Fall Kickoff 2018 - God In A Box

In the meantime, I'm going to get launched into this morning's talk, but I wanted to do something kind of fun. It's kick off Sunday, you guys can just get started, and nothing says fun, like children and Jack in the Boxes. Check this out. What's wrong?

You all like it? I don't treat it. You can watch that stuff all day, right? Who came up with the Jack in the Box?

Like, where there are a bunch of guys in the background going, I have a brilliant idea for a children's toy, right? We're going to give them a colorful little tin box with a crank that'll play some fun melodic, yet slightly creepy music. And just as the child kind of enters into a peaceful state, bang! This scary clown will jump out.

They'll love him. And yet, I bought one for my kids. I bought it all, and I remember playing the same game with them. See, the reality is, kids actually like Jack in the Box, it's Jack out of the Box that they're not all that wild about, right?

I mean, in the Box, Jack is safe. He's a safe toy. Who doesn't like a Jack in the Box? He's controlled in there.

It's not threatening. I mean, has everybody ever seen a dingy looking Jack in the Box? The Box itself always looks pretty nice. Tiny, shiny.

Play some nice music. I mean, if Jack would just stay in the Box, he'd make a wonderful children's toy. He'd be a lot less worrisome in the Box, he'd be a lot more enjoyable. As we get started on another year here at Mendum of Ministry, and trying to sense who God is and who we are relative to God, and what he's doing in our lives, I want to give you a hypothesis.

I think we often feel the same way that children feel about Jack in the Box as we do about God in the Church. I think we like God in his Box. This Box. It's a nice Box.

I mean, we call it Church, but it's kind of rectangular. It's kind of nice to keep God here in this Box. I mean, look, think about it, right? Let's be honest.

We could keep God here in this Box. We could keep him safe and controlled, non-threatening. See, I like God on Sunday morning. Not as wide.

I like him here on Sunday morning. I'm not a big fan Saturday night like downtown. I like him much better here. I mean, this is a nice Box that we keep him in here.

It looks good. I mean, ours looks pretty shiny and new right now, right? Our Box plays pretty nice music. You just heard of it.

I mean, we just keep God in the Box right here at Church. He would be for us at least we think a lot less worrisome. And so as we kind of launch into a new year, it occurred to me, it might be good to spend a few minutes talking about Church. What we're involved in here.

I mean, we don't know where we're going. We're never going to get there. So let me ask you this. Where did you get your theology?

I've never thought about this at work in my lesson on this lesson. Where did you get your theology or your philosophy of Church from? How do you know what Church is? Like, who taught you what to expect?

Stripping it down to its bare basics, I guess. What is Church and what's the point? Now, if you're like me, your understanding of Church comes from what you were told as a kid. If your mommy and daddy told you and maybe it was based on what your experiences were as a child going to Church.

That's why some of us love Church. For others, maybe a majority of folks, that's why they don't come to Church. Now, let's go through it. I'm going to give you my experience of Church.

Nobody said John makes plenty of what Church is and why it exists. I just kind of got handed a theology of it. Here's what my understanding was for a really long time. Church was, especially when I was a child, it's where you went on Christmas and Easter.

Every once in a while when my mother got feeling maybe a tinge of guilt, we'd get dropped off for a Sunday school classic too along the way. It was where you learned about God. Church was the place where the guy up front, he were a robe. He seemed to know a lot more about God than anybody else.

So everybody kind of listened to him because he would explain the rules, the things that we should do and that we shouldn't do. And you know, if God was what God was happy about and what he wasn't. There was some music in the Church I grew up with, I grew up in. But if I'm very honest with you, people didn't seem to like the music that much because none of them actually sang it.

It was like a competition based on who could sing the lowest or just move their lips because nobody was singing. I think in general the service was something that was to be endured in order to, you might be going like this service. The service was something to be endured in order to get some kind of imaginary check mark in the column of the ledger. That was certain God was keeping about me.

Going to Church, I mean it had to be worth a couple of good check marks in the good column, even more than maybe helping a woman across the street. I like to a church. When the service, someone mercifully ended, the mostly graying congregation would make its way quickly to the door, and the church would be sitting behind God in his house, in his box, until we meet again next Sunday. God, see you next week.

