Welcome to our 11.45 gathering. So glad that you're here. Yeah, let's get ready to worship. I'm going to hand it over to the worship team and we'll get started.
Good morning, everyone. Please stand up and you're going to start off this video. If you want to clap along, I'm going to do a quick tutorial. I'm going to clap on every beat or on two and four.
So open our eyes, Lord, let us see all that you buy, all that we need. Open our eyes, Lord, let us hear all that work for me. Make the rain on the sky show the surface. Lord, be good to have you.
Thank you, Jesus. This next song is a new one here, so if you know it, feel free to sing along or feel free to sing along as you're comfortable. We're going to sing a song called Build Your Kingdom here. Today we're talking about being a part of the church.
And so we're going to sing about God building his kingdom here through us. We are his people, we are his church. And so have fun with it. Clap along, again.
Clap on. Two and four. We can help you out. And yeah, let's make it joyful and nice to the Lord.
Build your kingdom here. Let the darkness feel. Show your want, heal our seeds. Your church on.
Build your dream. The concept you rule them. In our hearts, our death. Increase in us we pray.
Unveil why we're made. Concept our hearts are placed with hope. Like wild, vibrant, and our airy souls. Holy Spirit, come in this room.
For your church. And we'll need your power. We'll seek your kingdom first. We hunger.
We're fused our lives. For your joy and pride. To receive the captive heart, the sick of hope. This earth, reaching the north force of hell can stop.
Payless for not your head and this the wake, the kingdom. I want to invite Michelle and Evan for a permanent. That's okay, you guys can go. There you go.
Well, if we haven't met, my name is Michelle. And I'm Evan. And this is Chelsea. And as you know during the season of Lent, we're joining other churches to pray for our city.
And today we're praying for our businesses and government. So up on the screen, we have a couple of scripture verses if you could just follow along. The first one is from Jeremiah 29 7. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.
Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. And the next one says, I urge them, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people. For kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives and all godliness and holiness. Lord, God, we just come to you and we pray for the government, we pray for the businesses here, God.
We pray for the Lord that they would submit their hearts to you, God as we pray for them, God. We pray that you would help us to honor you, God, in our workplaces that would start with us and that you would also encourage others in our city who are Christ followers to live out their faith, God, and that you would bring about a movement here in Seattle. I pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.
Amen. So if you'll pay attention to the screen again, there are a couple prayer prompts. And what we're going to be doing as a church congregation today is we're going to be praying out loud. Now, there are a lot of prompts that don't feel like you need to go through each one of them.
Pick one or two that feels closest to your heart. And we're going to pray together out loud. Even if that's a gentle whisper that is A-okay. But this is an exercise that is a little uncomfortable, but we're wanting to grow in a little bit more.
And so we're going to bring out here as well. But if you guys can pray with us, that would be great. And it's just a couple of minutes. Ready, separate.
Lord Jesus, God, thank you again that we can come and gather in the city. Lord God, we pray. God, is there so much uncertainty in the world and government and business and just everything going on. God, we turn to you, God, because you are the constant.
We know that you are in control. God, we know that you are working this for your good God, that you did not intend for evil, but Lord, you are bringing about goodness, God. So Lord, use us. Use our brothers and sisters in the city, God, that we may be about you, that we may bring your kingdom here, God, and that we may bring about the Eden that you initially created in this world.
God, empower us, help us, give us wisdom. The name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Amen.
Yes, Lord, you are our God. We are your people. We ask that we be your hands and feet, building your kingdom here. And in order to that we surrender ourselves to you, to your kingdom, to your kingdom, to your kingdom, to your kingdom, to your lordship, your authority.
Thank you that you are a good, good God, and that you're always seeking for our best. So we turn over all of those things to you that are not what you want for us. And we ask that you fill us up with the good things of you. Filter things we did in verbs.
You're clearing up. You're cleaning out the dirt. For we are your territory. We are your church.
We are your people. You are our God. We are your temple. Make us holy like you are to consecrate.
A chosen generation. A people call to pray. So help us God to please you. We're only you can see.
For every moment matters in eternity. People, you are your temple. Make us holy like you are. You are your children.
