The Message & The Messengers

welcome to the faith bridge sermon podcast be sure to keep watching immediately after the sermon for PostScript a weekly podcast with in-depth content and answers to your questions submitted during the sermon you can also find it on itunes or at faith bridged org slash PostScript good to see you guys it's awesome to be back in Houston did I miss anything anything interesting going on in Houston the last couple months no crazy you know they say that you're never more Texan than when you're outside of Texas which is true we're a bit obnoxiously so but I think it's true of Houston - you're never more he Sounion than when you're out of Houston I mean we have been our pride in Houston watching the response the generosity to one another through Harvey was just absolutely inspirational so if I can be a voice from a far off land I was wearing my Houston sweatshirt Don and I all different places and people would come up to us hey how are your people there what's going on there we're praying for Houston it's unbelievable and they tell stories of what they saw in the news I'm like I know right and so it's just been amazing for the world to see what we all know which is Houston's just an incredible place and then the World Series I mean come on I mean like that doesn't solve all the problems you know of Harvey there's still a lot of work to be done and a lot of loss but if there was a year to win the World Series this is I mean if it was a movie you'd be like okay you know but but then it happened so unbelievable and someone's gonna make that movie and man unbelievable so so good to be here if you got a Bible I want to read a passage out of second Corinthians five and then we'll pray and jump in second Corinthians five starting in verse 17 if you don't have one just listen up and and we'll get there together 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 starting in verse 17 it says this therefore if anyone is in Christ he's a new creation the old has passed away behold the new has come all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the Ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation therefore we are ambassadors for Christ God making his appeal through us we implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God let me pray for us lord thank you for this time around your word together I just thank you for every person here at God wherever they are on their journey of with you and understanding you and in life whether we know each other or not I just thank you that you've given us this moment together to look at your word and I want to ask God that this would be revolutionary for us and a service can't produce sad and I can't but you can God so just rescue us from just doing a service and move it all and I pray God we we could touch down with heaven right now and really understand your heartbeat more than ever and then link up our lives with what matters most to you and so make this a significant moment for many if not all of us I pray and I want to invite you guys if you're willing would you pray and ask him say God please teach me right now and then if you would please pray for me that the Lord would use me and i'd be helpful to you well father we love you and we trust you use this time we pray in jesus name amen well eric carle grew up in Nazi Germany as a child was constrict conscripted to dig trenches wasn't a great life and so he longed to get out particularly long to get to America and so in his early 20s he was able to do that with seven dollars in his pocket he arrived in New York City and he got a job as an illustrator and someone saw his potential began to move him in to the publishing world where he did illustrations for books within at age 40 Eric wrote his first book entitled the Hungry Caterpillar some of you familiar if you have children like me you probably own a handful of these because Eric's first book did okay and if you don't know what the Hungry Caterpillar is about it's about a caterpillar who's very hungry and so he just eats things and then at the end of the book spoiler alert goes into a cocoon and then comes out is a butterfly right and simple story maybe ten pages of the caterpillar eating all kinds of things watermelons and lollipops and stuff like that and then becoming a butterfly something we all see coming and yet over the last forty or so years the books sold over 44 million copies that's roughly one copy per minute since the book came out over 40 years ago the man has made a hundred million dollars on this book right my first book has not performed as well it's done all right but Eric tapped into something I'm like okay in my defense my book doesn't have any illustrations maybe that's the problem I missed something there but still 44 million copies of a story that we all know what's coming why did we do it why do we continue to spend money on it well we can argue oh man well you know the illustrations are so come from colorful and the caterpillar so hungry like but but that doesn't explain a hundred million dollars I think we're drawn to the simple story because woven into all of us is that sense that we need a change we need a recreation we are something valuable but we feel it existentially all of us we're made to be more we're not fully what we're meant to be and that comes out in conversations with people in different ways man I just got to get in shape man I just got to get a different job man I just got to get married man I just got to get in that circle of people and out of this circle of people man I got to get out of this town and into that town man I need to quit hang in here I need these people to know me I need to make these adjustments but all these