A More Excellent Way | Sunday Gathering | Sep 5

[Music] hi everyone welcome those are you guys joining us online welcome i have a few announcements to get us started number one this wednesday night at 8 p.m or 7 p.m sorry we're having worship here at the casa maybe outside if weather lets us do that you don't need an rsvp you can just show up 7 p.m on sunday the 17th we're gonna be actually doing a dinner um actually that's the wrong day i think but i think it's the 19th sunday the 19th is a dinner instead of breakfast in the garden so we're gonna share some food together there will be no live stream there will be no sunday morning gathering come eat with us meet some people enjoy each other and then friday the 17th is parents night out starting at 6 p.m we'll watch your kids for you and go out there's some stuff here in crowless or the west side go have dinner our kids team will take care of the rest for you you can rsvp for dinner and also parents night out at a x dot life let's pray father we thank you for your love your grace your mercy towards us for the times that when we're far from you you've drawn close to us we pray for this morning we pray that the time that we share in this room and later today those who join us from home that this would be a time that you speak that you heal that you comfort time that maybe you correct we welcome your presence your spirit working in us and through us we give you our attention in jesus name amen [Music] can we be [Music] amen [Music] upon his rock [Music] breathing [Music] in [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] never [Music] up it's your church build your church build your church build it from the ground up church build your church [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] we proclaim the old truth [Music] never if you have a bible would you go with me to the book of first corinthians in the new testament we're going to read at the latter half of chapter 12. if you don't have a bible we have a screen here usually i'm standing in front of it sorry and if you're watching and joining us from home it's on the bottom of your screen starting in verse 27 paul writes after addressing idolatry sexual immorality divisions and arguments within the church um he begins to shift the conversation and he says this now you are the body of christ and individually members of it and god has appointed in the church first apostles second prophets their teachers then miracles and gifts and healing helping and ministering in various kinds of tongues are all apostles are all prophets are all teachers do all work miracles do all possess gifts of healing do all speak in tongues do all interpret but earnestly desire the higher gifts and i will show you a still more excellent way if i speak in the tongues of men and angels but have not love i'm a noisy gong or clanging symbol if i have prophetic powers and understand all the mysteries and all knowledge and if i have faith as to remove mountains but i have not loved then i am nothing if i give away all i have and i deliver up my body to be burned but have not love i gain nothing love is patient and kind love does not envy or boast it is not arrogant or rude it does not insist on its own way it is not irritable or resentful does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth love bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things love never ends as for prophecies they will pass away as for tongues they will see says for knowledge it will pass away for we know in part and we prophesy in part but when the perfect comes the partial will pass away when i was a child i spoke like a child and i thought like a child i reasoned like a child when i became a man i gave up childish ways for now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face and now i know in part then i shall know fully even if even as i have been fully known so now faith hope and love abide these three but the greatest of these is love father we pray that the message paul wrote to his friends a church in corinth would help us today guide us today remind us today of who we are as your church jesus name amen i want to preface the conversation this morning with i know the last two weeks have been heavy talked about church hurt we talked about last week leadership and toxicity within leadership and uh it's been for me probably the heaviest and most weighty conversations i've had to have mainly because of this truth um an admission that i'm my hands in this aren't clean like that's the that's the hard part for me is i'm gonna give a message on what the church should look like and be like and how leaders should look and be like but over the 10 plus years of my ministry i haven't always been the things that i'm trying to tell people they should be and so to preface the conversation today i need to admit that i am not perfect that i have not always done things the way they should be done according to scriptures and the likeness of jesus and that we are not in any way presenting ourselves as the better church who understands it who gets it who's nailed it but my hope and our hope as leaders in these conversations first and foremost is that these talks help shape the culture of our church like it starts here with us it starts at our hearts in the way that we love each other before it begins a finger-pointing or conversations of how others aren't really getting it right the problem is there there's not a person on this planet who could say that the church hasn't been problematic as of recent but problems and pointing them out isn't doesn't require any skill what's going to require work is us starting at home i thought about the church in corinth i thought about what is paul trying to get at here and and that chapter we call it the love chapter in the church first corinthians 13 we read it at all the marriage ceremonies love is patient and kind