The BluePrint - Live at the Table

All righty. Well, like I said, my name's Greg.

I am one of the pastors here along with Pastor

Marissa and Pastor Jen. They just got back from

Greece on Friday for the missions work that Jen

specifically does with one collective with the

children of missionaries. And so I'm sure she'll

be happy to fill in. We're going to have a house

party potluck after church today, so plenty of

time to ask questions about Greece. And look

at pictures if you... We are in the third week

of a series that is called The Blueprint. This

is a reoccurring series that we do every four

years because it's a series about discipleship.

And if we call ourselves a Christian, any of

us, if we call ourselves a Christian, then Jesus

would look at us and say, you are my disciple.

And so there is kind of a need to ask, well,

how am I discipled? How do I follow Jesus? Last

week we started with the concept. that the first

thing that Jesus is calling you to is rest. Come

to me, all who are weak and weary. I will give

you rest. I love the idea that even if you go

back to the creation story, that it says that

God created for six days and then on the seventh

day rested. Rest has been important from the

beginning. You're not called to immediately enact

some grand plan or purpose. God isn't. beckoning

you to immediately start working the first day

you follow Jesus but we are also not meant to

only rest we're meant to live we're meant to

work actually the name of our church when we

decided to plant this church 13 years ago I Jen

and I had been in ministry a long time ago together.

And she had always had this idea of having something

called the art house. It would just be a little

house that would be converted into like a cafe

with rooms that you could rent to do art or have

a studio. And there would be like spoken word

or music and all this stuff, cool stuff in it.

And she wanted to call it the art house and spell

it the German way, H -A -U -S. And by the way,

none of this is in my notes. And I remembered

that when it came time that God put it in my

heart to... Plants Church. And I just felt like,

oh, I just feel like it's supposed to be called

the house. And so I looked up in German like

the, is that the, what's the word for the origin

of a word? The etymology, yeah. I was going to

say the epistemology, but that's about the books

of the Bible. The etymology of the word house

in German. And it was to have been a part of,

it was to have lived and worked in a great house.

And we have said from the beginning, we rest,

live, and work in a great house. And so we're

not only meant to rest, we are meant to live,

we are meant to work. Part of the reason we can't

only rest is because if we only rest, our bodies

atrophy. If we don't ever put our hands to any

work, our muscles atrophy, and the same thing

can happen. Inside the body of a church, the

church can begin to atrophy. And the trouble

with that is that if we atrophy, things that

are light can feel heavy. If we atrophy, things

that start to feel heavy, things that are easy

start feeling difficult. I think anything that

we talk about in the context of this series could

feel difficult. We don't have any of those muscles

developed yet. Or if we had them and we allowed

them to begin to atrophy. But discipleship is

meant to strengthen our spiritual lives. In a

minute, when I read the scriptures, I'll pray

a prayer very similar to what I pray every time

I read the scriptures. In it, it will say, whatever

you have to teach us today, Lord, let it stick.

May it become a part of the framework of our

faith that we might become, our faith might become

stronger as we become more like your son Jesus.

Discipleship is about strengthening those spiritual

muscles as we become more like Jesus. So let

me just say right up front today, the topic is

living at the table, and living at the table

can feel difficult, but I promise that there

is life at the table, and that is why it's called

Live At. The table. So let's open up our Bibles.

If you don't have a Bible, there are blue Bibles

on the tables, or you can download one from any

of the digital app stores. You can take one of

these Bibles home if you need one. I'm going

to read from two different places. The longer

one is going to be in Acts 2, starting in verse

42. The other one is just going to be one verse

in Luke chapter 4, verse 16. You can open to

Luke 4:16

either of those, Acts 2 or Luke 6. Either one.

We have a tradition here at the house that in

the context of the sermon, when the scripture

is read, we give it our full attention. You can

do that in any way that you know it will give

the most attention to the scriptures. But if

you'd like to join me in standing, you are also

welcome to do that. I'm going to read from Acts

2, starting in verse 42 first. It says this,

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles'

teaching and to fellowship, and to sharing in

meals including the Lord's Supper, and to prayer.

