Arcade Church Service - August 29, 2021

[Music] and now your joy awaits my praise i give thanks for all you have done and i will sing of your mercy and your love your love isn't failing [Music] you are my god your of faithfulness mercy and your love your love i is forget all the battles [Music] and as we lift our hands the heavens open and as we lift our hands the heavens open heavens open so let our the lives our god has spoken over us i give thanks for all you have done and i will sing of your mercy and your love your love is is [Music] i cast my mind to calvary where jesus bled and died for me i see his wounds his hands his feet my savior wrong that cursed tree his body bound and drenched in tears they laid him down in joseph's tomb the entrance sealed by heavy stone messiahs all my failures i tried till i met you you [Music] out of the darkness [Music] darkness now your mercy has saved my soul and now your freedom is all that i know [Music] [Music] glorious heaven thunder [Music] fake comments [Music] fear is [Music] impossible [Music] [Music] defeated jesus [Music] when the stone was gone [Music] shall be [Music] impossible [Music] be nothing shall be impossible your kingdom reigns unstoppable we'll shout your praise forevermore jesus our god unstoppable nothing shall be impossible your kingdom reigns unstoppable we'll shout your praise forevermore jesus our god unstoppable nothing shall be impossible your kingdom reigns unsolvable we'll shout your praise forevermore jesus [Music] jesus [Music] oh [Music] go on impossible [Music] lord i come i confess and without you i fall apart the one that guides my heart lord my righteousness where sin runs deep your grace is more where grace [Music] in me [Music] my righteousness [Music] when temptation comes my way and when i cannot stand i'll fall on you cause jesus you're [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh oh good morning friends and family how are you doing this morning good good let's stand together as we uh as we read from the word of god we want to welcome you here to arcade church and to those of you who are joining us online we're so glad that you are here with us and and i'm i'm not under any illusions that uh that there are people in here who who may be struggling with anger who may be struggling with grief and loss from the fires that are close to us to everything going on in afghanistan everything that is happening and um i just i will confess to you that i've been dealing with a ton of anger at what's been happening in the world and uh you know to quote one of my one of my friends back in texas he used to say this this old rich mullins quote that i thought was hilarious he just said well you know rich mullins was once quoted to say well scripture says vengeance is mine says the lord i just want to be about the lord's business you know what i mean and and and how often i feel that way i'm like what is happening in the world is wrong it shouldn't be this way i'm angry lord how long o lord will you let the wicked prosper and this morning i want to take us to the book of nahum i know that we all spend a lot of time in the book of nahum so let's just i'm going to read you a bible story about a bible character from the bible chapter one starting in verse two the lord is a jealous and avenging god the lord is avenging and wrathful the lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies the lord is slow to anger and great in power and the lord will by no means clear the guilty his way is in whirlwind and storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet he rebukes the sea and makes it dry he dries up all the rivers basin and caramel wither the bloom of lebanon withers the mountains quake before him the hills melt the earth heaves before him the world and all who dwell in it who can stand before his indignation who can endure the heat of his anger his wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken into pieces by him the lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble he knows those who take refuge in him but with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries and will pursue his enemies into darkness what do you plot against the lord he will make a complete end trouble will not rise up a second time we need to hear that this morning don't we we need to hear that our god is a god of indignation that the things that anger us matter to him so much so that he did something about it and if we were really honest with ourselves we deserve god's wrath as well but we have been granted mercy through the life death and resurrection of his son and so that's the reason why we sing this morning the reason why the curse of sin is broken is only because christ came and he did something about it so now let's sing let's teach and admonish one another in all wisdom today with that amen [Music] there's a reason why the curse of sin is broken there's a reason why the darkness there's a reason why we stand here now forgive jesus is alive yes he is there's a reason why we are not overtaken there's a reason why we sing [Music] let's sing praise the king [Music] praise the king he is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] there's a is [Music] [Applause] [Music] for jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] [Music] is [Music] death where is [Music] [Music] is [Music] praise the king he is risen praise the king he's alive is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] around [Music] [Applause] [Music] nations rise and fall [Music] kingdoms once strong now shaken we trust the forever of jesus yes we do lift your voice we trust the name of jesus [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] your wisdom [Music] we bring our expectations our hope is anchored in your name the name of jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] the name of jesus [Music] the name of jesus you are the only king forever [Music] you are victorious forever [Music] [Applause] let's give him glory this morning sure [Music] [Music] so [Music] my gift of grace is [Music] is [Music] the night is [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] through is to me [Music] for jesus and he was raised [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] to follow jesus [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music] do you feel the world is broken do you feel the shadows do you know that all the dark won't stop the light from getting through [Music] do you wish that you could see it all me [Music] is all creation groaning [Music] and there's a new creation coming and it's the glory of the lord to be the light within our midst [Music] and is it good that we remind ourselves of this is [Music] anyone [Music] is he worthy is [Music] is he worthy of this [Music] does the father truly love us and does jesus [Music] doesn't [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is he worthy is he worthy is he worthy of this [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] blessed are you o lord our god king of the universe for you created all things and by you jesus all things hold together [Music] thank you god that you're in the midst of your people today thank you for being here thank you for making your home and each one of us [Music] god that we have your spirit within us to teach us and instruct us in the truth whenever the world's dark you are worthy of every ounce of our affections and our praise and so we bless you today good king we bless you [Music] and all who agreed said amen church if you would remain standing it's been a while since we've done this but i want to encourage you just as christ has welcomed us into his family if there is somebody that is near you that you don't recognize would you take a second to introduce yourself to them make them feel welcome welcome into the family at arcade [Music] [Music] so [Music] good morning rk church what a wonderful morning already it has been to worship together today those of you online we're so glad that you're here my name is shelby glass and those of you in the room we're so glad you're here too it's just so good to be uh the family of god together uh scattered all around so uh really for those of us who have been here at arcade for as long as arcade has been arcade and then for those of us who maybe today this is your first time here we hope that you feel welcome and really a supernatural way that only the lord can can allow we do have one request of you though a really great way to get connected we would love to know who you are what you're about and if you have questions for us whether you you're new or not um you can text the word arcade guest you don't have to be a guest though to do this to the number 484848 this is just a really great way for us to connect with you directly answer any questions you may have and then see how we can get you plugged in here at arcade into some genuine community okay so believe it or not fall is right around the corner can you believe it oh my goodness i have to get my notes here so there's all kinds of stuff getting ready to launch here at arcade for the fall season and i want to highlight two things in particular and i think that they're timely in an unfortunate way just considering what's going on in our world and the things that pastor chris had mentioned to us this morning so the first thing we have launching is griefshare which you've probably heard us talk about for a long time this is something that arcade has been offering for quite some time griefshare is a group of folks who are hoping to figure out the best way to navigate grief navigate loss whether it's in their own life or perhaps they're counseling someone else who's going through grief or loss as well um through a biblical perspective and so that is one great thing it's led by our pastor mark and his associates his his team it's a phenomenal way to get involved with people who are in a similar season or a similar situation as you are and find that hope that we have in the gospel in the midst of that so that's one thing the second one is our biblical counseling class so that is also happening this fall and it's led by our very own director of biblical counseling suzanne bond and it's just another really great way to navigate the troubles that we're having it could be lost there's maybe some overlap here but biblical counseling is more about um figuring out how the bible tells us to navigate the troubles and the hurt and scars and things that we have in our life as well as those around us and so those are just two things that are happening but i want to make sure to provide you with a way that you can sign up for that so if you have heard of the arcade church app which surely you have by now it's a really great tool but i want to just make sure that you're familiar with it one more time and know where to go to find it so on the back of the sermon notes there is what we call a qr code it says black and white square right here if you have a smartphone if you don't i'll have some instructions for you too but if you do have a smartphone really all you have to do is open your camera app and hover over this little black and white square what will happen is your camera will read it and then prompt an internet browser to open it's going to take you right to the app store to download the arcade church app super simple if you don't have sermon notes this morning feel free to grab it but you can also go to your app store and just search arcade church and it will come right up really easy to download free to you um something that's going to be awesome to just have available to you during the service and during the week as well so once you have your arcade app let me see if i can pull mine open here there's going to be several different options on the bottom of the home page really the home page itself has all kinds of events that are coming up so news we have on there our sermon notes for this sunday things that are upcoming this week in the next month or so the sermon on the mount art exhibit is going to be on there we're going to hear more about that next week but on the bottom there there is a connect tab and i want to just draw your attention to that because that is where you can find all the information about the bible studies and classes that are happening griefshare and biblical counseling as well but there's so much more happening this fall so you can look into each day of the week what's happening what the classes are who's leading it how to reach out to them and get connected all that is in there for you so we want to make sure that you are clear and understand how to get that information all right so for those of you who don't have smartphones that's okay our front church office jen benson and her staff are incredible give them a call tell them hello and say thank you and ask them questions about what are the classes coming up i don't have a smartphone will you tell me a little bit about what's going on and they would be more than happy to walk you through what's happening on campus off campus and figure out a way to get you plugged into again genuine community here on campus and then one last thing that's happening or that's available on that church app and you've probably heard this multiple times is you can give on the church app as well on a desktop you can go to our website as well and then we do have the lock boxes in the lobby all right so couple things just in summary our griefshare classes are launching oh and i wanted to mention that's happening on tuesdays there's two options 1pm and 7pm and then our biblical counseling is on wednesdays but again more information on that in the app or at the church office via phone okay we're just so glad that you're here and i really want to i would like to invite pastor dan up to share a little bit about something that's going on with one of our very own antoinette thanks dan thanks