conversations I have with people as a sense of man where I am is not where I'm supposed to be what I am is not what I feel like we I'm meant to be and I just run into people all the time that feel that sense of dislocation with creation I'm not all that I'm meant to be and I think all of us feel that because and the very deepest levels it's true we are made by God and we are made for God and yet all of us like sheep have gone astray each to his own way there's something wrong with all of us there's a dislocation with heaven and all of us that has dislocated things in us and what's fascinating is I think even books like The Hungry Caterpillar point - what's woven deep in our hearts were made for more and it points to what Paul proclaims in this passage that we proclaim in the church the people of Jesus celebrate he says in verse 17 therefore if anyone is in Christ he's a new creation the old has passed away the new has come we are made by God but there's something broken in us and we need to be made new and the good news is that in Jesus Christ God is doing that God has come to us and that reckless love we were singing about changes us it's interesting I was at A&M this weekend and spoke to the football team I did their Chapel and we talked about that that the remedy for anxiety is intimacy with God what we need more than anything is not to turn over a new leaf but to be touched by our Creator to be made new by God and we talked about the movie taken I don't know if you saw that movie it's been a couple years now with Liam Neeson remember that won't surprised Hollywood how well it did I remember going to see it in the theaters and it was fear was just filled with like junior high girls and it confused Hollywood's required Junior High girls slamming into a movie about like a 60 year old guy Liam Neeson and they're like do we need more 60 year olds what's going on and the story just tapped into something that if you don't know the story Liam Neeson's daughter is kidnapped and taken overseas and so Liam just goes out and gets a different daughter just moves on it's like oh well lost one right is that true now what happens he goes after her to get his daughter and that's the whole story to get her back she was taken and he goes through all kinds of stuff to get her home and bring her home safely and it did so well now they've made taken two and taken a third time and taken again and we lost her again and they're just kind of milking the series but the first one was pretty poignant and really touched down with a lot of people and I've told them that story enough like now imagine that girl that was taken imagine if she was a real girl in years later when she was safe at home in her bed if she laid in bed and asked that question most people do at some point what if she laid in bed and said I wonder if anybody cares about me I wonder if anybody cares about what I care about thinks about me I wonder if I'm on anybody's radar does do I matter to anybody I said what would you say to that girl what you'd say is watch the movie your dad crossed oceans for you your dad like blew up a plant for you your dad electrocuted a guy it was really grim but your dad just risked his life to come get you and to bring you to where you were meant to be and that's our gospel that's our message we were singing about that the overwhelming reckless love of God that chases us down that God sent Jesus Christ not at the risk of his life but the very cost of it our passage says he who knew no sin became sin for us that we may be right with God God sent Jesus running for us to take us from where we are into where we're meant to be from broken to healed from filled with guilt and shame to forgiven and made it live from dislocated to reconciled with God from abandoned a part of the very family of God and the people of Jesus never get over that message that is our message our message is not turn over a new leaf be a better person our message is God is intersecting with human beings where we are and it says anyone who's in Christ no matter where you've been no matter what you've done no matter how shame filled your story no matter how much you've achieved or how much you've failed every human being is not what we're meant to do be but God has come Jesus Christ is making the old new a metamorphosis happens in Christ that the old is gone the new has come that's our message so Donna and I have a dear friend that years ago was a meth addict living in a homeless shelter in Atlanta and someone came to him in that state where he had been stealing money from friends and family and what some would call it a danger to society someone came to him and shared with him the reckless love of God that chases down even someone like him and meets him in the lowest places and he believed that message God came from me God loves me and he put his faith in Jesus Christ in the old became new Dana got healthy Dana got got sober Dana got healed and man he be am a force for good and so just this year in Atlanta passion city church in Atlanta mobilized over 3,000 people to work at over a hundred and sixty projects all around the city over six years of man-hours serving in the shelters of the city in meaty schools in the city all over Atlanta the love of God came flowing through it and you know who organized that whole thing that same guy the guy that had lived in those shelters is now a force for good in those shelters and you look at that and go that's the gospel I talked to an uber driver the other day and as we're driving he says nobody changes good people good people bad people bad people no one can change what they are and I said I need you to meet a friend of mine because I don't think you know what you're saying and I