.

Alright.

It's a little bit silly.

Let me tell you this.

Alright, maybe Pastor Brick can answer this.

How many times have I ever asked to be up here?

Zero times.

Again, I'm gonna tell you why I'm not bragging on my humility at the end of the message.

I'll tell you now, the way that I came to this conclusion isn't by my own, it's because this is what was modeled for me here at this church.

And maybe I'll brag on my church for a little bit.

And maybe that'll encourage you.

And I'll do it more just throughout the message, but this is a church where people aren't concerned about a name.

Full stop.

I'll say, I'll say personally, my mom, right?

Many guys don't know this, we're getting ready to start a greens team here.

Before there was a greens team here, there was Pastor Jamie, and there was my mom.

My mom was planting Japanese maples out by the thing.

They're all dead now, but she planted them.

My mom spent, I mean, how many days and hours and hours and hours, months, months planting and beautifying this place.

And don't none of you even know her name.

Not a single one of you, except for Pastor Jamie.

And she's mad at her for killing all the trees.

Now, this is my favorite part.

My mom would always tell me, he's like, oh yeah, Jamie's so great.

But she said she would say Pastor Jamie couldn't ever remember the names of any of the plants, so she just kept like naming them different stuff.

Oh, that right there, that's tongues of fire.

Mom's like, no, it's not.

That right there, that's the Holy Spirit's flower right there, you know.

So petunias, what are you talking about?

That's my favorite part.

It was modeled for me.

It was modeled for me, not not just by my mom and my dad, but by spiritual mothers and fathers and the people that built this church, and the people that planned to this church, and the people that prayed for this church in hotel rooms and in houses, and elders that are in this church praying over people this morning.

Those are the people that didn't ever ask for nothing, didn't ask for their name on the screen, didn't ask for their name anywhere else.

They didn't care about something that would make a name for themselves because they don't want to build a tower, they want to build a church.

That's my encouragement today.

Let's let this.

I could just end here.

Right?

This is it.

This is it.

God is building his church, and that's what we get to do.

I don't want to do other stuff, I want to do his stuff.

Okay.

Alright, let's get into it a little bit.

Alright, let's do it.

Dobby, can you change to the next slide?

How about that?

Yeah, alright.

Yeah, it was him the whole time.

This was all a trick.

Alright, this is my first point right here.

The church doesn't need you to build it.

You need to build the church.

A lot of these are gonna sound harsh.

I couldn't come up with better ways to word a lot of them, so just know my heart and then just get mad at me later.

Everything that I was preparing and studying for, I had three small children around me the entire time.

So any of the angst came from that.

Not from you.

It was from this.

The church doesn't need you to build it.

Dobby, go to the next slide.

I'll tell you why.

Zechariah 4, 6.

He said to me, This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

Psalm 127.

Unless, everybody say, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard that keeps watch watches in vain.

This unless at the top of verse 1, there's about two metric tons of pressure on this word right here.

Because it doesn't just say the Lord's gonna build the house, it says, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

This word of the Lord right here to Zechariah about Zerubbabel, he's the one who's gonna come in after Babylonian exile and rebuild the temple.

That's a tough task.

How am I gonna do that?

The Spirit of the Lord of hosts.

That's how we're building the house.

That's the responsibility on the house.

I'm gonna tell you, alright.

This might look like a big operation to a lot of you guys, but at the end of the day, this is a local church.

This is a local church.

And we prove that by coming up here and talking about very specific people and very specific things.

I'm gonna talk about two people, they're very dear friends of my wife and I, Nathan and Caroline Bivens.

I don't know if they're here.

I hope they're not, honestly.

It's about serving and this is about building the church.

Nathan and Caroline are two of our dearest friends.

I went to high school years and years ago with Caroline, and this is a I mean, tell me I'm wrong, this is a power couple.

I mean, a very real power couple in the way that they build the church and don't ask anything for it.

Nathan is uh he plays drums here.

He's an excellent drummer, he's a phenomenal drummer, but he's also like huge, like supernova, he's a brilliant man of God, first of all, but also knows tech, he knows uh uh um photography, he does photography.

Nobody knows any of the amazing things that he's done.

He can do business stuff, also.

I mean, it's just an absolute boon, just blessing to the house of God.

