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[inaudible]

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It's so good to be with you this morning. And to be together, I have missed you. This has just been a really long year, and I'm hoping that I don't do anything to screw this up. It's just so glad to be together and gathered together and community. And for those of you who are joining us online, we understand that some people you're still kind of a little hesitant and all of this, and, and we just welcome you and glad that you're joining us as well. I wish when I was a kid, there was a program called romper room. Anybody. Remember it said , miss Nancy, at the end, she had a magic mirror. Do you remember her magic mirror? So she could speak , she could actually see through the magic mirror to people on TV, semi me in my living room, watching her. And she say , Oh, I see Ken. And I see Harley, good morning, Becky. You know? And he said , it's like, I wish I had that magic mirror. So I could say to all of you online, I see you in your jammies, in that bathrobe cover up where you've got pastor Larry actually mentioned. Yeah, it was exactly a year ago. It was the last time I preached here. And that you don't know. And Maxie , he mentioned a couple of weeks ago that actually it was our 30th birthday together.

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Sure .

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So today's a special day, but it's more than just that it's because most of you don't know this, but it was exactly 11 years ago. The pastor Larry first joined our pastoral staff and became a member here. So , so that makes this a special day as well. And let me just say how personally grateful I am to pastor Larry through all the years that he was on staff in such a support , uh , personally to me, and did so much to , to invest into the life of this church. And to be able to hand over the reins , if you will, to someone that's just so capable and so caring and so loving, I tell you, I pray for him every single day , because you have no idea. The weight that rests on your shoulders, pastoring a church. You have no idea. In fact, he told not too long ago , he says, you know what ? I was a staff member. I had no idea. I said, yeah, now you do pray for him. This has been a incredibly difficult year. And to have to talk about finances in the way in which he did a great job at.

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Um ,

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And I hope you pray for him every single day. And I hope you write him words. I mean,

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[inaudible] and thankfulness anyway. Yes ,

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Please do that. Please do that. Pray for him all the time. One other thing about this date two weeks ago was 30th anniversary of our church being together when we went public, but it was actually 31 years ago. This month that a group of 12 adults and five kids and myself met together for the very first time in the living room to talk about being the church that became Northgate Christian fellowship. So this is a really special time of year. It's a very, very special day. And a lot has happened. A lot has happened in this last year. A lot has happened in the past 31 years that we've been together at church. A lot has happened in the 2000 years that the church has been in existence. And it's kind of what I want to talk to you about today. We've been going through this series called journey of stones and how so often in scripture, there are these images of stones and rocks being used to teach spiritual truths and Jesus himself did that. Pastor Larry talked last week about the story that Jesus told about a man who built his house on a rock. And he challenged us to look at our own foundations and how we are building our lives and what we are building it on that unseen part, the foundation. And he said, if you, if you are not building your life on Jesus Christ, it is not going to withstand the storms of life. And we have had storms of life this last year, you need that solid foundation. And today we're going to talk about another time that Jesus talked about rocks and it's actually found in Matthew's gospel. For those of you who are unfamiliar with scripture, the new Testament begins with the life and teachings of Jesus. And then the expansion of the church and letters written to the church and the first four books of the new Testament. Matthew Mark, Luke, and John are four different accounts for different versions of the life and ministry of Jesus. Two of them were written by two, who were actually the original 12 group that Jesus called Matthew and John. They were eyewitnesses. They were firsthand eye witnesses to the things that Jesus taught. And that's important because the section we're going to look at today is from Matthew's gospel. And he's given us some insight and permission because this is a private conversation that he had just with those 12 followers. He had just been spending a number of days in Capernum and around the sea of Galilee and doing ministry and healing and teaching all the things. And then he took his disciples. It's about a two day journey up to a city called Cesarea Philippi , far away from the crowds, far away from everybody else, because he was going to give them something here that was going to change human history. It's found in Matthew's gospel beginning in chapter 16, verse 13. It says when Jesus came to the region of Cesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say the son of man is? They replied some, say John, the Baptist, others say Elijah, some others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. But what about you? He asked, who do you say that I am? So I'm a peer answered. You are the Messiah, the son of the living, God, Jesus replied blessed. Are you Simon son of Jonah for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock, I will build my church. This rock. That's the word we're looking at today. I will build my church and the Gates of Hades will not overcome it. And I tell you, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Wherever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Many ordered his disciples, not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

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Why first of all, why did he take them aside and ask him these questions?