antoinette great thank you shelby i want to invite antoinette hanson up antoinette is our newest missionary and uh she's coming from arcade church antoinette would you tell us a little bit about what you're going to be doing where you're going to be going and how we can pray for you and support you in this great endeavor that the church has been a part of for 2000 years going and sharing the gospel yes well good morning uh it's such a joy and an honor to be with you this morning and to be sharing so uh this saturday i will be getting on a one-way plane ticket to move to the country of rwanda in east africa it's a small beautiful country and so i will be sent by worldventure to go join my team in kigali it's the capital of rwanda my team and i work on building up the church in rwanda so equipping them empowering them through biblical education through theology really just following the great commission and making disciples in rwanda specifically god has given me a heart for worship leaders and so i'm really looking forward to working with my team to empower and equip worship leaders through training and discipleship great many of you probably recognize antoinette she played the cello right here in our orchestra and she's going to take those musical talents to rwanda with her today but we want to pray for her this is something that the church has done for 2000 years is to commission and send out one of their own and i'm so excited that we could do that today for antoinette so would you do something for me would you stand and hold out your hand like this toward antoinette as we want to pray for her and pray that she would go in the power of god and of the holy spirit and so let's pray heavenly father we thank you we thank you that you have been at work in antoinette's heart and in her life that she's felt your call lord we pray that she would go in the power of your holy spirit lord that you'd give her traveling mercies that you would enable her to encounter divine appointments grace notes from you along the way where she could share the gospel because as a church lord you know we are all about the gospel all about proclaiming it both at home and around the world and we thank you for this and lord today as i was singing and sitting next to antoinette she was belting out just a refrain of one of those those songs yet not i but through christ my savior yet not i but through jesus christ lord may she always go with that thought in mind a surrendered life a life filled with your power and with your presence and and in in empowered by your holy spirit lord today we also want to just pray for her family lord they live in pollock pines this cal door fire has forced them to evacuate and lord it's a very difficult time in many ways for them it's a joyous time in other ways but we lift them up and we lift up so many people today who have been impacted by this fire so near to us and lord we ask for your grace and your mercy in their lives as well but lord thank you for antoinette thank you for what she's going to encounter thank you that the church through paul and barnabas went out from antioch so long ago and they came back and they were full of joy and we know that antoinette will come back to us full of joy just as paul and barnabas did and we're very grateful for that and anticipate great things happening in and through her in christ's name we pray amen amen thank you so much [Music] hi my name is brett erninputch i'm 40 years old i was a very happy kid we lived in a coastal community i had a very good happy loving home although not christians not believers in 2001 september 11 to be exact i decided to join the military two tours to iraq two tours to afghanistan and one to indonesia i ended honorably in 2005 decided to go to trade school in arizona throughout those years i became depressed the joy that i had as a kid uh was gone i did get through school and and by that time i was so depressed and in such a dark space i felt like the joy was never coming again and so i decided to take my own life fortunately that didn't work out the next day the very next morning a friend of mine showed up at my house and asked me to come live with him i needed a place to stay and so i took him up on that offer he was working at the time for an electrical company and he started telling me about these new friends that he had he was telling me about how nice and kind they were they invited me over to one of the houses to watch a ufc fight i noticed immediately that these people had joy in their hearts they treated me like one of them and so we became friends they would invite me to church i would decline but i'd happily go to the bar with them or go to the pub and this continued on for some months one night i had a dream that these guys and jesus were riding towards me on donkeys out of the grand canyon strange i called tim the next day and i said hey i think i may have had a couple too many psychedelic experiences what do you think about this dream uh and he laughed and he hung up the phone and i was like well he thought it was funny great we were at a pub and tim pulled out his bible and he said i want you to hear this and he began to read from mark chapter 11 the triumphant entry of jesus into jerusalem he got to the part where there was shouting hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord and i broke here i am already uncomfortable that there's a bible out and i am a mess because i knew at that moment that jesus was real i knew that all of my pain and suffering was for a reason not much time had passed the next invitation to church and i agreed and i went to church i was quickly welcomed by every person that noticed me and i saw that same joy that i experienced that night in his house while watching ufc and so they didn't treat me like an outsider i made 10 new friends that day and you know continued on uh the path of learning through this community and i became a christian and it was because of the faithfulness of that small church and that small group of people who had no idea what i was going through loving me caring for me willing to bring me in to include me you know to care enough to to reach out i think that here 13 14 years later it has been an integral part of my faith to live life with other believers in hopes that jesus might reach another knucklehead like me [Music] so how many knuckleheads do we have in the room right now you know oh look at oh brett thank you brother and pastor chris and team uh thank you for leading us and uh antoinette we are going to not just pray for you today but continuously rwanda does not know what's going to hit him because the joy of christ in her and so if you hadn't had a chance have a conversation with her even today and you will you will see how she is going to be an absolute blessing in rwanda as she has been to us uh before we start talking let's uh let's pray okay father we we can um we can talk about joy and recognizing that you are