And Caroline was prom queen.

This is a joke.

I went to high school with her.

The reason why that joke is funny is because Caroline, this was only for her, honestly.

Caroline was like one of the top 25 business leaders under 25 in Huntsville, Alabama, and she helped almost single-handedly start a multi-million dollar defense company here in Huntsville, Alabama, and has done almost infinitely more than like anybody that I ever know.

And I was here like playing dodgeball in youth the whole time.

I mean, very real power couple.

This is the reason why I bring this up.

I was talking to Nathan years ago, because he started playing drums here, he's an excellent drummer, really, really great, huge blessing to our church.

But he was a member here for eight years before he ever even told anybody that he played drums.

And I remember having a conversation with him one time.

I was like, What like what like what took you so long?

What was the what happened?

And I remember him looking at me and being like, I didn't think they needed help.

What he didn't know was at the same time, Ethan Sharp went on a generational run of playing drums every single Sunday for over a year.

Like 18 months, because there was no other drummer here.

And honestly, that's not on Nathan, that's that's on us, really.

But this was the promise that Pastor Scott made at Vision Sundays.

Like, alright, hey, you're gonna know where you can fit in here, you're gonna know where you can serve here.

So that's Nathan and Caroline, but this is the more interesting part about this, right?

Caroline also just happened to be prom queen of my high school graduating class, and I wanted to make sure that you guys knew that.

Um she's gonna be furious after this.

One of my oldest friends.

Here's what I found out.

This is what's interesting.

Again, absolute power couple.

Uh my wife and I love hanging out with them, and we I we told them this a couple years ago that found out recently what I think actually is their actual spiritual gift.

We were hanging out with them and they invited us to their parents' lake house.

We went out to the lake house and I'm looking at them like, you know what?

I think your actual spiritual gift is hospitality.

We're hanging out with them, and I start thinking about it, and I start realizing I'm like, I would rather go to their house than to the doctor.

Like just spending an hour with them is like refreshing.

It feels like you have new life again.

It feels like you've been rested.

You could just go to their house and play a stupid board game, and you go home and you're like, I have energy, I could do anything.

There's like a very real, I'm no, I'm not talking about like they made dinner for us.

I'm talking about there's a supernatural spiritual gift, a God-given gift of hospitality on this couple's life.

A very, I mean, so much so that we found out that Ethan and Bella Sharp were hanging out with them, and we got mad.

Because those are our friends.

This is this not a real conversation where we're sitting there and we're just like, oh, that's sweet.

How do they find out about them?

I don't know.

Did somebody tell them?

We actually got mad and we realized, we're like, wait, is this us like coveting the gifts of the spirit?

Here's the thing, you may be in the room and you may think that you have a gift or you have something, but you just don't fit, or there's not room for you, there's not a need for you, there's not a use for you.

And I'm gonna tell you right now, there is a need, there is a use, there is a purpose, and your gift may not even be the thing that you think you have.

It may be something that's been seated up in your heart, it may be some ability that has no way to be monetized, some ability that doesn't garner huge influence or doesn't garner a huge following on social media.

Your greatest gift of the house may be something that has to get pulled out of you.

It may be something that doesn't benefit you at all.

But something that is now literally being coveted by members of the staff here.

Fighting over it.

Because of how rested and how blessed and how encouraged we feel.

I want to tell you right now, you may think that you don't have a gift, but you do.

And it may not even be something you know.

Let's go to the next slide, David.

I'll tell you right now, here.

This is great, because Pastor Britt references during offering right here.

These are the gifts of the Spirit that are laid out by Paul.

Uh, here's the best part about this.

A lot of people don't know this.

When you look at the actual language that exists in the text, especially in this passage in 1 Corinthians, these spiritual gifts, the language that he uses, indicates that none of this is an exhaustive list of the gifts of the Spirit.

A lot of times you look at the gifts in these passages right here.

This is every time it talks about a spiritual gift, you look at these passages and you're like, all right, well, which one am I?

Like it's one of those quizzes on Facebook that tells you what Disney princess you are.

Like, no.

No, this is Paul giving a huge, open-ended, ambiguous list, saying, like, hey, your spiritual gift, your gift to the church, your blessing to your community may not even be on here.