growing up in church i remember listening to a pastor tell me when you read first corinthians 13 if you're an earnest jesus follower you should be able to replace the word love with your name that rey is patient and kind that rey does not envy or boast raised not arrogant and so on and so forth and i remember how much like guilt that imparted upon me because i'm especially as i grew up and even now today admittedly i am not all of those things and when i am those things i am not all of those things simultaneously but this is the description of what paul desired for the church in corinth corinth being an epicenter of culture and of religion and only 50 miles away from athens which is this philosophical mecca so to speak and he says if we're going to do anything well it's not going to be tongues or prophecy it's not going to be our influence or our intellect those things don't matter nearly as much as love matters and it took me back this week to a book i read before we started this church called start with why and as a man named simon sinek he got really popular with the ted talk and he wrote a book called start with why and he said this in his book your company doesn't have a culture it is a culture [Music] he defines the this way a company is a culture a group of people brought together around a common set of values and beliefs it's not products or services that bind that company together it's not size and might that make the company strong it's the culture the strong sense of beliefs and values that everyone from the ceo to the receptionist all share so the logic follows the goal is not to hire people who simply have a skill set you need the goal is to hire people who believe what you believe before launching the church we sat down we spent several weeks as a core team saying okay we've all come from different churches and backgrounds we've all been a different ministry we've all experienced the good the bad the ugly some of us have peaked behind the proverbial curtain of what's happening in the church being in ministry or being on staff at a church and so we developed over probably three months what we called the annex code and i remember being thinking we were so witty you know like oh this is everything kind of rhymed it had a flow to it but it went a little something like this this is our code the culture of our church we're going to define it so that as we grow we would gravitate people who align with this type of culture that we're trying to create a behavioral pattern of what we believe in and stand for and prioritize and the first one was that this is jesus's church that he makes empty people full second was we tap our potential because we believe we are made for something more we won't settle mediocrity isn't an option we're marked by honor respect and dignity in the name of jesus we keep things simple we plan to fail we risk it all so only jesus gets the credit and went on and on and on i think 10 or 11 different core culture beliefs to define how we would operate as a church in the second book simon senec called leaders by simon senate called leaders he last he said this we are not victims of our situation we are architects of it so from the very beginning of our church i remember thinking we have to be defining who we want to be before we even set out to do this because if we can't figure out our core beliefs the way that we're going to not just what we're going to do but how we are going to do it we'll just have all these people with all these good intentions wanting to help the church and join the church and grow the church but if we don't share these core beliefs we'll be dismantled very quickly culture in the church is different but very similar to culture and business if if a business doesn't have a culture but is a culture i would go so far to say today that a church doesn't have a culture within it a church is its culture a church is its culture what they believe not just what but how how does it work itself out and a lot of churches you know we start with what we believe we believe in jesus we have our creeds and our codes we have our core beliefs and our values but most of us stop on the front page of the website as to what we believe not how that works itself in us that's culture every business has a culture every church is a culture every family is a culture you can have your core beliefs and if they're not working themselves out you can have a culture that's counterproductive to what you say you believe in we are culture centric in this western world our country is a culture right now it's a culture of divisiveness and arguments and right and left and a political spectrum that spans beyond anything i can comprehend at this moment in history it's a culture of of self-righteousness and what's so funny about it is we all live in this country and we defined our culture when we started we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men were created equal and endowed by their creator so on and so forth that was the defining culture of what we wanted america to be the problem arises within the church and in our country within your family or your business when what you have defined and said you want your culture to be and what your culture actually is are different that what we say we are and what we actually do and how we actually operate when there's a vast difference in those two things what arises is what is defined by many authors and those who are looking from the outside in at churches in general but also organizations is what they call toxic culture something's off here something's not right who they say they are and who they actually are are different it's the why and the ha not it's the why and the how not just the why of any group if the church is a culture and the culture that is becoming prevalent in the church is one that hurts people offends people wrongs people pushes people