the author of it we can perhaps imitate it we can mimic it but the kind of joy that we need lord god is one that goes to the depths of our soul all the way to the bottom and that's why we're coming to you because we desperately need it and so we thank you that you have given us the hope of jesus christ because right now as has already been mentioned it seems dark but like the song says we are not forsaken and so we praise you lord god of heaven because the dark won't stop the light from getting through we praise you for that and so father we we come before you regarding afghanistan we don't know what else to do for peace to happen it's not going to take another bigger weapon it's not going to take more people it won't even take the death of our enemies for peace to happen lord god jesus must rule that place and so i am praying within the taliban right now that you raise up a saul who will become appalled yeah that you'll raise him up lord god and that all of a sudden the gospel will permeate that place and bring peace and change and joy from the inside i pray for the many grieving american families who have lost loved ones who were serving in the military this past week i cannot nor do i wish to imagine the grief and so father we pray for those families that the church wherever they are can be the presence of christ to them and father we cannot forget what is happening in haiti and so father we'd simply ask that the church of jesus christ be visible there that christ be reflected there and then for those who've fallen victim to the fires in our own area lord god again loss happens grief happens death happens it is a part of every aspect of our lives but what is the miracle is the presence of christ through your people and so father keep the rage far from us keep the anger far from us keep the self-righteousness and self-justification far from us and allow us to be the hands and feet of jesus wherever we are because we know lord god that true change does not happen with a recall it does not happen with a bigger weapon it does not happen through a vote it happens the power of god expressed in jesus christ and his people make us that in your son's holy and precious name jesus and all god's people said amen amen well good morning everyone it's really great to be with you and uh if you haven't met him this is pastor cole harper and uh before [Applause] before we even get into this i want to make a couple of comments but before i forget i want to tell you in front of them how grateful we are that you and heather and margo are here thank you that means your time it means a lot gosh thank you your family has blessed us and your preaching is great your hallway presence is great i don't know half of what you're talking about but but but the half the half i do know is amazing and so i thank god for you and heather and margo you are a blessing to us um this little series that we're talking about is christ reflected and the launch pad passage of that is in ephesians chapter three and we're not going to take any time this morning to look at that but basically it is just this is that you and me everyone who bows the knee to jesus christ we are the mystery of god revealed do you realize that that you and i together we are together the mystery of god revealed to an unbelieving world so that when the world looks at us individually and collectively they go that's what god had in mind that's what he had in mind and so we've been talking about that a couple weeks ago chris and i were up here talking about why we sing it just it was so refreshing to hear from our worship pastor why we sing and it was really great and i was so glad about that and then we had our executive pastor up here with me last week brian and just talking about why we gather big why do we do this it's not because while the building's here we might as well use it but rather because there is great power in seeing the visible church the great encouragement great joy in seeing the visible church well today and this is why cole's with us we're going to be responding the question why we gather small but i want to let you know about christ reflected because we we prayed specifically for afghanistan last sunday and what's going on and beth whitney and her entire department the next gen ministries they said we got to do something for our neighborhood kids because we have a lot of neighborhood children who are in very very tense times they've got families back there and they just don't know if they're going to make it out alive and so beth and her team got together and they opened the campus up last friday this last friday and said we're going to have a fun night just a fun night for these children in the neighborhood and cole they had 80 to 90 kids 80 90 80 to 90 kids 80 80 to 90 kids here and just had bounce houses just having just blowing off some steam having some fun and that was so great a lot of you were here then so thank you very very much and on top of that that same crew got up early and made pancakes for you guys all right and so this morning and so i'm just very very grateful that is christ reflected if you were part of that we saw christ in you so today why we gather small pastor cole answer all of our questions do not get one wrong of course he would say that the day my folks are here like yeah yeah your parents are here the harpers are here failure um no so why do we gather small and i actually like the fact that you started with ephesians um three there because it's not obvious to me that we know yeah i think the reason we don't know is because we are thoroughly bored with church on the whole and it probably stems from a i think a lack of apprehending the significance of what the church is and here's what i'm talking about if you were to ever read like the chronicles of narnia the lion witch in the wardrobe uh there's a scene in that book when aslane is back in narnia right and it's been under the rule of the white witch for some time so that made it always winter and never christmas and when aslan returns there's all this snow melt and the witch is trying to get around the woods and the snow is turned to slush and the permafrost underneath that is turned to mud and there's uh brooks babbling and butterflies and the dwarf that's driving the sleigh says this is just no thaw this is spring aslan has returned and the witch says if either of you say that name again he shall instantly be killed that's the dynamic i get from ephesians 3 specifically chapters 10 and 11 when it says the church through the church the manifold wisdom of god might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places in other words when we sing when we gather big and when we gather small do you know what we are to the prince of in the prince and principalities and demonic powers were snowmelt we're a constant reminder that satan's kingdom as at an end because of the resurrection and i love that right that'll get me to church in the