need you to not just meet him I need you to meet the guy behind him because it's Jesus who changes people right the old becomes new that's our message and we never get over it and yet the truth is just like my friend we don't just become recipients of the message did you notice we don't just become a new creation it says all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the Ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself bringing us in not counting our trespasses against us and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation therefore we are ambassadors for Christ what he's saying there's we don't just become rescued we become rescuers we don't just become the reconciled we become reconciling when God makes you new forgiven clean in Christ you don't just receive that message you also become a messenger you don't just become the rescued he pulls you into the story to be a rescuer to join in this campaign of letting the love of God be made known to others you become Robin my little two-year-old son is obsessed with Batman we talk about Batman about 20 times a day he's using it as a compliment when he sees something he likes he's like that's Batman and I'm like that's actually kind of a cool compliment for something like I may start using that but we were at the playground the other day and he was there and this little kid was following him around just enamored with my son who who is two years old and weirdly articulate so he is kind of an anomaly and an interesting thing so this kid is just following my son around wherever and so I walked up to Owen I said hey buddy how you doing what's going on and he said I'm Batman which is pretty standard and I said who's your buddy he goes Robin and the kid goes no I'm Henry no it just goes Robin and the kid went with it right and they went on their crime-fighting adventures together and you look at Eddie who Batman and Robin man that's one of our iconic American stories right who was Robin an abandoned kid lost his parents homeless without open the world and he got adopted by a millionaire right it became his son came his child right but that's not the end of the story I don't just become the child of Bruce Wayne I've become the partner of Batman right I don't just become someone who receives I become someone who becomes a part of the force for good that's solving problems I don't just sit in the mansion and go in it nice here I got seven fireplaces I'm someone who says he rescued me now I'm joining in that rescuing work and that's what we are Paul says the people of Jesus when his grace is touched down on us we become deliverers of grace to other people that's our story we're ambassadors representatives of Jesus wherever he would send us that we would let people know about the grace of God that touched down in our lives that's who we are so for me this has been enormous ly helpful when I evaluate my life people ask me all the time how do you make decisions on where you're supposed to work where you're supposed to live how do you live life this identity if I'm an ambassador of Christ I don't work for me I work for him there's a great campaign of rescue going on and I joined that that has informed to see my entire life can't ask me if I would share in the context of this summit Donna and I story how we got to where we are and what we're doing and this played a big part of it our first year of marriage Donna and I were living in Dallas I was going to school there and we got an offer to work at a church that was an amazing church with all of our friends in the city we were living in doing incredible things and God was blessing it and at the same time I got offered the job to be director of breakaway a Bible study on the campus of Texas A&M that had been flourishing like crazy but the previous director had gone on to be a pastor here in Houston and now it was operating without a director and its future was a bit uncertain and I looked at these and I'm like Dallas we already live here my schools here our friends are here we could hang out with the people we like doing things we like at a place we like and God is blessing it there's a million reasons to stay here it's safe and it's comfortable and we understand it right and God calls people of Dallas and Dallas is media and yet we looked and I said but you know what in College Station I don't know anybody I don't know if this ministry is necessarily gonna be one that continues and and I don't know if I'm the you know how some of these things are gonna work with this place and so we there was a lot of uncertainty but when we went there God was moving in the lives of students for this ministry and finally I was trying to figure out like what does your heart tell you and I'm like that it's stressed I don't know you know people are gonna like follow your heart I'm like I don't know what my heart says and so finally I just said Who am I how many ambassador of Christ him making his appeal through us I'm like God dispatches representatives of his kingdom where they're needed to represent the kingdom and I looked at this church in Dallas and I said there are so many gifted talented wonderful men and women reaching the loss through this church I could join it but I'm not necessary but I look at this opportunity here and it's a round hole in this ministry and Donna and I are a round peg and so if I were a general leading God's army I would send us there so that was our answer old-school Christians used to say the church is one of two things either the church triumphant or the church militant the church triumphant meant all the believers in Jesus who are already with him in heaven the church militant are those of us who are part of God's cause on the earth we