to the wayside then it might be good for us to take a few minutes today and examine what is our core belief as a church or the church and is what we believe how we are operating how we live how we interact with the world around us new york times writer david brooks put it this way culture acts upon us and makes us fit into it like an invisible let yet influential person working behind the scenes to keep us in line we don't we can't see culture but we can feel culture we can't always put our finger on the culture of a church but we can experience the culture of a church and one of the things the ring words that pop up over the last decade especially us church planting was things like we would hear the word missional gospel-centered but one of the phrases that i keep hearing and that we even use today is you belong it's like when you walk into a building you hear welcome home and you belong but if what you experience inside of those doors is not that of a home and belonging then it's a sign to us that the culture that we say we are and what we believe and what is actually working itself out within those doors when they are different it is a sign of toxic culture i love that simon sinek put it this way when he said it is what binds an organization together it's what brings them all common ground you can have a very diverse group of people in a company and also you can have a very diverse group of people in a church a lot like ours i think different skin tones and backgrounds and upbringings different age groups different sides of a political spectrum but there's something and there has to be something that binds us together paul says in verse 13 faith hope and love abide these three but the greatest of these is love he writes to the church in colossae in colossians chapter 3 he says this make an allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you remember the lord forgave you so you must forgive others above all clothe yourselves with love which binds us all together in perfect harmony and let the peace that comes from christ rule in your hearts for as members of one body you are called to live in peace a little side note in this passage he says and always be thankful always be thankful what is the glue what is the core value what is the common belief what is binding the church of jesus christ together according to the scriptures and according to jesus's own words it is and should be love what brings us together love pastor stephen blandino put it this way you can shout vision from the rooftops deliver your core values with inspiring speeches yet still develop a culture disconnected from your aspirations how by behaving in a way that is inconsistent with what you say that's why halls of churches can be plastered with vision and belief in history and scripture but what's taking place inside is anything but that because we can say all we want but the word of god is not just said it is lived out not just word but also deed that the the highest form of integrity in a person in a family in a church or in a culture of any sort is that they are who they say they are and what hurts the most when someone who is not who they said they were a friend a mentor a companion trustworthy and when that confidence is broken and what they said they were and who they actually were are different pain ensues so these cult these cultures of toxicity begin to kind of take prevalence you ever worked at a job and you liked the company or the product or the line of work and even maybe liked your boss but like there was this culture of just trash talking or gossip or maybe people were stealing or weren't honest or maybe you couldn't put your finger on it but it was like i like what we're trying to do here but something's just not right you ever been in that environment like this doesn't like who we say we are as a company and who we say we are as a group or who we say we are and who we actually are just they're not fitting that's a sure sign of a toxic culture i'll put it this way because we're an us versus them kind of community and i mean that by the church we like to hear of other people's downfalls other people's issues other leadership failures other churches we use them as case studies and it makes us happy because somebody's finally saying what needs to be said but here's the danger in that is that we can create a very quickly a us for stem mentality like us over here we've we've got it going on but them over there you know they have some issues to address so as we talk about this today don't become uh privy to the kind of relationship with words and stories and examples to where you think this isn't within us this is just out there and we have it here no there is not a church in our country probably the world that doesn't have some form of toxic culture within it because we don't always get it right but not every church is a completely toxic church and there's no church in the world that is untouched by some level of toxicity so we have to admit that we have to kind of come to terms with the fact that just because there's toxic activity within a church doesn't make them an entirely toxic church there's some really amazing great things coming out of churches with toxic cultures why because well jesus is king and he chooses to use us anyway likewise there's some amazingly kingdom-minded jesus-loving honest communities that if they're not careful the little bits of toxicity within them can become prevalent like it is in other stories we talked about toxic leadership last week narcissism power through fear manipulation and abuse but let's take it away from the leaders although i believe leaders are responsible for the cultures within their churches because they're the ones who are dictating and at least with rhetoric explaining the vision of what they want their church culture to be like but on the other side of that coin as a whole