You set us apart. Make us holy like you are presents. Make us a place where you delight to dwell. And our shepherd you do all things well.
You're a long-picked and you're weary, so red are your temple. Make us holy like you are. You're your children. You set us apart.
God for your glory. Make us holy like you are. Jesus, thank you that you make us holy. It's not by anything that we can do or anything that we can say.
God, you are the one who died in the cross and rose again to make us holy. So God, I pray that we remember that. That we'd be able to surrender anything that you're calling us to surrender today. I pray that we would surrender our lives, our work, our words, our thoughts.
God, I pray that you would show us what you're calling us to resurrender today. I think it's not just a one-time process, but we get to walk through that with you every single day, every single moment. Lord, thank you that we have your spirit to guide us and lead us in that. Yeah, we thank you for the opportunity to worship you today as a church.
Do the same, amen. All right, thank you, worship team. Thank you, church. Yeah, you guys can be seated.
All right, so my name is Janice. If I haven't met you, I'm the Operations Director here at ENCS. Welcome. Thank you so much for gathering with us today.
We're glad that you're here. If you're new, we sit at tables and circles, and that might be different, something you haven't experienced before. But this is really important to us as a church family, that we not just meet in groups throughout the week, but we also meet in groups and circles on our Sunday gathering. So this is just a taste of what's happening in C groups all the time.
So, yeah, we're now going to take a few minutes to connect and have some fellowship time. So there's going to be a couple questions on the screen. Introduce yourself at your tables and tell us something about yourself. And then Jake will be up to share our sermon.
But have fun at your tables. And yeah, that's it. But we have some good fellowship time. If you met someone you have the topic, it's really awesome to save it.
And we'll go back to it, okay? Good morning, church family. Not even good morning, it's afternoon. Good afternoon, church family.
Oh my gosh, I get that wrong every time. Okay. It's actually a bright morning. That's a bright day.
I love it. How's everyone doing? Is everyone in a food coma from Pi Day? I am.
Pi Day. March 14th, 2014, 3.1. You're a doctor. You should know that.
Pi Day. I had pizza Pi. I didn't have my favorite Pi, Mary and Mary. Oh, well.
Oh, hey, just got it over here. It's my favorite holiday. I take the day off. Because I eat Pi.
Because I eat Pi. All right. Well, welcome. I'm so glad that I get to talk to you all.
For those who don't know me, I'm an elder here. My name is Jacob Ferrari. It's so good to see you all, whether you've been here forever or whether this is your first time. Just thank you for being here.
And it's such an honor and privilege to get to speak with you this morning. For the past few weeks, we've been moving through our Belong series. If you've been with us, this Belong series is asking the major question, what does it mean to Belong to the local church? So as all you know, we have this big thing called the Big Sea Church.
That's like the anyone who claims to be under Jesus who's under his banner. That's the Big Sea Church. But then we have this little sea church. We're all called to be in a local church that's around us.
That's with people that we can rely on in this world and that we can kind of move through life with. We're going to talk about what that means throughout this series. So the first week we explored what Jesus is doing with this small sea church. What's the point?
What is the mission of this church? What is he doing with it? How's he building it up and what's going on here? The following two weeks we explored how.
How is he forming us into a people that can love each other well and love him well? You can get some technical difficulties here. All right. Today we're going to focus on the why.
Why Jesus wants us to be part of the local church and what are its benefits? So if we're all ready and you're ready to go on this adventure, we encourage you, please stand up. And we're going to do our anchoring passage today. We're in Ephesians 2, 11 through 22.
If you have your Bibles, I encourage you to open them up. There are Bibles in the middle of your tables or on your phones for those of you who are in the 21st century. And there is some, there's a reading right here on the slides. I will read, no, feel free, you don't have to repeat after me, I'll just read for us.
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcised, which is done in the body by human hands. Remember that at that time you were separated from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier of the dividing wall of hostility.
By setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace. And in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
For through him we both have access to the Father by one spirit. Consequently you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit.