don't use that language as much now because church militant brings up like terrorism and something but that's not who we are we don't persecute we fight for people not against people we fight to rescue people not persecute them that's our story and yet it became easy for us to make decisions like this because we're like the big arcs storyline is not how I can get to the safest place but how I can get to the most strategic place for God's purposes and you know that's how God works right God's always been doing that sending out his ambassadors not always to the safest places but to the most strategic places it started in Genesis that when God called Abraham in Genesis after the world went nuts God said I'm gonna pick one guy I'm gonna bless you and then he didn't say I'm gonna bless you and then you know click and neutral man post-up coasts out of this life and hopefully die in your sleep that's not what he says he says I'm gonna bless you and you will be a blessing and then he sends him from her the Cowley's all the way to this little strip of land along the Mediterranean coast God makes him move to this little piece of land now if God just wanted to keep Abraham safe he would not have set him there that little strip of land has been a part of like every major war in history or something that's unbelievable the Romans conquered it the Greeks conquered it all different kind of people have conquered it it's a very dangerous place to be if God just wanted to keep Abraham safe he would have sent him to like Madagascar or something because no one attacks Madagascar you never read the news you're like oh somebody's trying to attack Madagascar again remember the game risk when you were a kid you're trying to take over the world people like oh man we forgot about Madagascar you can just have it right like it's not as much happening people are still fighting over that little strip of land and God put Abraham there why because that little strip of green is the only place on the planet that next three major continents and God said I'm gonna bless somebody and then I'm gonna bless him and not just make him safe I'm gonna bless him and make him strategic I want to put him at the crossroads of the world that's your old Testament and when Jesus arrived on the New Testament that's where he lived because his forefather Abraham planted their family there that was all by God's design so that the Son of God Jesus could be born in that region I was just there a week ago and stood up on a mountainside overlooking the Sea of Galilee Abraham was called to go to be in a strategic place Jesus was called to stay he stayed in that little area of real estate you could stand up there and they're showing us man this is where if you were traveling anywhere in Europe or Asia or Africa you would go through this strip and that was the supply line there at that little Sea of Galilee is where you would get fish and olive oil and food for the journey it was the ideal place if you wanted the whole world to hear a message you would plant your son right there you can see the trade routes that he stood in the middle of that every word of truth he spoke with authority every offer of grace to the sinner every miracle worked in power could be instantly known by the world because God said his son not in the safest place but in the most strategic and the very navel of the earth one prophet will say and so God's in the business of doing that let me put my people not necessarily whether the safest but where they're the most strategic so I challenge you I don't know if you're supposed to move in life you may be called to stay there's a lot happening in Houston and a lot of needs but what I can say to you is this I don't know if you're called to move I don't know if you're called to stay but what I can say is if you are called in Christ you're called an ambassador wherever you are God is sending you out to make his appeal through you be reconciled to God your office your school your neighborhood we are ambassadors representatives of his kingdom there I live in Washington DC now just a few miles away from embassies there a presentation of a different kingdom established to represent their kingdom and a different one and that's what we're meant to be you represent the kingdom of God and your neigh in your school at your work this is where life is found when you get on board this mission I talk to so many people that are trying to figure out how to be happy in life and let me tell you something life is found in Christ and in his mission I join him and what he's doing ambassadors gets sent to represent the kingdom and that's what we are not just recipients but we're representatives we get the message and it makes us into messengers so Donna and I moved to break away and people look at the pictures now and in the earlier gathering I looked up and saw me and the pictures of the stadium is like this is overwhelming how much God blessed us there and people look at that and I'll tell them yeah we moved to break away 12 years ago they're like well of course you did it was such an amazing ministry and I'm like slow up man we didn't get her at her best all right that journey to break away felt like death and the previous director Greg had done an amazing job but it had hit this point in life where the money wasn't there the challenges were there I mean I would speak in front of groups and the little sound system we had it would shock me like physically I better turn in your Bibles out hand would be so hot and it was like this is this was hard this is we chose this okay and there were challenges man but we got to stand at the crossroads of this life Texas A&M touches the world to stand there and reach the lives of