is the toxic culture of the body the people the constituents and some of it could be really simple maybe there's a culture of gossip and slander maybe there's a culture of questioning authority and always you know having to push back be the devil's advocate we were talking this week about how there's always that one person in the church has to say something mean or passive aggressive but some of them have toxic cultures of prejudice or superiority maybe there's anger maybe there's just division like this church has had 18 church splits over the last five years maybe there's not a mutual respect for young and old or maybe just new and what was maybe it's theology maybe and i've been a part of these communities before where they actually believe that what they have they interpret scripture is the only way and the best way and if you don't interpret and look at it this way then you're less and maybe that's even happening within the church maybe in a community of people well i believe this about god i believe this about i believe this about the scripture or some of them are the tall tale that we've been arguing over for the last 1500 years of you know calvinism and arminianism baptism and communion and the things that we call important but a culture can become toxic when things like elitism and misogyny and division become the norm and not the exception toxic culture can happen in your family in your marriage in your home in in with your children it can happen at work at school that's going to happen let's just put that out there we're human and when humans get together bad things often happen in any relationship the person you love most on this planet is bound to hurt you eventually but those need to be the exceptions those need to be the moments are we like paul said just forgive one another give each other some room give each other a breath give you know give each other the benefit of the doubt love believes all things let's start with those those foundational things in our relationship you're bound to get hurt the problem isn't when when toxic things happen it's when toxic things are overlooked when they're no longer the exception or an isolated incident when it's just the rule and it's just the expectation well i'm going to church today i'm going to go get beat up you know i'm going to small group let's you know i highlighted my bible with a few extra verses because i got to have some ammunition against you know john over there who's gonna try to school me today and when it becomes the norm that every meeting of staff and every volunteer gathering is an argument or people walk away shaking their heads or when it becomes normal that that people leave instead of stay when it becomes normal that people hate instead of love that's a toxic culture and then you have paul who writes first corinthians chapter 13 which even outside of the church in secular minds is one of the most beautifully written pieces of literature in all of human history he uses this rhythmic beautiful words he has a dramatic tone everything he says has this rich imagery in in the original language it kind of rhymed in some points like it was like this flowed people liked it this had some some good tone to it but he's writing to the church in corinth they're right near athens which is the epicenter of philosophy and thought the corinth also had a high value on theater performance art and they were plagued all around their city with cults and worship of idols some of them worshiped idols in some of the most inhumane ways possible so far as human sacrifice and sexual activity but for them the highest value you could place on someone was how well they spoke so it's like paul takes a minute he's like hey chloe told me y'all are fighting and you know i've heard of these rumors of some things going on in the church and we can't we can't do that that's that's not who we are of who we are and and and what we say we are don't align that's a problem and then he shifts because the churches begin arguing about who has better gifts i have a five-year-old and a four-year-old at home they are the most competitive little people i've ever met in my life it's so funny it's it's the second you compliment one the other has to be like hey well daddy you know i uh and we could like walk in a door and there's not even a race happening we didn't there was no gunshot there was no there's no finish line but we walk in the door and one of them will inevitably turn the other i got here first and it's like we weren't racing no but nobody said this was a competition i look back on my life and my brother and i were a lot like that like it was this subtle like competition this is happening in the church man he's amazing like she's amazingly gifted have you seen her gifts yeah my gifts are better but i mean good for her well he can speak in tongues yeah well she can interpret well he preaches and he's an apostle and did you hear that so and so said this and then it came to pass they're a prophet like that's got to be the best and paul's like you all are arguing over who's better you're just like the disciples who gathered around jesus after one of his most amazing speeches the sermon on the mount turn to each other and go hey jesus hey which one of us is going to sit on your right and your left and he's like neither are you it's not mine to give away well but just explain which one of us is gonna be the the guy who leads you know which one of us is gonna he goes you guys are gonna you know you want some influence and you want to be in front of people you will be but probably in death and he says this pause let's take a shift and he just speaks eloquently he's coming to them right at their level with knowledge and language and beauty and this is the most passive-aggressive passage in scripture i have ever read we see we go wow what beautiful imagery and if you were someone sitting in