morning when i don't feel good that'll also get me to a gather group when i'm feeling people doubt and that speaks to what we're talking about here doesn't it because i'm sure you guys have seen this before i have where the church will make an appeal get in community because you need it etc etc and what they do is they just bring on a weapons grade extrovert and it's just them saying be like me like to be around people more i just don't know that that's powerful enough right why do we gather small it's because in gathering small we're doing something that's just as crucial to the christian life as gathering big it's just as crucial actually and that's just not something i made up it's actually true so in the new testament living in the awe of god right it's a consequence it's a effect of a local church hearing jesus clearly through the gospel word right it's also seeing jesus through one another and it's following jesus on mission together with that shared sense of mission okay now here's the kicker to do that well from the very beginning local churches in the new testament expressed that life of hearing jesus through the gospel word seeing jesus through one another and following jesus on mission together and not one gathering but two okay and though in that second gathering it was equal in importance as like the first gathering the one we are more familiar with like here what we're doing this morning equal importance but different in context for example if you were to look at the church in corinth you look at these flyover texts in our bible writing from corinth to the church in rome paul says gaius who is host to me in the whole corinthian church greets you the whole church met there the same way the whole jerusalem church met in solomon's portico in jerusalem right you see it in first corinthians 14 also uh if the whole church comes together and they basically run spiritual gifts into the ground in a way that's crazy everyone will think you're insane he's critiquing their large big gathering but it's clear the church in corinth had a smaller gathering that gathered personally and residentially now i urge you brothers you know that the household of stefanus were the first converts in ikea et cetera first corinthians 16 19. aquila and prisca together with the church in their house send you their greetings here's what's weird about this we read that is in their house that's not the best way to bring that across that preposition is spatial it's amongst their house here's what this means right in a new testament local church groups and houses weren't an optional program to get people in community which is weird because that's exactly how the western church typically talks about it it was the distributed life of a single local church amongst its city and the second of two regular gatherings that characterized that church so as we seek to make that shift over the next five years trying to get 90 of arcadians into genuine community we want to go from this this is something i heard a lot gather groups are a great way to get plugged in at arcade i'm the pastor over groups and i don't even care about that in some sense right that doesn't have the drama it doesn't have that substance in the new testament yet but what if we did it like this arcade church gathers officially twice during the week publicly and entirely sunday mornings on marconi avenue and residentially on a personal level on different nights of the week throughout sacramento so the takeaway here craig if we neglect to gather small our city won't change and neither will we we're getting ready to start a series on the fruit of the spirit and every one of those are exhibited in the life of the community we think of patience as oh i didn't flip the guy off like driving home i'm learning patience i mean i get it but that's not that's not the point the fruit of the spirit are how the kingdom is depicted in an outpost of christ's rule and occupied territory were a window into the world to come well that's all fine and good how dare you sir here here's the problem yeah if if if i'm just every person then yeah that sounds great but but what you want me to do is you want me to get in a small group with people who aren't like me and that's a problem because let's face it we gravitate to people like us and what you're talking about you're going to get into this is the diversity that comes with gather groups and so many times i think especially as a christian and i'm i'm one of those introverts totally where you know what i i i've got to be on in a way when i'm with people not like me as i'm not on when i'm with people who are like me totally and so why can't i just get a bunch of people that vote like i do that look like i do that like the giants like i do and and then we can be able to no dodgers dodgers need jesus too um but we yeah but we could get together with people like us and you're advocating i'm kind of serving it up for you here fire away diversity within the gather groups correct why because anything else lies about the unity of christ's body you have a better reason i mean the truth is there is no better even no yeah but yeah yeah um you're right and that's the second question isn't it why do we need diverse community to gather small and it's like here's what folks got to realize this is not me putting like putting a hr hat on and saying diversity is just important because it is and has nothing to do with that it it has to do with theology right why do we need diverse community together small because we become like jesus by seeing jesus and jesus is most clearly seen in diverse community i'll apologize but i'm going to bang on on this for a minute right before yeah let's just go to galatians 3 28 as many of you as were baptized into christ jesus have put on christ there is neither jew nor greek slave nor free there is no male and female for you are all one in christ jesus here is the seismic shift that happened when jesus rose out of joseph of arimathea's tomb it meant that god saving benefits were not distributed among lines of race ethnicity sex age life stage or anything else the wall of hostility was torn down here's where things get a little tricky the individual spiritual gifts that all those diverse members have right they're actually how jesus ministers among us in his absence as he's at the right hand of the father this is what always blew my mind about folks who like to discuss the end times or whatever one of the most significant developments of where we are in redemptive history is that jesus distributed his ministry depicted in the gospels amongst different members of the church right and that is how we experience his ministry until he returns bodily right so that's what first corinthians 13 is all about so he goes on this kind of tie right here love never ends because they're misusing spiritual gifts ask for prophecies i'll pass away it's for knowledge it'll pass away what are those they're plagiarized