young people and to send them out around the world we were thrilled to do that we loved it it was so energizing to be in the will of God and so we did that and we were happy in the work we could stay here forever God but about six years ago Louie Giglio came and visited College Station and he and I sat down and had lunch Louie was the leader of a movement called passion that had touched down a my life when I was a college student at a conference being challenged to receive the transformative grace of God and then leverage my life for what matters most that message sunk into me and passion was a movement that was sweeping across the globe helping people see and know the grace of God and leverage their lives for him and so Lois after moving passion the world had also planted a passion city church in Atlanta and it was exploding and so we sat at lunch and he told me he had a vision of seeing passion city churches planted in strategic cities all over the country in the world and I instantly thought that's a great idea because as the cities go so goes the culture you want to change the culture you change the city you want to change the world change a culture shaping city and I thought that's a brilliant idea blessings cuz I'm here doing my deal all the best to you go get him you know I didn't think about it was still rolling a breakaway and I could go on and on about what happened next but after a few more years of break away we got to a point where I remember we were laying in bed and Donna and I were talking saying you know what everything we're doing right now we could do without faith we could do without having to trust God and that scared us because we were raising three little kids and I didn't want them to hear their daddy talk about faith up front and then try to imagine proposition aliy what it might look like for someone to really trust God I wanted them to see it when they hear me talk about faith I wanted him to go oh yeah like what you and Mom are doing and so that didn't mean leave College Station just meant God we want to be leveraged into everything you're doing we want to live lives where we're leaned so far out into you that if you're not real we land on our face but if you are real the people around us see the power of God in a human life and for us that began to stir into a place of God letting us know your time and breakaways done right around that time he was raising up a new director Timothy a Teague who's killing it right now a break away doing amazing and it's incredible to watch it carry on in different hands and God sent us on a journey where we moved to Atlanta join passion city church knowing we wouldn't stay in Atlanta but knowing God was gonna call us to a strategic city somewhere in the country so we moved and for six months my wife and I flew around to different cities all over the country and were praying over the churches there and we didn't go to size up churches we went to celebrate churches and then we went to ask God God what city would you call us to which is a crazy life by the way I who does that let's fly on the country and pray over all the major cities that's pretty wild I highly recommend it if you have the time because let me tell you something and this is not even necessarily a part of the main message this is for free a lot of fear about where our country is today a lot of concern and I think a lot of it's warranted there's a lot of hostility lack of empathy in the culture that's concerning but one thing I can say is as I visited all these different cities and visited churches in him the kingdom of God is on the move and ambassadors of Jesus are in every major city churches are thriving Don and I would show up at places back in these cities in rougher parts of town and see thriving churches growing up hundreds coming to worship here thousands over there it doesn't make the news but let me tell you something the kingdom of Jesus Christ is advancing and doing damage against the darkness all over America incredible stories of the grace of God on the move and it was so encouraging for Dona Ana to see God's kingdom is advancing God is alive and moving people are getting forgiven and healed and restored and released to be ministers in Jesus name all over this country this is amazing and the whole time we were praying God where would you have us the easy money was on Texas most people were betting on that we might have been among those people we know Texas we like Texas we get Texas we are Texas right like it makes all the sense in the world to move back here and yet we were visiting different cities and we went to Washington DC and DC wasn't necessarily like oh I think we'll move there frankly it was just one of the ones we were visiting but we were surprised with what hit us when we got there we showed up in DC and two things struck us right away one how young the city is one out of three people that live within the district are between the ages of 20 and 35 not under 35 between the ages of 20 and 35 one out of three humans in the city are basically in their 20s the government is run by 20 year olds I don't know if you know that I don't know how that makes you feel but it's true senators representatives they pop in and out the people who lived there are young and they're running the government all these young people and we're sitting there and it hits you right away we'd be at stoplights I'm like everyone walking by is young we'd be at restaurants and I'm like we're the oldest people here it's just a city filled with young people's like Neverland or something that it's all packed in the space there's over eleven thousand people per square mile in DC and a thousand a month are moving into the city and so we looked