A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the

apostles performed many miraculous signs and

wonders. And all the believers met together in

one place and shared everything they had. They

sold their property and possessions and shared

the money with those in need. They worshipped

together at the temple each day. met in homes

for the Lord's Supper and shared their meals

with great joy and generosity, all the while

praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all

the people. And each day the Lord added to their

fellowship those who were being saved. And Luke

Luke 4:16

4 verse 16 just says this, When Jesus came to

Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went

to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his

custom. Let us pray. God of every tribe, every

tongue, every color, every nation, we thank you

for the scriptures that they have persisted throughout

the millennia that we still have them to listen

to, to read, to learn from. And whatever you

have for us today, I pray that it would stick,

that it would become a part of the framework

of our faith as our faith becomes stronger and

as we become more like your son, Jesus. Amen.

Amen. You can all have a seat. Thanks. All right,

everyone. This one's easy. Two -minute sermon.

This one will let you prove it. I shouldn't have

said that. This one only has one step. Live at

the table literally only has one step. Anyone

want to guess what it is? Go to church. Living

at the table starts with one step. Going to church

every week and more if possible. One step. Go

to church. Worship God with each other every

week and more often if at all possible. So if

you're here, just give yourselves a round of

applause. You did it. Look at this. You guys,

you did it. Like I said, there you go. That's

your sermon. That's pretty much it. Go to church

every week, if not more. Maybe it sounds like

I'm kidding or like I'm exaggerating, but I really

am not. step, or really the whole of living at

the table, is being here, is being with each

other, of making that a priority. Because if

we are Christians, then we are what? We are disciples,

and we're meant to be like Jesus. And if I know

Jesus, I'm pretty sure that Jesus goes to church

every week. Luke 4, 16 says this about our Lord,

about our Savior. about the one that we are meant

to live to be like. It says, when he came to

Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went

to the synagogue on Sabbath day as was his custom.

And I even looked this up just to make sure that

what this verse meant wasn't that just when he

went to Nazareth that he went to synagogue. You

know, like, oh, I went to visit grandma or my

friend in Tampa, and so I went to their church.

No. It's not saying that whenever he went to

Nazareth that he would go to synagogue or what

we would think of as church on the Sabbath. It

means that it was his custom on Saturdays to

go to synagogue and be with his Jewish brothers

and sisters and hear the word, maybe even sing

a psalm together. The implication is that this

was a pattern and a religious habit and custom.

of Jesus's life. And then for the Jewish person,

we have to remember that synagogue on Saturday

was the equivalent of what we modern Christians

would think of as church on Sunday. So Jesus

was going to church every week. Think about it.

He was already with his disciples every day.

He was already going around performing miracles,

preaching sermons, the Sermon on the Mount, confronting.

religious authorities that had started to lead

people astray. He was doing all of those things,

and yet he still found himself in synagogue on

Saturday. And this is an important point. It

wasn't work. For Jesus to go to church was not

work. What do I mean? What day was it happening

on? Just say it. It was happening on the Sabbath,

right? Judaism prohibits work on the Sabbath.

Matter of fact, there is a long, long list of

things that Pharisees and religious leaders had

written out and developed just to make sure that

nobody worked on the Sabbath. You can't do this.

You can't do this. You can't do this. You can't

do this. What wasn't on that list? Going to synagogue.

Because going to be with each other that you

might hear the word and worship God together

is not work. Sometimes it feels like it. Sometimes

it feels like it. It's not meant to be work.

It is meant to be life. So then we have the example

of the first church in Acts chapter 2. What happened

Acts 2 · chapter mention

was Jesus said, resurrected. He spent time talking

to his disciples, appearing to others. He ascends.

The angel says, for surely he will come back

in the same way that he has left. Shortly thereafter,

on Pentecost Sunday, it says that the Holy Spirit

falls upon the disciples as though tongues of

fire and gave them the ability to preach in such

a way that people from all the different places

understood their own dialect and language. And

thousands of people came to believe in Jesus

on that day. And Acts 2 is describing the people

that stayed. It said, we're going to follow this

guy, even though we never saw him in person.

We're going to follow this person. And it says

that they met together in the temple courts.

How often? Well, it says daily. It says they

met together and broke bread in their homes.