from the life of jesus any spiritual gift is lifted right out of his life in galilee in jerusalem and everywhere else he goes for we know in part and we prophesy in part but when the perfect comes the partial will pass away he's saying when the kingdom arrives undiluted in all its fullness we won't need those spiritual gifts because the one who is the genuine article of those things has arrived that's why they can rotate out of use now hold on your hardware the spirit of christ distributes jesus ministry amongst us so you might get the gift of administration you might get teaching you might get this or that or whatever check it out in first corinthians 12 to each is given the manifestation of the spirit that's not a generic spirit like casper it's the spirit of christ it's the same spirit that was on jesus that drove him into the wilderness and had him explode out of the desert to heal to teach to proclaim the kingdom all these are empowered by one in the same spirit who apportions each one individually as he wills so gather groups if i'm making these analogous to the smaller gathering of the early church by definition have to describe desegregated intergenerational groups shaping themselves around the gospel their new identity is god's family and a shared sense of mission why spiritual gifts are not distributed according to pre-resurrection distinctions gracious often most discipleship in the church is we are all our christology our view of jesus is only as healthy as our ecclesiology explain what you mean by the ecclesiology your view that you're welcome your view of the church the people you hang out with if you only hang out if i only hang out with people that have my interests share my life stage i've screened my fellowship along the lines of pre-resurrection distinctions that jesus came to abolish right yep which means i will only see parts of jesus that echo myself if that's who i do life with and then we wonder why we don't feel god's presence we wonder why we feel like jesus has abandoned us sometimes it's because we have screened out the parts of jesus that don't fit our style and then we wonder why we feel alone yeah so the takeaway there is this gathering small is an expression of arcades diversity not an escape from it which is weird because i feel like a lot of folks growing up in the western church use small groups to just get around people that are like them yeah and that's the departure well i'm really glad i'm glad you went long on that one because it is so powerful the pre-resurrection distinction is huge for us and i agree i think the western church has done that so for us at arcade church i mean let's get let's get specific to arcade you know you know we have this this mission of to help as many people as possible hear see and follow jesus uh you've spent some significant time thinking about that and since you got here a few months ago how how do gather groups coal help us reach that mission in a very applicable way great question um and to answer it what we'll have to do then even institutionally is differentiate gather groups from normal interest groups or gender specific bible studies which are fine by the way those aren't going anywhere but if gather groups are to distribute the life the same life of the body that the big gathering has they have to embody that in a context that makes sense and be a repeatable stable gospel presence residentially in their neighborhoods right so here's how we do it we provide a built-in rhythm to live out arcade's mission together that rhythm that lets us hear jesus see jesus and follow jesus on mission together okay that's what a gather group is arcadians gathering residentially on a personal level to hear jesus through the gospel word see jesus through one another and follow jesus on mission together and something we have to qualify craig as we come up with a way to do that is first century culture is different from 21st century culture we can look at acts and say oh my gosh they met every day and did all this yeah and they're a first century middle eastern hospitality culture where you could go crash somebody's house for six hours and nobody would say boo spit to you about yeah right yeah and so i can't just inflict a different world view on my neighbors and say oh don't you love the gospel okay yeah but you've been couch surfing for a week you know what i mean so there has to be a way to embark on that distributed life of hearing seeing and following in a way that doesn't take in an unlimited amount of force to make happen because it takes that kind of force to do something impossible so we're shooting for faithfulness to the universals of the life of the church not idealism right idealists are the worst because my gosh you go on vacation with them and then everything is well like we could have done this we could have made this happen and so everything is a checklist of it's a photo negative of the awesome thing it could be right and that just sucks the life out of everybody including me so here's what i'm saying while every residential gathering is characterized by word and prayer it's too overwhelming to make every gather group capture that distributed life of hearing seeing and following every time you meet right so there's gospel freedom here there you'd think the gospel would help people not feel like they have a gun to their head to get it right all the time rather it gives them scaffolding or a pattern to embark on that life together and this is what it's going to do gather grips will be shaped around one component of this hearing seeing and following life each week you meet not that the exclusion of others so each week or one week we'll be hearing correct the next week seeing the next week following you got it okay that's exactly right okay now if we gotta say this in a way that's a little easier to condense let's just call it this i didn't make up this language by the way up in out rest the first night of a month let's say my group for example we meet on sunday evenings and so see how we've highlighted sundays there look at september 6th what if we just did this what if we hear the gospel word by having a dedicated time going deep into the word the first night of the month we meet what if the second night we took our time to see the individual manifestation of christ's spirit in one another so that we're not just talking about the weather all the time in other words real abiding fellowship and a meal together right so the sixth would be up night correct the fifteenth thirteenth would be in night because why you're looking to see the manifestation of jesus spirit in someone else how would that how would that play out in real time in a in a gather group that's a great idea um in fact let me skip ahead how do we see jesus through one another on midnight good or bad here's how we've done it in mine what if each group member one in night a month gets a chance to share their entire story 25 minutes