You may have something else that's gonna bless people.

How do we know?

What's the purpose of every single one of these gifts, without exception?

Say it, Pastor Chris, you said it to build the church.

You have a gift, you have a tool, you have an ability to build the church.

It may not even be on this list, and you may not even know what it is.

Build the church.

Generosity is, in fact, on this list.

So is giving, so is teaching, so is encouragement.

I had a pastor say this to me years ago when I was just like getting started.

I felt so like uh uh uh I was going on uh I was going with Pastor Steve on uh like hospital visits.

Right?

We're going in, and Pastor Steve, if you guys don't know, is this his spiritual gift.

I mean, one of his many, but this is like he walks into hospital rooms and it's like if they don't get healed, they're gonna, you know, not even care anymore, what whatever they have.

I mean, so encouraging in the way that he prays for people and anoints the doorpost, and I mean, just an actual sensitivity to what's going on.

I mean, if I'm in a hospital bed, I want Pastor Steve to be there like that.

And the best part is he is going to be there like that.

There was one time where like we had a procedure and we didn't tell him about it, and he was like at our door the next day, just violently angry.

Not violent, just feel why didn't you tell me about this?

I'm supposed to be there helping you.

This is one of his gifts.

But I remember early on, like, just feeling so out of place.

Well, okay, I'll tell you this.

This is not in my notes, did not play until this is the very first hospital visit that I went on.

There was a student in the youth group that was having a procedure done, and I went with Pastor Adam Nelson, and I passed out in the children's swing of the Huntsville Hospital.

You guys know this, but for legal reasons, if you pass out in the children's wing of the Huntsville Hospital, they have to keep you there for observation.

In the children's wing of the Huntsville Hospital.

Remember those Disney princesses I was just talking about?

Painted all over the wall next to my bed.

And I'm sitting there and it's like, oh man, that's so embarrassing, that's terrible, but it's okay.

I have a bunch of pastor friends and they're gonna be praying for me, and then I look at my phone Pastor Scott, Pastor Adam, and every other pastor that can.

Think of was sending me memes and pictures of fainting goats.

I was there for a full day, by the way, with just little kids being rolled next to me, just like, hey, what are you in here for?

Passed out.

So I felt completely ill-equipped to visit people in the hospital for a good reason.

And I remember a pastor years later being like, hey, if somebody's really going through it, don't you think they would want somebody to come in there and make them laugh?

Never thought about that.

I was like, well, that's not a spiritual gift.

He was like, encouragement is.

Exhortation is a spiritual gift.

And maybe sometimes you don't feel like you have that power.

You don't have that special sensitivity or that experience of whatever they're going through, but you can go in there, you can make them feel comfortable.

You can encourage somebody in the body of Christ.

Let me tell you, your gift may not be what you think it is.

It may not be something that you can monetize.

You have an ability, great.

Build a church.

You have influence, great.

Build a church.

If you have a gift, build a church.

You have something special to place on the foundation of the church.

For what?

For building up the body of Christ.

And only you can do what you can do the way that you do it.

That's true.

I mean, we talk about it for preaching all the time.

That there's a reason why we have multiple preachers.

Because there's a way that Pastor Brent talks that's different than the way that I talk.

She's literally in the writing room with me right before this.

Like, hey, this is the reason why you're up there because we want people to hear from a plurality of voices, because there's gifts given to the church for this reason.

You have a unique ability.

But alright, this is gonna sound bad again.

Again, I remember I had the children around.

Okay, alright, Dobby?

Your gift is unique, not irreplaceable.

Okay.

Alright, I'm not saying this to everybody again.

But alright, just imagine this, and maybe you know of this person and they're very far away, and you're praying for them now.

This is not you.

But it's like, yeah, I was serving in there, but they just didn't appreciate me.

So I left and I'm just gonna watch them fail from the distance.

Yeah, I have a gift of administration.

I was helping them in the parking lot, but they don't want to use any of my ideas, so I mean, just gonna fail.

I'm gonna step back and I'll they'll see.

No?

Has anybody ever heard or felt like this or thought this?

It's like, yeah, I have a gift of preaching, but they just don't care about it, they don't appreciate it, so I'm just gonna go away.

I'm gonna go away.