Now if you're like me, and I think maybe a majority of you might be in this understanding, that was your understanding of Church. And it wasn't out of the norm. In fact, I'm going to teach you some, mostly a teaching talk today. Almost since the dawn of time, this is how Church worked.

Not just Christian Church, mind you. Pretty much any religious gathering you can think of from ancient times right up until right now. Andy Stanley's a pretty good teacher. He gives a talk on this.

He refers to this concept of Church as the Temple Model. And he said, the Temple Model always has four components. It's got a sacred place, a sacred text, a sacred man, and sincere followers. He goes on and he says this.

He goes, the model grants extraordinary power to sacred men in sacred places who determine the meaning of the sacred text. Because right, if the sacred man is in his sacred place, and you're there and you're sincere following, he's teaching you what to think about the sacred text. When he's up there and he is telling you how to get to heaven and how to get to hell, you're granting the sacred man a lot of power in your life, aren't you? Now this system, this temple model, this has been at work for as long as the earth exists.

You can find it in the most unreached places on earth. Drop anywhere to a jungle, somewhere on the other side of the world. You will likely still find witch doctors wearing some kind of sacrificial, you know, some kind of special garment, a sacred place that he's established that you can't enter or you'll be under a curse. In the most primitive areas on earth, the witch doctor is often the guy that's the most powerful guy in the community, dispensing, blessing, and curse.

It's not just there. You see in the Middle East today where sacred places with sacred text are being interpreted by sacred men and asking sincere followers to go and do things that you and I would say are horribly immoral. But that's not what the sacred man and the sacred text, or at least that man and sacred man taught the sacred text in their sacred place said. So the reality for us, see, it still exists today.

I mean, think about it. Our inspirations, our interpretations here in the West might be different, but the temple model, leave it for Christians, it's still pretty much an effect. And it was my understanding of church for a really, really long time, like really long time. It might be yours too, but it's interesting.

It wasn't Jesus' interpretation of church. Let me say something that might blow your mind. Do you know Jesus did not leave behind a church? He left behind something completely different.

It was going to be new and wild and powerful and out of the box, but old habits are hard to break in despite what Jesus promised and willed for us, despite his teaching of over and over again, that he was doing something brand new. He's creating something brand new. In many ways, here's what we did. We took some new sacred text, ones we call the new Testament, and we just placed them right over here back in the box with the old sacred text, and we just rolled right along like nothing ever changed.

Now, if you've been part of a church at all over time, you've taken communion, right? Or you've heard of the service of communion, service of remembrance. And if you've been a man and we do it once a month, you know we recite Jesus' teaching on communion. And at one point, Jesus picks up at the last supper of this glass of wine and he says, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Now, can we be honest? We've heard it a million times. How many of us really understand deeply what Jesus is saying here? It leads really when Jesus says it leads to three questions, okay?

There's a new covenant? What's that? Well, if there's a new covenant that must be an old covenant, what's that? Now, can we be really honest for probably two-thirds of us?

What's a covenant, right? And so let's talk about this because this has profound importance to this church and who we are. Jesus spoke, let me make a covenant. A covenant's easy.

It actually is a legal term. All it means is stripped down. Is you've got two parties coming together to make a contract to agree on promises and privileges and responsibilities. That's a covenant.

When Jesus spoke with the old covenant, specifically he was referring to agreement, the conditional agreement that God had made with Moses and all of Israel that they had been living under. Here's my deal. You've been given a new covenant. Most of us are living under the old covenant.

You don't need to, but we find ourselves that way. Let me tell you what I mean. The old covenant was centered around the laws God had given to Moses. His people.

It started with the Ten Commandments, right? And so sacred men and sacred places kept adding to those Ten Laws. They got them up to several hundred. And really, you can see what the Old Testament was.

Deuteronomy lays it out in two verses. Let me show you. If you fully obey the Lord your God and follow all those commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All the blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God.

And then he would, Deuteronomy gives a list of blessings. So what does this mean? If you're a good boy, you'll get something nice. The old covenant continues.