right and then what happens if after that the group members got to ask the follow-up questions that you couldn't really ask in a big gathering like this oh wow when your mom left did you hate god for a while you know press into those things so this has tentacles that go right to the core of the gospel accounts we just don't know it because we're separated by 10 000 miles in 2000 years but the church has always been sharing accounts of how jesus interrupted their life anybody remember the story of zacchaeus why do you think he's not a main character but he's named why it's because that's the ancient near eastern equivalent of a footnote zacchaeus was the authoritative guardian of that tradition when jesus blew through jericho and blew everyone's mind and what happened is luke is saying the still living eyewitness zacchaeus go talk to him to verify this account and what would have happened is that village would have rehearsed that story again and again and again and again jarius not a main character why does he come up because he's an eyewitness and he transformed that community by telling that account again and again and again and what we want to do in our gather groups is to have stories of how jesus t-boned us in an intersection and rehearse those exploits again and again and again and again man i'd want my kids to listen to that kind of stuff right i mean that's the stuff i needed yeah like as a new believer i didn't know what i was doing yeah you know what i mean so well that's kind of what happened with brett as well right yeah right yeah absolutely so that's what we do on the um on an in night and you know an up night where we're we're hearing jesus the word i feel like we do that pretty well that's not gonna be a big shift for groups that become officially gather groups you know that's our kind of our bread and butter this is gonna be new on in in night the third night of the week or the third night of the month we meet we're calling those an out night because we're following jesus on mission together and here's all that is it's giving your community a chance to spread its gospel footprint beyond its living room that's all it is so there was a few nights back my group had an out night you know what we did we went to a restaurant and our goal was to tip the best that anybody had done there that day we wanted to be the table the waitress hoped she got but didn't get right yeah what happens if we build a presence there oh tonight's like the third sunday of the month that awesome table comes in thank god you know what i mean we want to be the table the waitress can fall apart in front of right there are other ways to do this too we all know the work cca is doing with reaching out to aft to our afghan immigrants what if on a gather group's out day they went and cheered their games and helped the women there gals from your group have someone to practice their english with cheer for kids that aren't yours or here's a thought what if on out nights because our kids need the gospel too what if we went to the home game of one of the kids in our group right yeah every every uh conversion is supernatural every conversion needs the firepower of the body in that um incredibly compelling life and so gosh i played basketball like once in my life right i made the team because uh my mom babysat for the coach's daughter um for real this is totally true and we were like the halftime entertainment you know a scrimmage b team you know go and make it so you just feel like an idiot um but what would happen if my family were in a gather group and everybody from that gather group came to watch me airball a bunch of stuff and cheer for me anyway yeah in other words it leads to what leah was talking about in her testimony falling in love with jesus because you fell in love with the church yeah and that's what this is trying to do yeah there's one more thing our first bunch of out nights you know what we did we daydreamed we said in four years three or four years who do we want in the kingdom that's not in the kingdom right now and so everyone begins to think through okay who do i work with and then we begin to intersect our life with theirs how well what if the dudes are all gonna watch a game anyway and one guy invites the guy he works with because they we ordered the game guess what we're there too and we text back and we start an actual friendship across time i'm the one or someone else the one who says i've got to see that boat sometime in other words by the time hopefully lord willing a not yet believer that we're praying for comes to a sunday night gather group with us or even a church service what if he knew half of our group already that just makes sense it gives groups a chance to think long term about their footprint in their city ask the tough questions like will this neighborhood like feel and look different as a result of us being here for years what kind of world are we leaving behind for um whoever that singer was in rolling stones the guy who's you know uh torched all the time um in other words how do our actions outlive the world around it because that sounds like he who is in us being greater than he who is in the world yeah i've seen this work too um it's actually not hard to have someone come to jesus if you're okay with not being the one to lead them what if the guy you work with what if you're not the one who seals the deal what if god uses someone in your group evangelism is way more fun in community that's what i've learned yeah fourth night though we rest because if people are the work we need rest from people and i'll risk being the unspiritual one to say that this is where we lose people i'm guilty of this too from a volunteer standpoint let me tell you i've used people like firewood before and then wonder where their heart went hosts need a break you need a break and by the way have you ever noticed this craig if you're living missionally in your neighborhood don't you need a night where you have nowhere to be yes amen write preach can you just sit on your front porch and like not have to go anywhere yeah like busyness is not sanctification i just refuse to accept that it's not true but we've been told it is because we've been discipled culturally to say man if you are panting and out of breath that's how you know god's using you i just don't agree i do not agree i think i think it means we've been discipled by the individuals jesus told us to disciple in other words people aren't crazy for not wanting to get involved it just means they've been burned yeah and we're trying not to burn people every fourth night you rest so we've got up night in night out night rest night and then it just starts all over again correct yep and that's the fun part isn't it what happens if you do that for years oh my goodness would you recognize yourself i don't know if i would right yeah because all this is shorthand for is the balanced christian life that's all it is it's just