And if I'm not in the church, I know that that church is gonna fail.

And alright, I'm not talking about anybody specific.

This is a very real spirit, this is a very real movement that's happening in culture, that's happening in young people, that's happening in older people, that's happening all across the spectrum.

There are people that think that the church depends on their gift.

That the church exists for their gift.

Let's look at these passages right here.

These are both in 1 Corinthians 12 that we referenced earlier.

The I cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

On the contrary, the members of the body that seem weaker are indispensable.

This is in reference to what I was talking about earlier, right?

You may not even know what your gift is.

Right?

You may feel like it's small, you may feel like it's it's nothing, you may feel like, oh, I'm just having people over at my house for games.

And now me and Ethan are literally fighting over being at your house for games.

Right?

Members that seem to be weak are indispensable.

Are all apostles, are all prophets, or all teachers?

Do all work miracles?

No, everybody does different stuff.

But strive for the greater gifts, and I will show you still a more excellent way.

The immediately following chapter shows that the more excellent way is love.

Your gift is unique, especially the way you use it, but it's not irreplaceable.

The people that talk like that, where it's like I have a gift, but they didn't want me, I'm offended because they didn't use me.

These are the people that want opportunity but not accountability.

Be wary of pursuing opportunity without accountability.

You might think that you're God's gift to the church, and guess what?

You are.

That is God's gift to the church.

Stop hogging it.

Stop hoarding the gifts of the Spirit that were given for the edification, the building up of the body of Christ, the equipping of the saints.

Stop hogging it for your own thing, your own personal thing, your own offense, your own ministry, your own name, and lay it down on the foundation.

Living stones.

About 15.

This is not about people that were like that.

These are uh this is a very quick story about who I think are the two greatest youth leaders of all time.

Where is Adam?

I was hoping Adam was gonna be here to help me get this right because he knows all the details.

He's in the back.

I hope he sticks his little head out all these doors, and we can all laugh at him.

Uh about 15 years ago, when I when Adam was the youth pastor and I was running junior high for him, we had a youth leader named Randy.

And Randy was 800 years old.

In junior high.

And Randy didn't see so well.

No one could ever tell who he was looking at.

And his real thick glasses.

Is that Adam?

Yeah.

Randy, right?

Remember Randy?

Yes.

Yes, 15 years ago.

Junior high leader Randy, that's what I was talking about.

I was trying to make sure that I got it right.

It's 15 years ago, and Randy's in junior high, and you look at this guy and you're like, you are not supposed to be here.

We're in junior high.

Your great-grandkids are in here.

What are you doing?

Why are you serving in here?

He's like, no, man, I just I really feel called to serve and to lead in there.

And we're just like, all right, man.

It wasn't cool, he didn't fit in with all the other youth leaders.

And then one day we put a dodgeball in his hands.

And Randy turned into like Tomb Raider.

I mean, it was unit was unbelievable.

He was handing out concussions like there were free samples at Costco.

I mean, just obliterating kids left and right.

It was beautiful.

I don't know if he was having like war flashbacks or something, but it was like, I mean, was just lasers, was destroying people with dodgeballs.

And you know what happened?

The kids fell in love with Randy.

Every kid's like, oh man, I want to be in Randy's small group.

Randy ran a Devo every Sunday morning.

And every Sunday morning, the first kids that came to junior high were Randy's kids.

And they were going through their Devo.

And Randy became the most I they didn't care that I existed anymore.

I was running to this junior high service and like, eh, no, no, no, where's Randy at?

I want to go see Randy.

And Randy ran his uh junior high small group for years, and it was unbelievable.

It was great, and he was like one of the biggest difference makers in the lives of those junior high kids.

And then Randy moved to Denver.

He was gone.

I was like, all right, oh, we'll find somebody else.

With a bunch of cool, you know, youth leaders, all the kids that knew all the lingo and wore the cool clothes.

They all came in, and junior high was this fun hip place, or whatever.

And about 10 years after Randy left, we had another guy show up to the youth, and he was, I'm an older guy, you know, gray hair, uh, you know, kind of, you know, like, you know, lean forward a little bit.

Uh, there's nothing old about leaning forward.

I don't know why that was in my head, there was like a whole movement or whatever.