This covenant was kind of an if-then statement. Here's the second part. However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and you do not carefully follow all those commands that decrease. I am given the ones I'm giving you today.

All of these curses are going to come on you and overtake you. And then there was a statement of all the bad things that will happen. At the center of the old covenant was, if you're good, you're blessed. If you're bad, you're cursed.

It's gone. But why do we still live like that? Can I tell you I was in the first service this morning? It was something about church I started thinking about.

Right in the middle of worship. And I'm like, you know, I got to change that. This is ridiculous. I really have to change it.

But then I started thinking, you know, if you do that, it might have an impact on somebody. And God says that love is a higher calling. I really should love and not do that. And so I'm like, and then I thought to myself, well, if I don't change it, then I'm following the commitment.

This is what's going through my head. If I don't change it, then that would be, you know, God will be happy with me because I won't have offended somebody and then maybe he'll bless the church. And if I do, if I fix it, then God might be mad at me and then have the people show up next week. See, this is how deep this is in us.

Right? I'm set up here this morning. It's where it's running through my head. Right?

I've got to perform. I've got to do because then I get blessed. And if I'm bad, then I'm going to get cursed. Old covenant.

Jesus goes, that doesn't exist anymore. God doesn't relate to you that way anymore. Now, at the center of this was this concept of atoning for when you broke the laws because there were so many of them. They had gotten up to hundreds of them.

They were hard to keep. So in order to get down on your side, in order to kind of satisfy the justice nature of God, you had to tone for your sins with an offering. You had to make a sacrifice, right? In order to appease God.

Many of us still think this too. And so who would make the sacrifice for you? Well, a sacred man. And where would he make the sacrifice for you?

Well, in a sacred place. And just built up over time. This is the old covenant. Now, so, Jesus, we don't live under this.

We don't believe that this agreement isn't in place any longer. We believe Jesus fulfilled all of the laws for us. That he was the once atoning for all sacrifice. He fulfilled the laws.

And by faith and following him in this world, we stand right in blame of before God. The New Testament actually teaches the Old Testament laws weren't there to show us the pathway to God. We mess this up all the time. If we just kept them, we could get the God.

The New Testament, Jesus teaches that these Old Testament laws were not there. So you could keep them. They were there to show you. You couldn't keep them.

And you're desperate need for a savior. Jesus fills them. He completes them once and for all of us who believe. We are new covenant people who live like Old Testament slaves.

Because we still kind of line up going, I wonder if I've been good enough. I hope I've been good enough. I hope God's going to bless me and not curse me. Maybe if I gave more, it did more.

It's deep within us. This concept. I mean, how many of us have had something bad happen? Something bad happens.

The first thing you ask yourself is, what have I done to deserve this? There are other times in my life where something bad has happened. I'm just sharing my own brokenness with you. So, I remember a couple of times when something happened, I was driving home one time.

I was so upset. Tears blowing up in my eyes at the car and I'm driving. I can't believe you're doing this to me. Do you know what I've done for you?

Old Testament thinking. I deserve something from God because I've performed for him. I should be blessed because I did something good. We do it all the time.

We fall into it. I went down to the green tonight. I asked the guy on the street, hey, do you believe in God? Oh, I believe in God.

Okay. Do you believe in heaven? Yeah. And are you going to go?

Yes, I'm going to go to heaven. And when I ask him, why are you going to heaven, he's going to tell me I'm going to go to heaven because I'm a old covenant thinking. Why am I going? Because I'm a good person.

I deserve to go to heaven. The covenant essentially was pointing saying, no, you're actually not going to see broken all these laws. You really can't keep them. Now, what does this all have to do with church?

Let me show you. In the old covenant, in the temple model. In the old covenant, the temple model prevailed. There were sacred texts, sacred places.

And God for some reason. And I'm not fully understanding. I don't fully understand why. I have some ideas.

For some reason, in God's infinite wisdom, he decided to make his presence most tangibly known. This is crazy. But he decided to make his presence most tangibly known in a box. God in a box.

Let me show you what I mean. Shortly after Moses leads the people out of Egypt into the wandering through the desert, God comes to Moses. And he says to Moses, have them, have the people of Israel, make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle.