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And then why did he say, okay, now that I've told you this, don't

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Tell anybody

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That it was a matter of timing, but there was something that he wanted his disciples to understand. And by extension for us to understand that anyone who becomes a follower of his, it's not just a personal relation, it's a personal relationship, but it's not a private relationship. And when you unite yourself with Christ, you become a part of his new community. And what he wanted them to understand and us to understand is that you are a part of something bigger than yourself. He was saying to his 12 disciples, listen, it's just 12 of us here, but you gotta understand. This is much, much bigger than you can possibly fathom. And he started by asking them this question, who do people say the son of man is? And they replied some, say John, the Baptist, others say Elijah and still others, Jeremiah, one of the profits . In other words, there's a lot of different opinions about you. Jesus, same is still true today. A lot of people have a lot of different opinions about who Jesus is and who Jesus was. Well, he was a rabbi, something, he was, he was a radical others, that he was a philosopher, a great moral teacher. There's a ton of ton of different opinions about who Jesus is, but then he brings it down and he brings it home. And he says, but what about you? Who do you say that I am? And that's the key question. Everyone has to answer that question for themselves. Nobody else can answer it for you. Who do you say that I am? A lot of people avoid that question. A lot of people just talked about this historical figure, but don't want to come to grips with who he really

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Was a lot

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Of different opinions, but you said, but you, who do you say that I am? And it says, Simon, Peter said, you are the Messiah, the son of the living, God. Now notice he didn't just give another opinion. This was a conviction. He didn't say, well, you know , I was talking to John over there and he thinks, and you know, and I was talking to Matthew and he thought, but this is my opinion. No , he didn't even, he didn't even hesitate. He didn't even say, we think he just said, you are, you are the Messiah. The son of God, everything hand hinges for you. And for me, when we answer that question, now, Messiah is an important word there. And this is why he took him two days away from everybody else. And this is why he asked him in private and said, don't say anything because Messiah was a loaded

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Turn .

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A lot of people that came claiming to be Messiah and the perception of Messiah, the expectation of Messiah, particularly for the Jews at this time was someone who had come over, throw the Roman rule. And re-establish God's kingdom here on earth, of course, which we are

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A part of

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And Jesus is the Messiah, but not in the way that they thought, because he didn't come with armies to overthrow another army. In fact, he didn't come to kill anybody else around him. He came and gave his own life up for them because this kingdom is a lot bigger than you think it is. In fact, it took Peter years after Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection to realize this is not just for Jews. This is for the whole world. He wanted to understand this little ragtag group of 12 people. You're a part of something much, much bigger than you can imagine. When you become a follower of Jesus, you become a part of his new community. And that new community is something far bigger than you can possibly imagine. You're a part of something bigger than yourself. Now that must have fought . That must have seem to them to be pretty audacious. I mean, who are we? I mean , look around, you know, when you've got a couple of fishermen, you got a tax collector over there, you know, you've got these a bunch of no-names . Nobody even knows who they were. We got no political power. We got no financial backing. We have no influence. What in the world are you talking about? Jesus said, this is, this was revealed to you. This isn't your own idea. This isn't that you guys about. He said,

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Next time

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Are you Simon son of Jonah for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but my father in heaven. And then he goes on and I tell you, you are Peter. Peter's name means rock. You are Peter. And on this rock, I will build

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My church.

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And the Gates of Hades will not overcome

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What I mean, Jesus. I mean, it's great to be a part of your club, but changing the world. And I am

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Sure when Jesus was arrested and they were all scattered and they thought back to this revelation and they thought, I don't know what he was talking about. And then even after his resurrection, they were still in hiding afraid of , of what might happen to them. Gates of Hades, overcoming guys , I just want to be safe.