But it was an older guy.

He was an older guy, and he came in and he said, I want to serve in the junior high ministry.

He said, Oh, that's great, man.

We could use some leaders.

And we said, What's your name?

And he said, Well, my name's Randy.

And we said, How are you at Dodgeball?

And Randy wasn't that great at dodgeball, but Randy loved the kids, and the kids loved Randy.

He dressed up as Martin Luther for junior high one day to teach the kids about the Reformation.

He was wearing like later hose in, the kids all just thought he was a Kievler elf.

But he loved those kids so much.

You know what Randy came up to us and said?

He said, I want to start a junior high small group for the boys, the junior high boys, and their dads.

And then he went out to his house that was by a lake.

He was taking these kids on fishing trips, and the kids absolutely fell in love with Randy.

There's kids in this room tonight.

I don't know if Randy's in here.

Like your son was his life was transformed by Randy and by his influence and by the gift that he gave to the junior high ministry.

Here's my point.

You may be in this room and you think you don't fit.

You may think that your gift doesn't fit for what the department looks like.

You may think that you're too old for youth.

I'll tell you this: as a youth pastor, there's nothing more comforting than having moms and dads and the youth with you.

There's absolutely nothing in the world.

The security, the wisdom, the understanding.

So you might think that you don't fit in, and because of that, there's a hole in the wall where you're supposed to be building.

In my opinion, the two most valuable youth leaders that we've ever had were two guys that didn't look anything like any of the other youth leaders.

They didn't look anything like them.

They didn't fit all of the criteria that we place on a youth leader.

Made the greatest impact in the lives of those young high boys.

What are we doing?

How long is this gonna be?

I don't know.

Build for a name that is not your own.

Build for a name that is not your own.

You want a legacy?

We've already been given a legacy.

You want a name?

We've already been given a name.

It's Jesus.

You want something to build?

We've already been given something to build.

It's a house for Jesus.

That's what we're doing.

Not for your name, not for your legacy, not for what you can pass on not to be remembered.

Here's the funny thing about the count guy.

He got remembered.

Isn't that funny?

It's like, please don't remember.

Whatever you do, don't remember him.

They're like, we're gonna remember you even harder.

Remembered him.

Let's look at these two passages and this will kind of close it up for us.

1 Chronicles 22.

This is what Pastor Scott talked about on Vision Sunday.

David said, My son Solomon is young and inexperienced.

The house that is to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent, famous, and glorified throughout all the lands.

I will therefore make preparation for it.

So David provided the materials in great quantity before his death.

This is David doing all of the work, doing all of the gathering, finding all of the materials to build a house that he would never see.

To work for something that he would never see an end result.

To build a house for the Lord.

And this is who says it's going to build.

See, a son shall be born to you, he shall be a man of peace.

I will give him peace from all his enemies on every side.

For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days.

Solomon, a man of peace, Shalom Mun.

That's what it is.

Man of peace.

What did it mean to be a man of peace?

This is what it is.

You guys remember Babel, where the nations are dispersed, and these rival principalities are against God.

What did Solomon mean and what did the temple symbolize?

The temple was ultimately a symbol of God's victory over the opposing principalities.

That's what it was.

That's why it had to be a man of peace, if you ever wondered.

Because the temple was a symbol of God's victory over all of the principalities, all of the powers in Canaan and the surrounding regions.

He says, We're not worried about them anymore.

We have peace.

Why does this matter for us?

Living stones built on a foundation.

What did Jesus say?

Paul tells us very clearly in 1 Corinthians 15.

He says that in the end, Jesus will hand the keys back to the Father after every principality, every power, every demon, every lie of the enemy has been placed under his feet.

You know who we are as the temple of God?

We are a symbol of his victory over every power of darkness, over every principality, over every name that raised itself up against the knowledge of Christ.

That's what we're building.

We're building a symbol to his victory.

I don't know if that's exciting for any of you, but I want to go back to this last story.

Because I believe this is the antidote to this building of a tower.

Like I said, I'm not bragging on my humility.

A little bit maybe, I don't know.

But I can't.

I can't take credit for not wanting to build a name for myself because that's not only what was modeled to me, that was drilled into my skull by every mom, dad, spiritual parent that is in this house.