The tabernacle was essentially a portable tent-like church. He says, make this tabernacle, and once furnishing, the pattern I'll show you. And then he says, have them make an ark of, how do you say that? Exactly.

I can't get it out. I'm just going to butcher it. Nice one. Overlay it.

Overlay it with gold. And then put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law which I will give you. And so what do we have here? We have sacred texts in a sacred place.

And God's making his presence in that place. Does anyone know this gold ark, which by the way, I don't know if you guys know this, the Harrison Ford, right? This was the ark he was chasing after. Raiders of the Lost Ark.

This is the ark. Is anybody know what an ark is? We hear these things and we're like, yeah, ark. Do you know what an ark is?

I mean if you're honest with me, when an ark was when you came in there this morning you'd say the ship Noah put animals on, right? So God did not say make a ship and put it in the temple. Do you know what an ark is here? It's a box.

Make a box and put the sacred scriptures in there. A couple of modern English Bible translations actually say it that way. Here's one from the Old Testament book of 2 Samuel. David put up a tent for the holy box.

The Israelites put the Lord's holy box in its place under the tent. See, that's where God belongs in the box, in the tent. So you have a God in the box and man over the last couple of thousand years. Can I tell you something we're good at as a people in general?

We build some nice boxes for God. Amen. I mean, has anybody been to St. Patrick's on Christmas?

That is one sharp box, man. Now, if you're the creator of all things and you were going to decide to manifest your presence in a box, you would tell you would imagine you would have a specific design for that box. And God actually lays out some very specific dimensions and descriptions for the box. Here's one of them.

Make the tabernacle, this is the tent that will contain the box, with ten curtains, a finely twisted linen, blue, purple and scarlet. Hang the curtain from the clasp and place the ark, the box of the covenant law where the sacred things are, behind the curtain. Because the curtain will separate the holy place from the most holy place. So you have it again, temple model, sacred text in a sacred box, behind a sacred curtain, God in the box, behind the curtain.

Now guess who's the only person permitted to go into this most holy area? The sacred man. And so Israel, it keeps this tabernacle with it as it wanders. And eventually Israel makes its way into the promised land.

And once Israel gets into the promised land, they exchange a tent for a temple. And the temple is historically one of the biggest, grandest, most glorious boxes you've ever seen. And it was the old covenant, right? So people came to the box.

You had to go to the box. It was the sacred place where the sacred text was. And in order to get right, you had to have the sacred man make a sacrifice, essentially on the sacred box. In fact, this week our Jewish friends will celebrate Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur is the day of atonement. Once a year in Israel, the day of atonement, the great high priest, the most sacred of sacred man, was permitted only one time a year to go into the holy of holies, behind that curtain. Once a year to make sacrifices, the shed blood of bulls and goats to atone for the sins of the people. That was the temple model.

It underlayed the old covenant, God in the box. It was the place that was sacred. It was the priest who was sacred. To me with God, you had to go to the box.

There was an annual pilgrimage to the box. If you wanted to meet with God, get with God, be right with God, be in the presence of God. How your sins were given by God. You had to go to the box.

Here's the thing. Jesus picks up this glass of wine that we talk about every month we do communion. And he goes, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. In fact, God says, this is the covenant that I'm going to make with them after time, says the Lord.

Here comes the description of the new covenant. I'm going to put my laws in their hearts. And I'm going to write them on their minds. Because their sins and lawless acts, I'll remember no more.

Where are the laws of God now going to be contained? In the hearts and minds of those who follow, not in the box. Because if the laws are in my heart and mind, they're no longer controlled by the sacred men. The law has moved from one sacred place to another.

I heard it said this week, you could go to the most holy ground that anybody has ever trot on. You could catch a plane out of JFK this afternoon. You could be in Italy tonight. You could march yourself right into the middle of the Sistine Chapel.

You could look up and see Da Vinci's work. And do you know what? The person in front of you, on the side of you, and behind you is going to be a heck of a lot more sacred than the place you're standing in. And that's true of where you sit right now.

They're sinned. I'm not going to remember anymore. The sacrificial system is done away with sacred men and sacred places. It was all fulfilled by Jesus.