If you all bow your heads would be in prayer. Heavenly Father, I just pray this morning, this afternoon that you open up hearts, open up minds, open up eyes to see you in your glory. As we explore this question of what it means to be in a local church in your name. Lord I pray that my words are your words alone, that you rebuke all things that are not of you.
And Lord that you help convict hearts where hearts need to be convicted. That you give bold action to where bold action needs to get taken. And Lord that in all things your glory is shown and revealed. In Jesus name, amen.
In preparing for this message and reflecting on Paul's words in Ephesians, I realize that my story has a lot to say on this question. Why should we be rooted by a local church? So you'll bear with me for a few minutes. I'd like to give my testimony which I haven't given in fullness in a while.
I became a believer at a young age, five or six, I can't fully remember, but I remember I was baptized around that time too. I grew up in the church, I had strong believer friends, I had strong believer mentors, I went to youth group. I did all the things that a church goer and believer would do as they're making their way through elementary school and middle school and high school. Maybe the tracks with a lot of people have gone through here, right?
So at least some of you. It was good. I'd say that I was a very strong, quick Christian. Until I went to college, I'd say that my faith was strong, that if someone were confronted with things that were against my faith, I'd have a pretty strong response with it and I was certain.
I was convicted in my faith. Now, as I was a teenager in high school, that's a pretty delicate phase in life, right? You have a lot of temptations coming your way, anxiety is high, expectations of what I needed to become, were ever present, by parents, by mentors, by teachers, all this stuff. They were all putting a lot on me and that's normal.
It's a part of life that's kind of the perfect storm for a young person to sort of fall away from the faith, right? Unless they have a strong network of people around me. And I did. I had good mentors.
I had good teachers. I had my parents who were making me strong in the word. For the most part, through that, God was able to spare me through the high school years. I took my faith for granted.
As you'll see in a minute, I was told how that kind of helped me. And I just went about life as a strong, fairly strong Christian. But then college came. I went off on my own down to UCLA.
I was from originally Monterey Bay, which is kind of like a middle of California UCLA six hours down south. I a hundred miles away from my family, away from my church friends, away from my church. Really, I didn't know anyone down at UCLA essentially. I thought, that's awesome.
Freedom. No one told me what to do. No one told me where to go. And I got to experience life on my own.
And I thought to myself, my Christianity would be fine. I know everything I need to know. Anything comes to me that I don't really agree with. I'll just push that away.
And it'll be fine. Here's the thing. I didn't want to join the local church when I got down there. I didn't want to meet new people.
I was kind of shy. I didn't want to meet new people. I didn't want to get through the whole rigmarole. I was getting plugged into a social niche again and getting to know people.
And I really didn't want to learn anything different than what I already knew. Right? The greatest way to get scared is to think to yourself, oh, someone's going to present something new to me. The new scares us.
I thought I knew everything I needed to know. And I had no interest in being introduced to diverse ideas or any ideas that might challenge me. I knew enough, and that was enough. At least that's what I believed.
Now, this might be hard for some of you to believe, but I was a pretty arrogant dude. Good job, man. That's what I wanted. Everyone at the first gathering laughed at that.
They knew. Good job, Hawke. I thought I was right about everything. I know it's hard to believe.
The difference is I believed it with such contempt for other people. It's one thing to think you're right. It's another thing to think everyone is wrong. I gained the reputation of being a word that I can't repeat at the pulpit.
It starts with A and with whole. And here's what really gross about that. I took pride in it. I love that.
I love going around people saying, you're an animal. I'm like, yeah, I know I am. But you love it. I push people away with my arrogance.
And I especially push other believers away. I pushed away anyone that had any interest in holding the accountable to what it means to be a believer. And I eventually became so away from the faith that I became one of those in sufforable college kids that said, I'm just not into organized religion. Whatever the heck that means.
I like God, but I don't like his church. By the way, that's an incongruous statement that doesn't work as a statement. It really just meant that I wanted to live as I wanted to live without living under Christ's lordship. Okay, so that's me in college.
That gets worse and worse as I go through my college years as I move into my law school years. Fast forward, spring 2014. My now wife, Noel, we were dating at the time. We were living here together, unmarried.