And I fully realized that I think a few years ago when I was sitting in a conference room and I saw Pastor Rusty and Lisa announcing to our staff that they were transitioning to church to Pastor Scott Fritt.

Not because anyone told them to, not because of any moral failure at all.

And not even to another Nelson.

I remember my wife and I remember sitting in that room and we're bawling our eyes out and looking around.

And my wife literally like shouldered me and she was like, Why is nobody else crying?

I was like, I don't know, I can't make them cry.

They just don't care like we care.

But Pastor Lisa, remember I raised my hand, I was like, I don't know what to say.

I don't know what to say.

All I know is that this moment I know that this house wasn't built on a name, it wasn't built on a brand, it wasn't built for anything else other than the glory of Jesus.

And the reason I'm so humbled is to be raised in a house that was built for him and nothing else.

Built for the people of the dream, built for a community, built to see change happen in this region, and that's a house that I want to build.

That's more exciting than any influence, any platform, anything else that could ever offer itself to me.

I want to build that house.

And I'm asking you today.

This is not just something that I want to say or declare into the room.

I'm asking you today, do you want to build that house with me?

Do you want to build that house with us?

Maybe you're in the room and you felt like I didn't have a gift, I didn't have something to give, I didn't have an opportunity, whatever it is.

There's a space, there's a need, and there's a use.

And your gift may not even be anything that you thought you had.

Come build the house with us.

I promise you, this church is not a church built on somebody's name or on a brand.

It never will be.

This is a house built on the rock.

This is the last thing if we can have the prayer team come up.

I mentioned those two churches at the start.

You know, one that had revival without formation, and one that had, you know, all of the formation without the spirit of God or the anointing on it.

We want to pray for some people today because maybe you're in the room and you feel like you've been going through the motions.

You've been sitting and kind of watching while other people build.

You feel like, you know, or maybe I want to build, but I just need revival.

I need to be revived.

I feel dead in here.

I feel like I just show up every week and I need the spirit of God to move on me.

Maybe you're new, and maybe this is all brand new to you, and I'm sorry for that.

But you want the spirit of God, you want Jesus, you want the one who conquers the powers and the principalities, you want that spirit in you.

We want to pray for you today.

So with every head bowed and every eye closed, we're gonna go into a song and we're gonna pray, and we're gonna leave the altars open.

But that first call is for you if you're in the room and you want revival, you want to be revived, you want the spirit to breathe life on you.

You've been going through the motions.

I want you to come up for prayer.

And the other side, if you're like, you know, I've been trying to do this for a long time.

I have the revival without the reformation.

I just want the next new cool thing.

I want to grow roots, I want formation, I want to be built up into an oak of righteousness.

If that's you in the room, we want to pray for you.

And we have an altar team up here, so if everybody could stand, I'm not gonna make anybody raise their hands or anything like that.

We're gonna go into this last song, and we have again, we just want you to come forward.

We're not gonna do a hand raise or a call, and for the rest of you, you can be praying and we can worship together for a moment.

This is how we're gonna end the service today.

I'll come back up and pray for us at the end.

But listen, I want you to hear me.

If you're in the room and that's you, you want revive, you want to be revived.

I want you to come up here and I want you to say, hey, I need it.

I need to be revived today.

I feel dead, I need to be revived.

If you're in the room, you say, I want to grow.

Come up and pray.

Say, I want my roots to dig deep into this soil.

Come up and say, That's what I need.

We thank you for your spirit, we thank you for your breath.

That fills us, empowers us to obedience.

Lord, pray that you continue to work on minds and work on hearts, and I pray that you would seal in our hearts again.

Everything that you've done today, yesterday, this whole weekend.

And we wouldn't be those that would just constantly seek revival or momentum or the next thing that makes us feel like we're doing something, and we would just sit dead in our traditions.

But Lord, we would truly be filled with the spirit and power to build the house, to build your church.

Not for my name, not for my benefit, but only for your glory, Jesus.

Let us build a house that's exceedingly great and magnificent for you.

Give us wisdom.

Pray for all these that came forward today.

We love you, Jesus.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Anybody love Jesus here today?

Huh?

We hope and pray.

This message was encouraging and impactful.

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Have a Jesus filled week.