There's no need for that anymore. Your sins through faith are forgiven. In fact, Mary the curtain that's sealed off, God. Matthew tells us when Jesus cried out again in a loud voice from the cross, he gives up his spirit.

He died once for all the atoning sacrifice for all sin. And at that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn into from top to bottom. Ladies and gentlemen, Jack is out of the box and God is out of the building. Let me repeat that.

God is out of the building. Old covenant fulfilled, new covenant in place, temple model destroyed. You can now put a slide in the church. Right?

Now you might be thinking, that's pretty interesting. But what we're doing right now is somewhat similar to the old model because it looks and sounds a lot like the temple. Well, that's a quick point. I'm going to tell you why.

Many of you will probably give you the application and we'll go tell our hand back at Chees together. Many of you are familiar with the pre-famous verse in the Bible about Jesus starting his church. Okay? One point, Jesus ex Peter, Simon Peter, he says, Simon Peter, who do people say I am and he says, I'm who do you say I am?

Simon Peter says, I've come to believe that you are who you said you are, you are the Messiah. And Jesus looks at him and he says this, Blessed are you Simon, Son of Jonah, for this wasn't revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in Heaven, here comes the big verse. And I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church. Now depending on your faith tradition, that verse is loaded with meaning, especially our Catholic friends, right?

This verse is foundational to church and the establishment of papal rule. But here's the deal. It's really fascinating. Okay?

Maybe it's just because I'm a geek. I don't know. The word for church there, we built our model of church in a sense, launched on that verse. There's so much history here, it's going to blow your mind.

That word is not church. It got translated church. Corruptly, I'll show you why. But it's not church.

The word there that Jesus said I'm going to build, I'm going to build my church. He didn't say church. He used a word called echlesia. Echlesia is not a church.

Echlesia is simply a called out assembly or congregation. Jesus says to Peter, Jesus doesn't say it, doesn't say it. I'm going to start a new temple model, we're just going to change the name, we're going to add some new sacred text, but we're going to call it a church. Jesus says I'm going to start a movement with you.

No more sacred places, no more sacred texts and sacred men. As you can imagine, that had lots of political undertones. The Romans are ruling, they didn't like called out assemblies. The temple leaders, they don't like called out assemblies.

They like God in a box, accessed through them. See, echlesia is a wild, you can't control an echlesia, you know, dangerous, you start getting congregations out of the community. Who's going to be in charge? They're hard to control.

If you have power, you want control and echlesia is called out assemblies and congregations. That's not what you want. When the church reformers and the 1500s wanted to translate the scriptures so that the average person could read them, take the sacred text out of the sacred places and let the actually sacred people read them, they started to translate that verse into English. A guy by the name of William Tyndale led the charge and Tyndale, you might have a Tyndale Bible if you go home and look at it, you might see it on the back end.

Tyndale translated what Jesus was saying correctly. He saw echlesia and he translated it, congregation. Jesus was starting a congregation, an assembly of called people. Does anybody know what happened to William Tyndale?

He was charged with mistranslating the sacred text. Specifically they cited this word. He was defrocked in a public ceremony, turned over to civil authorities, burned at the stake, but just before he was burned at the stake, they strangled him to death. And as he died, it's been said he called out, Lord, open the king of England's eyes.

Echlesia's have power. Echlesia's are dangerous things for sacred places and sacred men. In fact, when the translators, you look this up, when the translators of the King James Version of the Bible began to work, one of the rules that they were given was explicitly that the word echlesia has got to be kept church and not translated congregation. So they use a German word instead, which had the meaning of house of Lord.

You know why? Because there's a house of the Lord, we can put him back in there, back in the box. Guys, let me help you understand. Jesus never meant to create a church.

If you find church kind of boring, Jesus probably does too. Jesus created and left behind an echlesia, an assembly of called out people. It was a guy named Stephen. He was one of the earlier followers of Jesus and he stood up before the religious authorities of the day.

This is what was called the Sanhedrin. And as he stood before the Sanhedrin, he went through with them all of their history. And when he got towards, when he got actually in the middle of his testimony, he starts talking about the temple in Israel, which was the sacred holy place. And here's what Stephen said to all of these folks.