And we've essentially banned in the faith in all but named. We call ourselves Christian, but I don't think we actually had any clue what that meant at that point. We had become hostile to God, but most importantly, we become hostile to God's people. We thought Christians were weird.
We were the normal ones. It's not true. God literally had to scream in my ear. This is a true story.
I'm the first supernatural experience with God. I was on the couch trying to just mired in depression, mired in stress, mired in everything that was wrong with my life. And I literally heard God yell in my ear, this is not what I have for you. By the way, if God's screaming in your ear, you know what that means?
It means you're not listening to him speak in a normal tone. Or you're not reading his word. I had to sit for three days knowing God wasn't pleased with where my life was. Three days, he wouldn't say anything else.
After those three days were over, God gently called me. And he said, but my grace is enough. The second thing he said to me was, I need you to go to church. I have something better for you there.
So we called me back to church. And I remember that day. I got on Yelp. What's the first church on Yelp I saw?
This church. We were at the top of the list at the time. I don't know where we were at now. It was the only church that was on our bus line because we have a car at the time.
So it just happened to be Easter 2014. You know what, we decided we're going to go to church. We're going to go to the back. We're going to go to the back.
We're not going to be seen. We're going to get out. No one's going to see us. We're so smart.
Yeah, no, that didn't happen. I don't know if anyone's here who remembers Pastor Nick Hering. He was on the pastor's bar. Way back when.
He made a B line for me. Like he must have seen. Like that's the guy that has a plan not to be seen. I see him.
We're literally walking out the door and he grabs my arm. Later on he tells me I never do that. I don't believe that. I've got five other stories in this church that says he does that.
But anyways, he says he never did that. And he wanted to touch base with me. And from that moment my life was never the same. He asked me to coffee to get to know my story.
He got me plugged into a purple book which is our standard book for what we believe here. He asked me my wife teach a class line if you're interested. He got me plugged into his community group. He plugged into a ministry.
The builder's ministry. He eventually got me plugged into a family where I can be seen, loved, and cared for. If it wasn't for him he'd be eating the spirit's call. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have happened.
I would have just been browsing churches and never fully being embedded. I came here hoping I wouldn't be noticed. Hoping I wouldn't be seen. I just wanted to sit and hear the message and go home.
But God had other plans that day. God rooted me here. He didn't let me go. And as he did, I learned something.
And I learned three things that I hope will be helpful to you all. As God rooted me into his church, I learned this. I was never meant to be isolated or go alone. There are no lone wolves in Christianity.
By the way, the whole lone wolf idea has a complete myth. The lone wolves in the wild actually die. I don't think we knew that. They call them wolf packs for a reason.
The only way I could spiritually grow was in the local church. And if I wanted a right view of God and who he is, the local church is the only way that we can see that. So let's get into it. Why belong to the local church?
One. Oh man, that would have been really cool. Magic trick over here. Okay.
Because Christ did not save individuals in isolation, he formed a people. From the beginning, God's work of redemption is always communal. In the beginning, when God makes man, he says it is not right for man to be alone. I mean, that's just a statement right at the front, right?
When he chooses Israel as his chosen people, it's not a loose collection of people that just happen to be within a geographic balance, right? As you go through the Old Testament, you don't just see people go into Israel and say, I'm in Israel right now, or I'm outside of Israel, now so I'm not in Israel. It is a covenant people, right? They have to do some pretty major things to be part of that covenant.
Our Ephesians says that they have to circumcise themselves if you want to be in Israel. They had to show their covenant loyalty to God to say, you're my God and I'm your people. It is a very intentional society and group. Jesus didn't call known disciples.
You never see Jesus interacting with a disciple based on one one, right? Sometimes you might talk to people one on one, but in terms of big stuff, he's always calling the 72, or the 12, or the three, or he's sending them out two by two, right? It never happened solo. Gospel does not merely reconcile us to God but to one another.
We just saw that in our reading Ephesians. That is the second part of the gospel reconciled to God and reconciled to each other. We were hostile to each other at one point, y'all. And think about how often we see punishment in the Old Testament be a scattering or an exile, right?
Cain's punishment for murdering his brother was to be exiled. Yes, God went with our God, God made permission for him, but he had to be exiled away from his family. When the Israelites didn't obey him so many times, they had to be exiled to Babylon. They had to be scattered around the world.