scaffolding and for the if you have someone who's going to share their story one night and they flake or whatever like there's no there's no police that are going to come put you in a cruiser if you didn't get oh it's the second month and we got to do the in night nobody cares right it's just scaffolding to live the christian life together across time that's all it is so that's that's what i'm thinking well i've got some concerns fire wait okay yeah not concerns questions they're not my concerns yeah arcade church is a bible studying church we have been that since 1950. uh we we i wouldn't say pride ourselves but we are very glad to be biblically literate absolutely i don't see a whole lot of bible study in this plan what's funny is i look at the way the church in general has done things for a while and my thought goes like this i don't see much obedience to the bible we study ow right and it's not me being like a jerk or whatever it's like in other words i think our commitment to authority and inerrancy of scripture is demonstrated not in the frequency necessarily of how often we study the bible it's in how we're willing to rearrange our life based on what we studied and that's what's happening here the foundational start night of the month it's an up night hearing jesus through the gospel word and then you have the next three nights to obey that's what's going on there yeah so uh and there's another answer to that too it does make sense to say i don't see much bible study like that's legit i would ask compared to what exactly yeah in other words most of us if we were to travel back in time to a new testament church i think we'd be appalled because they don't study the bible like we do it's a very different world right so if you're in the first century you're usually dependent upon not the word that was written down but the word you heard four days ago and you had someone committing it to memory and that was how you studied it every once in a while you'd know someone wealthy enough to have a manuscript of some kind but you didn't count on it yeah right yeah we can't be more spiritual than the book of acts and i'm worried that sometimes we try yeah yeah i wonder about the christians in afghanistan right now are are we going to call what they're doing not enough because man they just don't have how could they do an inductive study in the mountains of tora bora or whatever yeah we have to revisit the categories we think in um otherwise we've written off most of the church yeah historically we are in a period of hyper literacy it's never happened before we lived after we live after gutenberg there was one account i read of a guy who he memorized the gospel of mark so his church could read mark and every time they wanted to read mark they nicknamed him mark by the way they say mark get over here recite that you know what's weird though the early church had more power not because they studied the scripture less robustly they were more easily encouraged by the scriptures than we are and i still don't know what to do with that yeah to be honest with you like just from a christian and believer in pastor standpoint i'm having to think through that yeah what's the disconnect yeah maybe we're just really hard to impress i don't know maybe i'm hard to impress well way to bring us down cole appreciate it that's actually kind of funny so here's the thing we got we got to get going here but first of all you download this to me what four or five months ago and i think i told you then i i i've been a pastor for a few minutes and uh i have never been more energized excited about a plan because like you we've always known right that small groups are necessary we didn't know why we didn't know why it's like that check engine light right it tells me something's important but i don't know what yeah right yeah and i i and i i think that this plan coal is amazing that god has given to you to us as well what what would you recommend just in the closing minutes here what would you recommend to be next steps for us you know there might be some new folks here you've never been here before you've been online with us so you're online right now and you're thinking about coming on campus or getting into a gather group what do you what do you what do you suggest as far as next steps yes yeah so right out of the gate if you're not doing life with people on a regular basis do yourself a favor and nip that in the bud best way to do that is honestly because of the work the communications department has done have you guys noticed that like sometimes groups at arcade are kind of like secret groups well where is said group well i don't know and you have to be invited it's like mafia groups it's all in the family and if you know you know and if you don't you don't it's a christian scavenger hunt kind of thing yeah dude it's like come on man so um something we're doing is compiling every bible study uh sex interest or gender based book study all in the app and so you go to connect and you go to bible studies and classes and it'll break it down by day okay and it'll tell you which groups are open you just tap the day and then it gives you the instructions on how to plug in some it'll have you fill out a form others it pulls up the email to contact the group leader secondly this is going to be for the braver folks we're having another gather group info night like we did a few mondays back in january okay okay because we're going we're going to launch hopefully five or six more gather groups like these that operate on a year-round basis not the semester basis that existing groups have here right and i will hound the church when that's scheduled you cannot miss it but the next step to get involved in this kind of gather group it's going to be to come to that info dinner that's forthcoming we just uh brought eight groups on this format online uh they're starting the week after labor day and every semester we're going to launch a few more a few more a few more so i'm excited i really am i i think it's going to be a great thing and as you i think i mentioned early on but one of the goals that we have set in the next five years is to have 90 of our acadians involved in gather groups and so this as a robust goal it's an aggressive goal but we pray uh by god's grace that we can be able to enjoy hearing seeing and following jesus in this way cole thank you appreciate it very much so much thanks guys [Applause] let's go ahead and stand okay the god of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another that together with one voice may glorify the god and father of our lord jesus christ therefore welcome one another as christ has welcomed you and we say together for the glory of god have a great day i love you [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Arcade Church

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Length: 105min 0sec (6300 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 29 2021