around the second thing that struck us was the cranes in the air that we saw 30 of them just and from one rooftop of buildings being built as fast as they can all over the city people are flocking to it so many coming and there are amazing churches there churches that are doing incredible things and yet we saw the the ratio of churches to the need being different there than we saw in other cities that's fascinating DC has the incredible unique position of being on the top of two major lists one is the city with the most religious spaces it's in the top ten and the other list is one of the least religious cities in the country most religious spaces tons of churches multiple churches on every street corner and yet one of the least religious cities in the country and it's fascinating when you drive around you'll see all these beautiful old churches becoming hotels condos bars or just being torn down and turned into something else there's a church a block from my house it's on Pennsylvania Avenue from the front steps you're looking at the capital of the United States it's point one miles from a metro station you could not be in a more strategic place and it's called Grace Church condominiums because the building sold and now it's condos in a strategic location in the city's lost and we looked at that and we saw a great need and great opportunity we looked at Houston and we're like but we love Houston we looked at Texas life we love Texas our people are here we get this place we know this place we want to be here God's moving everywhere we want to be a part of but we watch what was happening in Houston's particularly in Harvey I mean I don't know if you know this but you stunned the world what the way you selflessly loved one another and it's interesting to watch people fumble with it in the news they're like man they're incredible in Houston the way they're serving each other and all these stories of rescue and people would walk up to me as I wore my Houston sweatshirt and they're like what's going on with Houston y'all love each other so well people risking their lives to save people and it's interesting to watch people fumble around with like what is it about Houston is it the humidity it just it just sort of sucks love and overwhelming generosity out of you hey come on guys you're like man it didn't make the news a lot but it would start to pop up in places it's the people of Jesus in the city and they're on the front lines of rescue they're on the front lines of restoring people's homes they're on the front lines of feeding the hungry they're on the front lines the church is still in the game in Houston and I looked and thought friends of mine are leading massive influential churches in the city and all around the state man that are leveraging what they have for the good of people and then a younger friends of mine are planting churches strategically all through neighborhoods and you're looking though the churches thriving in Texas and yes there's more need yes there's so much need and yet I looked at that and I realized but in DC there's great need there's great opportunity and I looked at Donna and I said we're round pegs and that's a round hole and so the challenges come up it's an expensive City man you pay twice as much money for half the house my yard is about the size of that pumpkin right it's a transient city people move in and out and yet we looked at that and said none of those are obstacles money is not the obstacle transients isn't the obstacle you look and you go this is a strategic place to be and God's called us to be ambassadors so we're gonna go and let me show you tell you something people were worried for us like what about your kids you're gonna raise your kids [Applause] we showed up there and I told people house neighborhood school if any of those would have been real stressful it had been hard to flourish there we live in a great house in a great neighborhood less than a mile from the capital of the United States and our kids go to a great school where they love Jesus our teaching our kids to do the same our kids are thriving in DC they really are our family is there's no safer place to be than in the will of God and so we had an email list we started if people if you follow us online and want updates sign up for an email update and people did it in October we sent out two emails if you wanted to go to a little interest meeting we're gonna host a little interest meeting in this building in DC and we did our first meeting in October and 250 people jammed into this little room shocked us to emails not a big marketing campaign but people rolling in from all walks of life man all different places ethnically diverse all different play people that are working in jobs in the city drivin Uber's and people that are working in the service industry and people who are doing jobs that they can't tell you or else they'd have to kill you like that kind of thing it's funny to watch them do that I'm like so what do you do I do things with people okay I get it I get it alright alright I got you and and yet so many are alone in the crowd some of the people that were working the front door with us said they roll in and ones and twos because people here don't know people they came up here to make a difference in the world by themselves the families aren't here they're people aren't here they're longing for community and it was a powerful gathering of people who want to see Jesus move in the city and man something happened in October we invited that group to a community group let's get around tables get to know each other study the Gospel of Mark together and over a hundred of them showed up at the Eastern Market on the oldest markets in the country we