the church in corinth when the letter from paul arrived and the leader of the church stood up and said hey we have a letter from paul this is our gathering today we're going to read this and then we'll go home they're reading it they're calling people out by name they're talking about sin in the church and arguments and divisions and what they're all fighting over and then chapter 13 comes around and it reads like this if i speak in the tongues of men and angels everyone in corinth is like that's what we want we want to be the linguists of our century we want the most beautiful words we want to be the most eloquent in our speech but i have not love i am a noisy gong and a clanging symbol now you and i are like that's annoying grandparents are pretty famous for giving your children things that make noise [Music] and it become kind of a game like the drum set and the things that have batteries and the stuff like the loud car my one christmas my kids all came home with the little like miniature motorized vehicles but they were fire trucks and had sirens i just think the most annoying sound in the world is something a child plays with in my opinion but the church in corinth it's not like oh a gong a symbol gongs and symbols were used in two places one the theater and two in the cult temples he says you're nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging symbol what is he saying you are no better than the actors in the theater and you are no better than the idolaters next door clanging their symbols during sexual activity as worship you think because you're eloquent you think because you can speak because you're gifted in so many ways that you're any better this is no us versus them paul is saying it's just us it's just us you're no different than the theater and you worship like a cult i'm speaking with a ton of men and angels but i have now love i'm a noisy gong a clinging symbol and if i have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and knowledge and if i have all faith so as to remove mountains but i have not love i am nothing and if i give away all that i have and deliver up my body to be burned within the first century church the highest form of worship would would be to have been martyred for the name of jesus for the gospel sake he said you could be the martyr the saint and if you don't have love you gain nothing it is possible according to paul in first corinthians 13 to have the best intentions to have the most admired gift set and not have love this is the story of so many churches building a worship team charismatic leader someone who can speak prophecy vision and you get inside and something's missing paul says yeah that's love you're missing the most important part of what we do because you're so preoccupied with your good intentions and your desire to be seen by the outside world is amazing and beautiful and eloquent that within the walls of your own community you lack love what an alarming morning hey church in corinth the culture that you say you have and the culture that's actually working itself out are very different wow this is actually not just a case study for the church in corinth jesus said something very similar to the church in ephesus in the book of revelation he said you've forgotten your first love i think it's been the case study for the last 2000 years of the church we're well-meaning well-intended but the outworking of what binds us together does not align with who jesus was and it certainly isn't an example of love which is why we shame and guilt which is why things like absolution came into play it's why the crusades happen it's why even today people who believe differently or come from different backgrounds or upbringings are consistently put down and ostracized by the church that's why an us verse them mentality exists and it always sounds pretty on the surface preachers say things like the church and the world us and then there's them then there's the saved and the unsaved the lost and the found and it always sounds spiritual but according to scripture and according to the apostle paul it is anything but loving in the book creature of the word the jesus center church three authors chandler patterson and geiger write this a church culture is healthy when there is congruence and consistency between what the church says is important to her and what others know really is important to her you said it last week whatever is most important most valued in our churches in any organization and in your family will inevitably be the most protected to us we can say all we want oh we're loving and we're a community and we're family but if the outside world looks at us and doesn't see those things they see a lack of integrity they see a problem and it's not attractive it's not attractive to hear what the church supposedly stands for the lost and the marginalized and the hurting and the widow and the orphan and then the outworking of the church in our country at least is nothing like that and it's not enough for us to have a sermon series on injustice it's not enough to have a sermon series on toxic cultures within churches and then not create a healthy jesus loving culture within this church talking does very little in the kingdom of god we have to operate work live bible uses a language like walk in the love of jesus he said in john chapter 13 a new commandment i give to you this is before his passing and his resurrection he looks at his twelve and he says a new commandment i give to you that you love one another greek word allelon another one another one in the same just as i have loved you you're also to love one another by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another how would the outside world know that we follow jesus that we believe in the story of grace and redemption and forgiveness it's not by how much we love them it's by how much we love each other [Music] why in the world would i want to receive the grace forgiveness and redemption that you say jesus has to offer me if within the walls of your own community i don't see or experience love it's like we're telling people what they're missing out on but what they see from the outside looking in is like nothing they want to be a part of i'm good no thank you i watched a clip of jerry seinfeld trying to get hugged at a red carpet event and this girl comes up to him from behind oh my gosh i love you and i don't know if you know jerry seinfeld i'm a big fan but he's just so like stoic in a lot of ways and he's like oh thank you very much you know like and she's like can i hug you and he's like no she's like no come on he's like no i'm good thank you have a good one and she walks away and the interviewer goes do you know who that was he goes no and he goes that was kesha and he's like good for her i don't you know i'm i'm i'm good on the hug thing i just thought about him i just thought i wonder if that's how people feel about the church oh my gosh god loves you it's amazing and he wants to do things and the word it's a beautiful story in jesus and humanity and love and forgiveness and grace and mercy and compassion and justice and we're like hug and the world's like i'm good thanks why i don't know you and what i know about you isn't anything that's going to pique my interest when author ray ortland put it this way in his book the gospel how the church portrays the body of christ how the world sees us from the outside and he says gospel doctrine creates gospel culture the doctrine of grace creates a culture of grace and when the doctrine is clear and the culture is beautiful that church will be powerful but there are no shortcuts to getting there without the doctrine the culture will be weak without the culture the doctrine will seem pointless oh my gosh without the culture the doctrine will seem pointless and this is why the world and even in the church we look at some of the most prevalent evangelical leaders of our time and they have got the theology and the doctrine and they can speak it so eloquently i have shelves of books but the outworking of the way they speak to others and even to each other is not loving if the doctrine doesn't create the culture the doctrine no longer matters it no longer matters if what you say you believe doesn't affect the way that you live i'm disinterested i don't care i remember my mom using this phrase you can say it till you're blue in the face you ever heard that i don't know why she would i don't know what maybe it's a generational thing i don't know what it literally means or even figuratively i guess but her point was you can say this all you want but until i see it it doesn't matter to me that's where we are in the church that's where corinthians were in their time as they beginning to to form a culture and that's where paul comes in and goes hey who we say we are and who we actually are a different let's align that and then he speaks even more eloquently he says if i don't have love i gain nothing in verse 4 of chapter 13 he says and describes the culture this is paul's code his vision statement the dictation of culture for the church that he started and wants to see succeed he said love is patient and kind it does not envy or boast it is not arrogant or rude it doesn't insist on its own way it's not irritable or resentful it doesn't rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth love bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things love never ends eugene peterson's translation of first corinthians chapter 13 sounds a little bit like this love never gives up love cares more for others than for self love does not want what it does not have love does not strut it does not have a swelled head it doesn't force itself on others it isn't always me first doesn't fly off the handle doesn't keep score of the sins of others it doesn't revel when others grovel it takes pleasure in flowering of truth puts up with anything trust god's always never looks for always looks for the best and never looks back excuse me but keeps going to the end and i remember thinking what i told you earlier like can i put my name in that and then i thought that's not paul's point at all that rey is patient and rey is kind ray does not envy that's an impossible task to be all those things all the time [Music] maybe we shouldn't replace our names with the word love maybe we should replace the word church [Music] what if it sounded like this the church never gives up the church cares more for others than for itself the church doesn't want what it doesn't have oh that one hurts as a pastor i visited a friend this week and they had this beautiful building and i'm like wow you know like one day lord you know the church doesn't want what it doesn't have the church doesn't strut the church doesn't have a swelled head and it doesn't force itself on others the church isn't always me first and it doesn't fly off the handle the church doesn't keep score of the sins of others it doesn't revel when others grovel the church takes pleasure in the flowering of truth the church puts up with anything and trusts god always the church always looks for the best and it never looks back that's not been my experience as a jesus follower in my experience and in my life the church has always looked for my worst and pointed to my past but paul says always looks for the best and never looks back imagine walking into a room a space where this wasn't just written on the walls but on the hearts of every other person in the room imagine if this was the description of our local church [Music] what would change and shift what could happen i don't even know if this is fully attainable as a church leader to be honest but i think it's a pretty good target to aim for that when people come into our gatherings our breakfasts our