It says that they devoted themselves to the apostles'

teaching, to fellowship, sharing in meals, selling

the things that they had that no one was in need,

and to prayer. I'm not going to say it. I'm not

making this up. A primary priority of Christianity

was? and is meant to be the regular gathering

of Christians together. So listen to my heart

when I say this. The way that modern Christianity,

the way that, in general, modern Christians connect

with their church community would be wholly foreign

and deeply confusing to the first followers of

Jesus. If a cohort of 5, 10, 12, 20... first

century christians had somehow been teleported

here and they walked into any church they would

go they would go oh this must be the only christians

that are in this city because it they wouldn't

understand the idea that all the christians hadn't

gotten together in part because they were together

all the time not just now you also have to remember

that in acts 2 The Christians that we're talking

about here were actually all Jewish Christians.

And there is historical reason to believe that

not only did they worship together in their sense

of following Jesus, but they also still went

to synagogue on Saturdays. They had this deep

desire to continually be around each other because

of who Jesus is, because of the desire to be

like Jesus, and the desire for the world to see

who Jesus is. And listen, I am not a church growth

guy. I have no interest in, oh, I ought to grow

this church as big as I can. That is not at all

what this is about. But there is something about

a bunch of people getting together that causes

other people to go, what are they getting together

for? There's been sociological research that

if you have people form a line somewhere and

it's for nothing, that people will go, what's

that for, and want to get in the line. There

is something about getting together that makes

people go, should I be there? What's at the end

of that line? This thing about the early Christians

was that it wasn't easy for them. See, this is

what a scholar, Valerie Alikin, wrote. This is

about the early church, and this is about the

church in the year 112 A .D., so about 80 years

after the ascension of Christ. She says, quote,

Christians began to hold services of prayer and

singing on Sunday morning before work. Another

scholar wrote, because Sunday was an ordinary

work day, Christians were compelled to meet in

the pre -dawn darkness. Sunday wasn't always

the weekend, y 'all. Sunday used to be work day.

It wasn't until Constantine in the year 312,

the emperor that converted to Christianity. 200

years. after the first church started, it wasn't

until then that the empire made Sunday a day

of rest. And do you know why they made it a day

of rest? Because Constantine the emperor became

a Christian and wanted to honor the day of the

Lord, the Lord's day, to commemorate weekly that

this is the day our Lord was resurrected. And

so why would any of us work when we could all

worship together? Getting together. Worshiping

together was so important to the church that

they were meeting before the dawn on Sundays

to worship. That would be like me announcing

or the elders of the church announcing, hey,

y 'all, we're going to try something. No more

Sunday services. We're all going to be here 6

a .m. on Mondays. And don't answer. I'm telling

you, don't raise your hand. Don't say anything

out loud. Don't even like. wince when I say this.

I don't want anyone to feel judged by anyone

around them. But how many of us would show up

at 6 a .m. on Mondays? We would have a hard time

wrapping our modern -day American minds around

the idea that, wait, wait, it's not on Sunday?

But I have to go to work. Can we move it? The

reality is that, maybe sadly, is that no matter

what day or time it happens, church attendance

has taken a nosedive since 1990. In part because...

Of the number of Christians that are in America

now. So in 1990, 90 % of Americans self -identified

as Christian. Some of that is cultural, like

just the culture of Christianity. Oh, yeah, of

course I'm a Christian. But 90 % of Americans

self -identified as Christians. And about half,

statistically speaking, half of those people.

reported being at church every single week. So

you got 90 % of whatever the population of America

was in 1990, and then 50 % of that was at church

every single week. So today, in 2026, anyone

want to guess how many define or identify themselves

as Christians? Just throw out a percentage. Well,

I've got some good news for you. 63%. 63%. It's

gone down from 90 to 63 in the last 36 years.

The number of people that are Christians that

self -identify as Christians and say they attend

church weekly, that's 37. Yeah, 37%. So not only

is the number of Christians in America smaller,

but the segment of those Christians that attend

worship with each other every week is smaller.

Another 11 % of Christians attend once or twice

a month. So that's between 12 and 24 times a

year. And the other 51 % of Christians in America

report that they go a few times or none at all.