He goes, the most high does not live in houses made by human hands. Stephen gets done with discernment. Does anybody know what happened to Stephen? He got stoned to death immediately.

See, echlesias are dangerous. Sacred men that cold court and sacred places are always going to try to keep them down. But here's a question. I mean, if God is in the box, if Elvis is left the building, if he is no longer in his holy temple, where is he?

Now, this is crazy. And for the authorities, it's dangerous. But Paul explains it over and over. Ready?

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? Where does God dwell now? Yeah, in sacred places called Bill and Alaska, Joan, Mary Elle. That's where he dwells.

Paul goes on. You are the body of Christ. And each of you has a part in it. See, God is out of the box.

He's in you and I and the assembly and the congregation and the coming together. That's where all the power is. Remember what Jesus said? We're two or three gathering my name.

There I am with him. He didn't mean in a church building. He meant when you get together on right there with you. It can be anywhere.

You know, I love coming here. I've been coming to this church building since 1992. When I first started coming here, it actually still smelled a little new. It smells new again, which is kind of a cool thing.

For a long time, it smelled more like a urinal kick, but that's another story. I mean, we'll be honest. We're gas. They're all from smelt like gas.

Anyway, do you know what I love coming to this place? Because I feel the presence of God in this place. I have been overwhelmed with joy and conviction and worship and brought the tears in this place. But it's not this sacred place.

You know who it is? It's the sacred guy in front of me, into the side of me and behind me. It's the presence of God in each of you. Can I just be honest?

Have any of you ever been in this church by yourself at night? It's kind of creepy. I mean, fans kick on. There's all kinds of noises.

Everyone else in the Steve Fisher old youth pastor used to hide and scare people. Like, do that. So that was always kind of scary. I'm not overwhelmed with the presence of God when I'm here alone.

I'm overwhelmed with the presence of God when I'm here with you. It's in you. You are the church. The church is not a place you go.

You are it. See, the first model we're given of church doesn't look anything like churches. We know it. It looks like an ecclesia.

Here's how Luke described it. He said, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and their signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together.

They had everything in common. This is crazy. They sold their property and their possessions to give to anybody they need. They met every day.

They continued to meet in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes. They ate together with gladness and seared hearts. They praised God.

They enjoyed the favor of the people and the Lord added daily to the number of those who were being saved. We are new people. We are a new testament. People are new covenant.

People are called out. We are given a new commandment. Remember the sacred text and the sacred places? You are the sacred place.

You know what the sacred commandment is? A sacred text is for you? Here it is. A new command I give you.

Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know your disciples. If you love one another.

That is a church. That is an assembly. That is a congregation. A group of people come together and live like that.

Well, actually we know what happens because it changed the world once. I guess the real question is if people came together and lived like that, again, could it still change the world? I guess I can't help but wonder if 4, 5, 6, 100 of us came together and Chester and men could have changed the town and the school. Let me be real specific.

I am going to be a little challenging and I will be done. See, if church is a place, we might have gone to church to experience something and consume something like it is a product. If your wife has been saved, you walk in the door and the first question you are likely to get from your spouse was, how was church today? As if it was a product that you consumed.

Specifically, they might say how was worship today. Right? People ask me what time, tell me what your church's children's ministry is like. How big is your church?

How big is the box? How nice is the box? It is all box thinking. God in the box thinking.

God is here. We come here to experience Him to be fed to take in and then we go home. Guys, that is not Ekklesea. Jesus did not create that.

That is old covenant, old model thinking. In Ekklesea, we love, we share, we commune, we sacrifice, we notice one another. The town notices things change. When God is in the box, when church is a place, I go, look, let's read the truth.

When church is just a place, I go, I go just enough to keep God happy. Maybe 1.8 times a month. When church is just a place, I go, when God is there, then I give, just enough to make myself feel good about how much I gave, but not so much to my impact how I live. When church is a place, I go, when God is in the box, I volunteer enough, well, actually, maybe I don't volunteer at all.

See, when God is in the box, I drink the coffee. I drink the coffee. I don't make the coffee. When God is in the box, I drop the kids off in children's ministry.