When the people of Babel tried to create the tower in their arrogance to reach God, what did God do? He scattered them. It is punishment to be away from another, not something to brag about. Christ's kingdom, his design for who we are, is meant to be experienced in community.
And the scriptures are clear on that. There is no such thing as being under the Lordship of Jesus and not being part of a community of believers. You're just never going to see that. And the New Testament never imagines a churchless Christian.
Has anyone ever heard of losing your status as a citizen of a country? We've all heard that. Start a concept, right? I learned this in law school that if you don't have citizenship of a country, any country, if you're a stateless person, it's worse than if you're dead legally.
It's worse than if you're dead if you don't have a place to call home because there's no way for you to argue anything in front of any official body. There's no way for you to have rights. There's no way for anybody to do anything with you. It's as if you are dead, but worse, you're actually alive and you can't do anything about it.
Same here. There's nothing worse than being communityless. The Bible consistently reminds us that believers are a body. See that in verse 1312.
Or a household, or an extended family. We saw that in our Ephesians verse. A flock, right? We've all heard of a flock, right?
Acts 20, 28 is a big one for that. A temple built of living stones in verse Peter. A temple is not just a solid boulder that someone carves out, right? It's a multiple stones.
It's multiple things that make up that temple. And without that multiple things, it's all going to collapse. All of these metaphors assume belonging, not browsing. Like take a stone out of that temple and move it somewhere else.
That temple is not going to be very solid, right? It's actually in this belonging that we exercise our love for one another and our love for God. Two greatest commands, right? All the long prophets hanging off them.
Verse 20, verse 20 says, if anyone says I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. That might be a hard verse for people. Hey, just because I don't go to church doesn't mean I hate my brother.
I can always be from my own experience. I don't know, but I had to come to admit that I didn't go to church not because I knew more, not because I was too good for it, not because I was bored with it. I didn't go to church because I didn't like the people. I hated my brother.
And therefore I hated God. What you truly believe about your Heavenly Father is revealed and how you relate to his family. And our God has revealed that in order to love him well, we actually need the first love each other and belong to his family. I had to learn this the hard way.
My arrogance and my contempt for others drove so many people away. So many people who could have been lifelong friends whose dignity didn't deserve the treatment I gave them. I lament every day the lessons I didn't learn, the friends I didn't make, the brothers I didn't have. My lack of love for my brother still hangs on me like a scar.
It's not one that I wallow in and guilt. It's one that I learned from. It's one that serves to remind me who I was, who God has formed me into and who I am committed to never be. I cling to God's family because if I don't, I see the hurts that I can cause others and myself if I'm not.
At the end of the day, if you're a browser, if you're one who, saying I go to church on Sunday sometimes, but I go to this church and then this church, you can attend church without belonging. We can all agree to that. We can attend church without belonging. But you cannot live the New Testament vision of love without being embedded in a people.
And we'll look at what a bed means in a little bit, but just because you're here present doesn't mean you are here. Second reason. That was cool. Good one.
Because the local church is the primary place where discipleship actually happens. Historically, the church always understood discipleship as a formed life, not downloaded content. Discipleship never just occurs here on the pulpit. If you walk away from the day and said I was discipled because Jake talked up here, I got bad news for you.
I did not disciple you. I just gave you some content to think about. And this happens throughout life. It happens from the very beginning of your Christian life all throughout it.
At the beginning when you're baptized into the faith, the tradition of the church and the scriptures always assumed that it was a communal moment. You can look at the Philippian jailer in Acts 1633 when he was baptized, his whole family was baptized. The household of Lydia, when she was baptized, her whole family was baptized. That's Acts 1615.
The beginning of one's Christian life is always assumed to be in a community, in a family. And this is the same for the rest of your Christian life. Instruction, catechism sometimes we say. It was always embodied in a relational aspect.
Barnabas trained Paul and Mark, Paul trained Timothy, Timothy trained the elders and Ephesus. It was always relational how disciples should happen. Paul would tell the Corinthians, come follow me as I follow Christ. Paul in his relationship with Christ, as he grew, said, now come, have relationship with me and learn how to follow Christ.