And so I say again, the first followers of Jesus

would be deeply confused by how modern Christians

connect with their local church. Of course, there's

grace, right? Got a little heavy there for a

second, didn't it? There's grace. There's seasons.

There's reasons. You like that? A little pastoral

rhyme that I did there? That felt like 1990 right

there. There's seasons and reasons. Vacation,

right? Sickness. I'll even throw in travel sports

in there. Travel sports are a big part of our

culture right now. My son, where is he? Right

back there. He played travel ball for three years.

We missed some. Sundays, but here's the thing.

We agreed as a family that when we missed a Sunday

that we would treat the baseball field like it

was a mission field, to look for God in the game,

to look for God in the dugout, to be an example

of God to the other parents and kids that were

there. But then we also didn't ask the coach.

We told the coach that there would be Sundays

where we would miss baseball for church. Because

if we can miss church for baseball, we can miss

baseball for church. And so, you know, if you're

here for the first time, I don't normally sound

this judgy. But maybe a part of how modern American

Christians in particular have learned to follow

Jesus has a lot to do with atrophy. That somehow

the idea of being together, something that is

light, has started to feel heavy and difficult.

When I, uh... When I go to the doctor, every

time I go to the doctor, we talk about my weight.

Because I am overweight. And not by a little.

When I lose weight, I'm still overweight. And

you know what? I'm not mad at him. I'm not mad

at him for pointing out to me like, hey man,

still eating pizza three times a week? Have you

been out walking? How's your water intake? Are

you drinking water? How's your sleep? He asks

me all the things that I know. are healthy for

me, all the things that I know would actually

be good for my belt loops to go the other direction,

I never blame him. So I hope that you'll hear

my heart for all of us, for the friends that

you can look around and go, they're not here

today, to love them here, not to judge them here,

not to guilt them here, but to love them here.

Because if Jesus is the great physician, His

first prescription was rest. This page of the

blueprint is the next prescription to go to church

every week, if not more. Be here. Be with each

other. Because it might help more than you think

it will. And I mean literally. I've talked about

all these other things that there's research

about. Check this out. There is actual medical

research from Harvard and Vanderwilley that has

said... that regular church attendance is good

for your health. Now, they will be up front and

say, we don't know what is causation, what is

correlation. But let me just share a couple things

from actual research related to church attendance,

okay? Are you ready? Okay. Didn't hear anyone

say yes, but I'm going to do it anyway. Okay.

Quote. This is from a conclusion. Quote. There

is evidence that religious service attendance

is longitudinally, you can ask Barb what longitudinally

means later, she's a doctor, is longitudinally

associated with happiness and life satisfaction,

physical and mental health, meaning and purpose,

character and virtue, and close social relationships.

The Harvard research said this, that compared

to people that never attend church, People with

regular service attendance experience 26 % lower

risk of death, 16 % lower risk of depression.

34 % lower likelihood of heavy drinking, a 68

% lower risk of death from despair among women,

a 33 % lower risk of death of despair among men,

27 % lower cardiovascular mortality among women,

21 % lower cancer mortality among women, greater

life satisfaction, a greater sense of purpose,

greater social integration, more positive emotional

experiences, less anxiety, less loneliness, less...

hopelessness. It may sound like an exaggeration,

but going to church regularly could literally

save your life. Alright? So we got the Bible.

We have modern day medical research. All that's

left is you. Being kind to yourself. Saying,

you know what, I'm going to aim for every. So

that if I miss a few, I still made it to some.

Or most. Because I think what happens for a lot

of modern day Christians is they aim for some

and then they miss a few. And then you only go

to a couple. But we can aim for every. So when

things come up, we still end up being at most.

So I want to encourage you. Friends, family.

Listen, I can show you the database of people

for our church. We have hundreds of people in

the database. If only 37 % of Christians in America

go to church every single Sunday, you can easily

double the number of people at any church and

go, that's who really goes to that church. Easily

is my bottom line. Even if all that stuff is

true. Medical stuff and the statistics stuff.

Here's the bottom line. We don't come here only

for us, do we? And sometimes this is where I

make the point that sometimes you're here for

someone else. But we don't even come here just

for someone else, do we? We come here for Jesus.