I don't serve in children's ministry. I mean, come on, I'm with those kids all week. Guy Paul's on that one for a moment. He's running joke in our staff meetings.

He's been going on for about 15 years. There's two things that every church that ever existed complains about. You want to know what they are? The kitchen's a mess and there's not enough volunteers in children's ministry.

This is a huge one for every church and it shouldn't be. It just shows us how we've un-unmised with Ekklesea. If you come to church and you just drop your kids, and have- Guys, if you're new to men, I'm not talking to you right now. Check out of this.

We are blessed that you're trusting us with your kids. This is for all the rest of us. If you come to church and you drop your kids upstairs, you don't understand church. You're living in an old temple model.

There are not sacred men upstairs with sacred texts and sacred places being paid money to take care of your kids. You know who's up there? My daughter was there. My wife was up there this morning.

And what's really amazing to me is a lot of the folks that are serving up there don't have kids. Our kids are our responsibility together as a community, right? Leading them to know Jesus is the most special, most honorable, most important responsibility we have. The assembly was never meant to be a morning out.

That's not in there a time away from kids. Together as a community we raise and we love our kids. Every church that understands what church is should have a waiting list to get involved in children's ministry. Do you see the difference?

Guys, if you're a parent today and you're not involved in children's ministry, you were talking about it at children's ministry training last week. The truth is, as parents and as a church, we reap what we sow. Right? In Ekklesea, we all take care of our kids.

We all sacrifice. We all give. We all love. See, when God gets put in a box, we come here to meet God and be told about God, but God isn't here.

He's where two or three are gathered. This is why I worked so hard a lot. It's a couple weeks to put together these small groups. Five or six hundred people sitting in a room with one way communication.

This is not the church Jesus designed. Fifteen people in a living room having a relevant conversation about God over coffee or dinner. You know what that is? Ekklesea.

There's power there for you and the whole community. That's why we work so hard on these groups. That's why I want you to get in when that's why you should go out and talk to somebody at the group, and get yourself in a group. That's why there should be a line at these ministry tables.

We are in Ekklesea. The power is in Ekklesea. It's non-combing the church. Band, come up.

Now, last two things. The band comes up. You know what might be most foundational to an assembly? What is the biggest issue with an assembly?

Most important to an assembly. Any guesses? Assembly. It's very hard to have a gathering if no one gathers.

Your presence matters. Don't blow off Sundays. I know there are some religious persuasion ways I would say that. You need to come to church because that's God's keeping track of your own church.

That's not the point. Our presence. We'll see it. Our gathering and loving and sharing.

That's why we come. Every week we don't blow it off. Guys, serve, radically, give sacrificially, love one another, foolishly, impetuously. If we get this right, even if we can't close, the whole world would notice.

The town would notice. Your neighbors will notice. I'm going to give you one last one you came in this morning. Hopefully you got three cards that say you're invited or welcome.

We have two different styles. I asked him to make them up for you. How many of you are here? I want you to raise your hand.

Every time I ask people to raise their hands, this is what I get. I see but nobody else can see. That's not actually the point. If you are in church today, because somebody at one point or another recommended church to you or invited you to church, raise your hand really high.

That's like more than half of us are here because somebody invited. God is not in the box. God is on the streets searching for the one. You're the 99.

Where is God? He's in us. We, lost people matter to God. The local hurt.

This is not my saying, but it's a great saying. The local church is the hope of the world. There is nothing, no power, no authority, no doctor, lawyer, politician that can offer your neighbor, your family, more hope, healing in love than the local church when it works right. Invite habitually.

I don't know who God is working on and you're like, but I guarantee. I guarantee you that God is calling somebody in your relational circle to himself and they're just looking for a pathway to him. That's what the Ekklesea is. You are now the sacred man.

You are now the sacred place. Your love is the greatest church grilled strategy that's ever been known to man. Can I challenge you with something close? You got three cards.

Can I challenge you to invite between now and Christmas? I'm setting the bar fairly low. Fairly low. Now until Christmas, invite three people.

Now to Christmas. Be strategic. Think about who God is calling. Look for it and invite them and believe in the power of the Ekklesea.

God is not in a box. He's out on the streets and he's in you.