It never just happened based on a schoolhouse of rose. You come with me to dinner, you come with me to my life, you come to see how I interact with Jesus. And that's how you're going to learn how to interact with Jesus. Decipally, it happens relationally.
As I was preparing this certain time, beginning to end, there actually is no end to the Christian life. So beginning to end with what we got. Ultimately, it is in the context of our church family where we are fed and where we mature. Disconnected party parts quickly die, right?
If I cut off my arm, that's not living that long. If Christ is the head of the church of his body, then there is no living apart from that head. Trust me, it's not that head that ever dies. Christ will always be there.
It's the body parts that suffer if they're separated. We receive nourishment, encouragement through others, and we grow by ministering others. Said another way, friends can't mature you the way family does. It's your force to be my family.
As you learn to love and be loved by those who are different from you, you experience a new level of maturity. You learn to love better. Does it say anything about me? If I love someone who is easy to love, does it say more about me if I'm able to love someone who's hard to love?
My story, again, it shows my scars. I came to this church, still thinking I knew everything. I knew my theology. I knew what it meant to be a disciple.
I knew everything I needed to know about God. Anyone who claims that is a liar, by the way. It took a loving community to show me that what I knew was meaningless. If I couldn't love well, if I lacked compassion, and if I failed to learn to be what Jesus would become like Jesus.
If at the end of the day you don't look more like Jesus, then I have something bad news. You didn't learn a lot about Jesus. Again, it's a reminder to me of what Christ saved me from, and the family that you put me into. And that makes sense, right?
You can't live out common scriptural commands like confess to one another, bear one another's burdens, correct one another in love. Forgive as you've been forgiven without committing yourself to actual people in an actual place. Someone who's only known you for a day, as good as their intentions might be, can't bear your burdens. They can't be trusted to confess to your deepest secrets.
That takes time. It takes effort. It takes building trust. It takes being hurt, but still coming back and forgiving.
It takes willing to be vulnerable. But I'm here to tell you that it's worth it. There's nothing about it that's not worth it. My family here sometimes knows more about me than my own birth family.
And I couldn't be more thankful for that. Because what they show me is a Christ that knows me, that forgives me from my sins, that reaches out to me in my humblest moments, in my hardest moments. And I see that in the eyes of my brother and sister. Christ formed me into the man I am today through this family.
And I'm thankful every day for it. Third, little off that time. I've got to work on this. What did you say?
Because belonging guards us from a distorted version of Christianity. Alright, so what's the thing about having a right view of God? Now traditionally the church has always warned against the privatized or self-curated faith. That was actually one of the biggest arguments of the Catholic church against the Reformation, right?
If these reformers just go out and think what they want about Jesus, then how is that going to be policed at all? Right? That's just going to lead to liberalism and mass chaos. It actually leads to mass chaos or worse, but every church tradition is concerned about this.
From the early church fathers to the reformers to modern theologians, there's always been a concern in warning without a community of believers that share, correct, and rebuke one another, where appropriate, personal preference and theology will always supplant the true view of God. So again, personal preference and theology will always supplant the true view of God, if not corrected or reviewed. A personal relationship with Jesus is not the same as having a personal view of God. God never changes.
We might not have a lot of consensus on the whole church spectrum about things like sanctification and the gifts and how salvation actually works out. All these things are all these things that you sort of hear in the high-falutin stuff, right? How we deal with these big theological terms. We might not have a lot of consensus, but it doesn't matter.
Whatever we think, what this church thinks, what that church thinks, God is God, and he doesn't change. So someone going out there is a lone wolf and saying, hey, I want to view God this way, that doesn't really matter. Your view of God doesn't change who God is. And you're never going to get closer to the truth if you're not actively with other members of the community.
The longing to a local church exposes our blind spots, corrects our theological drift, interrupts consumerism. We've all heard about consumerism in church, right? I come, I get, I leave. Right?
Who knows someone like that? Who was someone like that? It forms humility through mutual submission. I don't know everything there's no about God.