gathered there to study the Word of God together people there applauded about what we're doing security guard that was working for us came up and said what is this like who are you people what is this we said we're a church man we're starting in the city and he said well whatever y'all are doing I want to be here from now on and I'm not either gonna work it or if I'm not working it I'm gonna be here and he also told one of our team this is one of the most diverse gathering I've ever seen of anything in DC and again there's some churches that are killing it in the city but the reality is it's a pretty segregated City and yet God reconciles everyone into his family and we want to be a picture of that and God was doing that we held another vision night last week and we picked a little art gallery right in the center of the city and again people packed it out standing-room-only of people that that want to be a part of something more they want to know God and they want to make him known and so God is moving and it's exciting to see what God is up to so pray for us we're just on the front end of it we got one more vision night some more community groups and we're trying to build a we that can launch a church in the spring and yet it's fascinating and to look at that and to see God moving and how exciting it is and to see how God's prepared us along the way I've been in ministry for twenty years now and I've never worked for a ministry where the sanctuary was in the same building as my office no weird who does that that when God called me into ministry I got hired by Ken were line an incredible leader planting a church when no one even said words like that like what do you mean plan to get Church and we met in his apartment my office was his breakfast nook and yet I got to watch firsthand an incredible leader build a church and to roll in and to set it up and be portable and to see something grow and then I went from there to break away where we'd have to roll in every week and transform arenas into sanctuaries every single week and I'm looking I'm like I don't know anyone else that for the last two decades has just been a portable Church what is going on with this and then I showed up in DC and I'm like oh now I'm starting a church and we have to roll into all these venues and do this and it's with a young transient culture of people whose whom I've lived among for the last 12 years and people like they're all young I get that they're all transient right I get that you're gonna have to set up Moberly yeah I bet I can figure that out and I looked up and I'm like I think God has been preparing me for this for a long time got a Karate Kid moment of like this whole time I was learning and I had no idea I don't know what he's preparing you for I don't know if he's calling you to go I don't know if he's calling you to stay I don't know where he's calling you but I know that if you're in Christ he's called you an ambassador and he's not going to always put you in the safest places but he's gonna put you in strategic ones and we are meant to be recipients of grace and conduits of it the rescued and the rescuers receiver of the message and then messengers to get it out to a lost and dying world and you're never more alive than when you're in the will of God and so let me say thank you for supporting us Paul when he wrote to the Philippians thanked God for them he said because of their partnership in the gospel because you're partakers of grace with me and it break away and through my whole life when I look at faith bridge you know this is home man this church has been partakers of grace of God with me and partners with us to get the gospel out thank you for that and let me close with this to challenge you we are meant to be participants in getting the gospel out at passion city Church in Atlanta there's a wall we call the Jesus's life wall big wall covers the whole entryway and it's all these little light bulbs and what it is is when someone puts their faith in Christ they ascend this ladder and they screw a lightbulb in to show the world I mean she's given me life and we decided to do it that way so that when people walk into church they would resist the mentality of just being a guest at church form it to be hosts at church and the idea is man people would get there and it's the coolest thing if you show up for a gathering and are walking out the door it's not uncommon to see somebody ascending those stairs and a little crowd around them of their friends watching them put that lightbulb in and then the whole room will cheer for them as they and what's cool about it is that little crowd around the ladder is the people who helped them meet Jesus and find life and it's routine for people when they see that wall to have conversations about who their lightbulb is you go what does that mean and they go someone told me about Jesus and he gave me life so who's my light bulb who's the person I'm gonna tell about Jesus so they can spring to life and we can keep it rolling and man that's our call then if you don't know him life is found in Jesus Christ he's making the old knew in him reconciling us to God and giving us the Ministry of reconciliation and when you get on board that that's where life is found Jesus his life let me pray for us lord I want to thank you God that your message is not a pep-talk your message is an invitation to be rescued forgiven loved so god I pray for any here today who thought maybe religion is just be a good person I just think there's some people that maybe they're it's dawning on them Jesus came to rescue me to forgive me not at the risk of his life but at the cost of it he who knew no sin became sin so I could be right with God and if you're