Because we are Christians. And because we are

followers of Jesus. Because I would hope that

Jesus would look at me and say, you look like

me. And my job as a pastor is to do my very best

to shepherd that Jesus looks at you. And he already

sees himself in you. He absolutely already does.

And so discipleship is the process of us looking

even more like Jesus. Amen? The last thing I

want to say is something about guests. Anyone

that's here that has been here. More than two

or three times, I want to remind you how much

guts it takes for someone to try a new church,

how much bravery it takes for someone to be willing

to walk through the doors of a place where they

might not know anybody. There's this book that

I've read called Unreasonable Hospitality, and

it's by this guy that had the number one restaurant

in the world. It's called 11 Madison Place in

New York, and he tells this story in it. where

one night he was out helping serve, and he's

the owner of the restaurant. He's out helping

serve, and he overheard, like this is a three

Michelin star restaurant, y 'all. It's like ridiculous

how good this restaurant is. And he's out helping

serve, and he overhears these four people from

out of town that were traveling to New York so

that they could be foodies. So they could go

around all the different favorite, and he overhears

them saying, oh, this has been a great trip.

We went to this place and this place and this

place. And then one of those four says, yeah,

but the only thing we didn't get to have was

a New York City hot dog. And so Will, what he

does is he goes back to the kitchen, he puts

down the stuff that he had, and he runs down

the street to the corner where it was what he

called a dirty water dog. And he buys a New York

City hot dog from a vendor on the corner of the

street. He brings it back. He convinces the chef.

to cut it up and to plate it differently to create

this special experience for these people. And

he takes it out before their last course, and

he says, I just couldn't let you guys leave New

York without a real New York cultural cuisine

experience. And he presents to them a New York

City hot dog at the best restaurant in the world.

And he said, up to that point, he had served...

thousands of meals to thousands of people, and

he said he had never in his entire career received

as positive of a response from someone receiving

a dish that he served. It was just a hot dog

from the corner. And he said, something I learned

that day was that restaurants are not only about

feeding people, it is about helping people feel

seen. You know what I think? I think that it

would be an embarrassment. That someone feels

more seen at a restaurant than they do at the

church. That my heart jumps with joy at the idea

that someone might come in and feel like they

have been seen. Not pointed at. Seen. It's why

we've been changing. It's why we have these maps

for people that are here for the first time.

Because they don't know where everything is.

Do they? Right? It's why we have this welcome

spot here with the journals that hopefully those

journals now are like menus. How many were with

you today? Are you waiting for anyone? Are you

meeting someone here today? Oh, it's the two

of you? Awesome. What's your favorite color?

Look at the tables, guys. What's your favorite

color? Oh, very cool. Can I walk with you to

your table? How'd you hear about the house? Oh,

that's amazing. Awesome. Thanks so much for being

here today. Hey, these journals are just for

drawing in. You can color in them. You'll probably

already notice that other people have drawn in

them. It's just cool. We think it's a cool little

thing for us to be able to see the art that other

people have done. At the end of the day, you

can just leave it on the table if you want. We'll

take care of it. If you have any questions, just

grab anybody that has one of these lanyards on

or just come find me at the front door. I would

love to help you. Can I get you a coffee? Why

should someone come to the place? that exists

because of the God that sees and not feel seen.

My hope is that maybe someone in this room feels

like electric at that idea. I want you to tell

me that because we need you standing there. We

need hosts. We need people that know how to make

people feel more welcome than they have ever

felt welcome at a church or at a restaurant.

Because I just have this curious idea that if

they feel seen, that they might... Discover that

they could come here every week too. And then

they can become more like Jesus. And then we

can be family together. Amen? Let's pray. Good,

good Father. Thank you for the way that you speak

to us with kindness. Even in conviction there's

kindness wrapped around your words. I pray that

that tenderness that I hoped for earlier in the

day has persisted throughout the minutes. And

that our hearts are tender to hear how you are

inviting us to be a part of your family consistently.

Because whether it changes our blood pressure

or not, we're here for you. To worship you, the

risen and resurrected Son of God. The one who

was, the one who is, and the one who is still

to come. Amen.