You don't know what everything there's no about God. So let's learn together. Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously wrote in his book, Life Together. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother.
Sometimes our brother knows better than what we know, and we have to be okay with that. It's a final lesson from my experience. My view of God was so warped from years of pushing my spiritual family away, from years of viewing God from my own understanding, from years of failing to humble myself to others who could hold me accountable. I thought God was an unmerciful God.
I thought God loved high education and nothing else, and snubbed those who didn't think highly of him. I thought God was one who thought people should pull themselves up by their boot traps, and we shouldn't give generously. When I came back, I had so much to learn about who God was, and my expectations were utterly destroyed of who he was. But God who met me was better than I could ever imagine, because of who he met me through.
God met me in Pastor Nick. God met me in the people I met who I grew close to, my brothers and sisters, my mentors who I've had in this church. God met me through his image in those people. He showed me what true caring looks like.
He showed me what true compassion looks like. He rebuked me when I didn't have compassion for others, and he rebuked me through others. Suddenly, I knew less about God than I ever did, but I was content to continue to learn more about him than I ever learned. I realized that I was running away from the family he wanted for me, and as I was running away from him, or running away from that, I was running away from him.
But here's the deal. He wasn't running for me. He was right here. He wasn't the view of him that I had.
He actually told me, that wasn't me that you saw out there in the wilderness on your own. I'm right here. I'm in your brothers and sisters. And what he finally told me is that when I came back, I came home.
He didn't look at me with judgment. He didn't look at me with scorn. He didn't look at me with rebuke. He looked at me and told me, you're welcome back.
And we're glad to have you. So in short, this is what I learned. When God brought me back into his family and showed me what it belongs, and showed me what it means to belong, he showed me that Christ formed a people, not just converts. He showed me that discipleship requires a shared life and shared accountability, and he showed me that the church protects us from self-made faith.
So what's it's fake? And all this. Okay. So you don't have those three things I've had.
What's the difference? Proverbs 27, 8 says this. Like a bird that wanders from her nest so is a man who wanders from his home. Wander, in this case meaning to move about from definite destination or to go astray.
Instead of living a powerful purpose of life, many Christians live dry and fruitless lives because they wander outside of a long and spiritual family. They're like a tumbleweed that kind of goes across the road, right? What do you think of it? What do you think of it?
A tumbleweed? Who said desert? Desert. What else?
What else? What? Ghost town. Okay, that one I didn't hear for it.
Jason with his hand up. True student right there. And invasive species. I love it.
Isn't actually an invasive species. It's a search bar. No roots. It's fruitless.
It's dry. They're annoying. They're invasive. I mean whether an invasive species is not annoying.
It's in a desert. It's dry. It's a ghost town. Nothing's there.
In contrast to wandering tumbleweeds are planted trees. Psalms 92 says, the righteous will flourish like a palm tree. They will grow like a cedar of Lebanon planted in the house of the Lord. They will flourish in the courts of our God.
They will still bear fruit in old age. They will stay fresh and green. When we're rooted in a local church, we receive a nourishment and pruning we need to live fruitful, abundant lives. Each person needs to decide knowing that.
Do I want to get tumbleweed or a tree? I know it's kind of tempting to be a tumbleweed in the cool western sometimes. But I don't know about you. I'd rather be a tree.
And this is hard. It's a hard message guide. Seattle can be such a transitory place. Especially for your students.
It might seem like a lot of work to plant roots in only a few years. But learn from my experience. You students, well everyone, everyone here in these days, in these terrible days, but I do speak, especially you students, you will need to deal with so much in these few years. More than we can ever remember or imagine for those of us who are out of college and out of the student life.
You'll have drama. You'll have tears. You'll have mourning. You'll have sorrow for many different things.
You'll have a ton of stress to go with it. For that, I'm sorry and I feel for you. But a rooted life in church is the only way you're going to make it through with your faith intact. Don't necessarily rely on a screaming word in the ear on your couch while you're in law school.
The rooted life is crucial, guys. So no matter who you are, if you haven't already made that decision in your heart, then I simply ask you this. Will you put down roots and receive the life of God through the ministry of his church? And I'm not just talking about you and see us.