feeling that today you can tell him I want in if you're healing heal me if you're forgiving forgive me if you're adopting adopt me if you're making the old new I want in and anyone is welcome and if anyone is in Christ they're a new creation and you can know today that the old is gone and the newest come you put your faith in him and then God for those of us who know you may we not just be recipients of that message but may we be ambassadors of it messengers to the world and I pray even now as you pray ask him that God where are you putting me what's the strategic place you've placed me in my office at my school in our neighborhood what would it look like for me to be an ambassador a representative to live on the cutting edge of faith God so that I can live my life letting people know the one who I've come to know offering life to people because Jesus has given me life thank you God for entrusting us with the Ministry of reconciliation may we send it out in power in Houston and in DC into the ends of the earth until the day we are the church triumphant home with you thank you God for this story in Jesus name welcome to postscript here we help to answer your questions and help you dig deeper into the messages and sermons at Faith bridge by talking with the teacher of the day [Music] hi and welcome to PostScript I'm Louie and Riley grow group and discipleship director and I'm here with Ben Stewart who just brought a message about the message and the messengers which I hear is your last message with us before passion city launches yes yeah all right so let's talk about that okay okay so fill us in a little bit you told us a little bit about your transition and the decision that God led you to to Washington DC and you've been there now for how long a little over two months little over two months so tell us how Donna's doing and the girls in the family house I know that they're doing great I mean and thank you for asking it's it's it's interesting I've been telling people if the house the neighborhood or the kids school like if any of those would have been stressful it had been very hard to think Church but we went up and looked at dozens of houses and literally we were done looking but let's just try one more let's just test it out and we went and it was amazing right in the middle of the city less than a mile from the Capitol across the street from the Eastern Market that big outdoor market in really the only part of the city where you see children and you see a lot of kids but the house was packed with people all looking at it and so our realtor was like this house let's go go go go and so we literally like speed walk to the management company got the house so we're in an amazing we're renting but we are in an amazing house an amazing neighborhood and then we found this little school they go to this classical Christian school that they are just thriving in the girls love it and it's been wonderful and I mean the nation's capital is our playground so we go to Smithsonian's with the kids and it really is like they are flourishing there that's so yeah because when when that is all put in place to then you can focus on the church and the futures of church so tell us more about that you tell us a little bit about your vision nights that you've been having yes what's the plan when do you launch what's happening yeah so right now community groups we're gonna run them about twice a month and that's really yes for me to teach the Bible yes to give of culture like who we are and it's to help us get to know people and I think from there will be the seedbed of the people who say we're us we're the church we're gonna build this and we're trusting that out of that group God will raise up we call them door holders people who hold the door open to welcome the community in to what God has done so those community groups will be running will do maybe one more vision night at the end of this month but community groups will run into the spring passion conference is coming to DC in January oh my gosh there's a brand new venue in DC seats 3000 people called the anthem we sold it out in weeks and so thousands of young people will be in this arena in DC and we'll be there working with them and then coming out of that in January we'll do a couple worship nights building towards Lord willing launching later in the spring okay pray for us we're not telling people the exact day because we're like you know we're checking out venues will figure it out spaces but but it'll be you know Lord willing spring 2018 so it's coming soon yeah but follow us on Instagram Twitter is probably the best place that's where we can keep up with everything that's a yes and then from there you can sign up for email updates and and watch what God so we'll be joining you in prayer and then today we had the exciting opportunity that for the next seven days we can give towards the mission that you're there so it's exciting to see what guys can play through that yeah well it's a privilege for us to see you being the messenger in Washington DC and that we get to be part of that yeah yeah it's very special we'll be joining you in prayer for that so thanks for being with us I know it's a busy season for you it's always a joy to have you here all right thanks for joining us today for post growth we'll see you back here next week thanks for joining us for PostScript help us keep the podcast interactive by submitting your questions during the morning services learn more at Faith Bridge slash PostScript [Music]

Channel: Faithbridge

Views: 6,017

Rating: 4.9139786 out of 5

Keywords: faithbridge, ben stuart, faith

Id: ynlg9VlMFoo

Length: 48min 14sec (2894 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 05 2017