dinners our small groups the coffee shop conversations when the people enter into our garden space or a building we have one day that they would say man that is my experience they don't have a swolled head they don't forcing themselves on me they're not even about themselves they they keep it cool and together they're not flying off the handle they don't even keep score on my sins and they only looked for the best in me and they didn't point out the worst in me there was no guilt or manipulation there was no luring there was no bait and switch they were who they said they were and this was loving and kind and gracious and compassionate and even when i messed up they were patient with me i even think of my own life and my own journey of following jesus and i wonder if in the situations in my life where i was wrong if the church would have treated me this way what would have happened what could i have avoided in my marriage or the chips that i had on my shoulder and the truth rings that hurt people hurt people and could have i avoided the hurt of others if somebody wouldn't within the church of hurt me first and have i hurt people that went and in turn hurt others because of what i said or did and have i given up on people did i revel when they groveled did i put up with anything did i always look for the best this is probably the most preached passage in human history weddings funerals marriage counselings hope it's all around our country and it pains me to say it doesn't describe the church that i've experienced and with that as a church leader i could probably gather that this is not what everyone else has experienced too [Music] john writes in first john chapter 4 verse 11 beloved if god so loved us we also ought to love one another [Music] no one has ever seen god if we love one another god abides in us and his love is perfected in us [Music] let's start here let's start in our homes and in our marriages and our families with our friend group with our parents i started our own experience in the church and what we've done to others before we look around and point out all of the issues in the church let's ask god to make us individuals and a culture that looks like this and i have it in me to believe that when our church looks like this that the community around us having never seen god will get a glimpse of him abiding in us that when they walk out of the garden and they walk out of these gatherings and our home groups and shared meals that the rhetoric won't be wow great people wow i think i was just with jesus i think his love is real i remember writing that down in my first year goals as a pastor when we started this church i said my goal number one to look in the eyes of someone when they realize love is real i think that could be commonplace if we lived like this and loved like this jesus we are objects of grace and mercy and love [Music] we're first to admit that we didn't deserve any of those things and that what we deserved was much worse but you have been good to us kind to us you've adopted us and loved us you've forgiven us would you let your word take seed in our hearts so that we could be people who love like that that the culture we say we want and the culture we actually have would be one and the same would you forgive us for the times that we have demanded our own way or were rude or unkind or impatient would you show us search us find the wicked things in us and then lead us in a way everlasting a way of love [Music] god i pray for anyone in this room and those joining us from home i should take a moment now and i lift them to you who have experienced pain in church [Music] yeah you are a healer i pray that you remind them of love the love you displayed for them on a cross the love they experienced when they first met you and encountered your forgiveness and your grace and your compassion can we start with us can we start at home that we could possibly be the loving person or community that we didn't receive that we could be the outworking of the presence of god in the building of your kingdom on this side of heaven would you show us in our lives the cultures that don't belong may our words and our actions align may we be whole i pray for the future of our little local community here do what you want with us we're committed to loving people help us remember always in every disagreement and argument every disillusioned moment of what binds us together the blood of jesus his love displayed in the power of his resurrection we believe that you can do much more than we ever could so we give you thanks and praise ahead of time for everything good that you do in us and through us and for us in jesus name amen [Music] me so much [Music] it's so much better this way and hallelujah [Music] so much better [Music] this way [Music] save me so much [Music] so much better this way [Music] you introduced me to your love and you picked up all my pieces put me back together [Music] you reintroduce me to your love and you picked up all my [Music] you reintroduce me to your love and you picked up all my pieces put me back together you are the defender of [Music] you introduce me [Music] put me back together you are the [Music] you know where i left me you reintroduced me to your love and you picked up all my pieces put me back together you are the defender of my you

Channel: Annex Church

Views: 26

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: How to do Church, Real Church Community, How Jesus wants the church to run, albuquerque new mexico, Church Online, love is the greatest commandment, organizational culture, Church Culture, Toxic Church Culture, Start with Why, Church ABQ, Bible Church, Sermon, organizational culture example, church culture today, church culture and leadership, celebrity church culture

Id: Ud570swgcWU

Length: 59min 34sec (3574 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021