If this is not the right place for you, that's okay. I bless you. But find where you're rooted. Will you commit your time, treasure and talent to a specific spiritual family of believers?
And you might be asking what that looks like. And I got to tell you, maybe it looks different no matter where that is. But here at ENCS, I can look at a few things. Commit to a C-group.
Commit to a service ministry. We have a ton of needs here on a Sunday and we can really use your help as you grow and decide to wonder that. And if you don't want any other ways, just ask me. Ask us.
We'll get you connected somewhere. But you start embedding your life in community. Today's a great day to settle the matter in your heart. There's no better day than today, right?
So as you close out, that's what I ask of you. As you reflect, we're going to reflect here. I ask that you reflect. What does the Holy Spirit want you to do with what you've learned today?
That's right. Heavenly Father, I pray for each one of my brothers and sisters here, if hearts need to be convicted and convicted, if actually needs to be taken, then give gold courage to act. If reflection needs to happen, then give them solitude and silence to reflect. Lord, I pray that everyone here understands that the rooted life is the life that you have them called to.
I pray that you connect them, that you embed them, that you give them the family that they might be searching for. Lord, I pray that they see your face in their brothers and sisters. Lord, I pray that as they reflect today, they hear your voice loud and clear about what you want from them. In Jesus' name, amen.
So I'm going to give you a few minutes to reflect and then I'm going to come back up here and I'll lead us in our communion moment. Thanks, well. We are going to celebrate communion this morning. Communion is an ancient practice instituted by King Jesus.
It was the night of his death. He passed the bread and he passed the cup around. He said, this is a sign of my death and a sign of the hope that it brings. And he instituted for all believers that they should take it and remember.
But most importantly, they should take it and remember in community. I think that's an aspect of communion that we often sometimes miss. In fact, Paul rebukes those who would take communion outside of community. He actually says it makes them sick to do so.
When we engage in communion, which also means common union, by the way, we are declaring not just to Jesus that we are his. We're declaring to each other that we are his. And we're sharing something that no one else in this world will share, except for those who can call each other brothers and sisters in Christ. So as you reflect, I'll have you reflect for a minute.
I ask that you reflect on that. What it means to take the cup, to take the bread with your brother and sister. Yeah, just take a minute. Take a minute to think about that.
Reflect on that. Reflect on his forgiveness. If there are sins in your life that you need to confess to Jesus, please do so. As you finish your moment, I'm going to ask you all to start passing the elements.
As you pass the bread to your neighbor, please look up in the eye and say, this is the body of Christ given to you. And as you pass the cup, say, this is the blood of Christ poured out for you. It's awkward, I know. Talking to people is awkward.
And if you are a nonbeliever or you haven't accepted Jesus, I'm so glad you're here. Feel free to let the elements pass. And if you have any questions about this or want to make that decision to follow Christ, please let anyone of us know what your neighbors know. But I'm so glad you're here.
And before you take the elements, hold on to them. I'll pray over them and we'll take them together. And if anyone has an extra juice or cracker, I could use one. Only a cracker.
I'll take the body from you and I'll take the blood from someone else. Can someone get one from Marv? Is that okay? Is there a little juice left on this one?
Yeah. My computer just died so great. Me one second, folks. I would use.
If you're still passing stuff around, it's okay. I'm just going to pray over the elements. Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask that you bless these elements to the nourishing of our soul and body. As we reflect on your forgiveness and freedom that you renew our hearts and minds and joy for the total forgiveness we have in Jesus.
And a life reconciled about you and one another. Excuse me. 1 Corinthians 11, 23, and 26 says, the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed to bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me. Let's take the bread together. In the same way, after supper, he took the cup. Saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. Let's take the cup together. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. But the last thing I'd like us all to stand up and we're going to recite the Apostles' Creed together.
The Apostles' Creed is an ancient creed that has been said since the earliest start of the Christian church. It's actually the creed that spans all other denominations. We protest and say it. Roman Catholics say it.
Eastern Orthodoxes say it. It is probably the most ecumenical of all the creeds. So as we say it, let us join together in our family across the world. I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven.
He is seated at the right hand of the Father. And he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.