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And

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Then the church was birthed. And on one day, 3000 people, 50 days after the resurrection 3000 people became part to go here. Well, now this is something which only brought about Roman persecution. First Jewish persecution, then Roman persecution. And I'm sure the early church thought

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Overcoming this,

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Standing up against the Gates of hell. I mean, we're still hiding. We're being arrested. We're being thrown in jail, were being put to death. All these people scattered throughout the Roman empire and then the Roman persecution started and they were arrested and dragged off and thrown to jail and put to death torn apart by life

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In Rome,

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I'll tell you, I had an opportunity a number of years ago. Now my first time to visit Rome, my son was in school there. And so we went to visit him for his graduation. We actually went and saw the sites in Rome, in Rome. There's this thing . You've probably seen it before. It's called the Coliseum . It's an incredible structure that something, this huge could be built by manual labor, pretty much. It is one Testament to the grand juror of Rome. It's an a whole area. That's surrounded by Palatine Hill, where there all kinds of rooms where the Senate used to meet. Then all of these, it's just an incredible place to go visit. And then you go inside and this is what it looks like on the inside. This is the floor it's been part of. It's been filled in again now, but this was the catacombs underneath there with the lions and the gladiators would all get ready for battle. And then they would come up onto the stage and thousands of people surrounding all around and they watch, and it was in this place. The Christians were put to death. It was in Rome, under the persecution of Nero , particularly we're Christians. We're tied to steaks covered with oil and set a flame to light the streets at night because of their faith in Christ. They were put to death in this very Coliseum.

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And if you go there today,

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It's right over here in this corner, I got a closeup of it. Knuck shot.

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There's a cross in this place where Christians were

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Weren't apart because of their faith. Christians probably thought this is overcoming the Gates of hell

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Today. There's a cross.

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And you know where the cross sits right above it. Here is the emperor's

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Box. Repor

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Nero used to sit and watch all this stuff happen. But today there's a cross into the Christians who lost their lives in that arena. If you had told them some 2000 years ago, Sunday, there's going to be a cross here and it's not going to be an instrument of death. It's going to be a Testament to the power of Jesus Christ and his church who was advancing against the Gates of hell. I love the way that Andy Stanley puts it. Andy Stanley says it . And today the Roman empire is in ruins and the scrape structures are crumbling. And today people are naming their dogs, Caesar and Nero, but the church of Jesus Christ continues to advance. The church has advanced all throughout these years, it has outlasted, a juror , Jewish persecution, outlasted, the Roman persecution. It has outlasted, communist oppression. It is outlasts and imprisonments and Wars and famines and epidemics and pandemics, by the way.

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Yeah ,

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The church has even outlasted its own failures, like the crusades and the inquisition and the Salem witch hunts. But the church today continues to advance and thrives because it's God's church and you're a part of it. And it is something much, much bigger than yourself. But what you got to understand about it though, each of us individually are a vital component in it. That it's a personal relationship. I said , but it's not private. This Saint Peter years later wrote to churches who were scattered all throughout. Now, the Roman empire, he wrote them serious three letters. We have them all in our new Testament towards the back end of their Bible. And in his first letter to these churches, people scattered all around. He wrote these words as you come to him, the living stone rejected by humans, but chosen by God and precious to him. You also like living

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Stones

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Are being built into a spiritual house to be a Holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God

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Through Jesus Christ. He says that

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While you're learning to build your life on that foundation, Jesus, there's another building project going on. And it's what God is doing with all of these individual stones, bringing them together. And this is why gathering is so vital for us. And again, let me address those of you who are online and watching at home. I understand if you're not comfortable yet and you've got medical conditions. I understand, but let me also say if you're just staying at home because it's comfortable and you can stay in your jammies till noon, that's not acceptable because the church gathers together as living stones that we are meant to be in community and a stone all by itself, out in a field is useless. It is only when the church comes together. That truly the work of God can happen. If you've taken the membership class back when I used to teach it years and years and years ago, you just use an example because my dad was a building contractor. So I grew up in the trade and learned a lot of things about construction, but there's something about notice. He says, you are living stones. You are not living bricks because bricks look like this.

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There you go.

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They are all the exact same size and shape, little clones, cookie cutter laid out and they all fit nicely together in nice, neat rows and straight lines. That's not how you work with stones. If you watch a stone Mason at work, it looks more like this. You got to fit those stones together. Cause they're not all the same size type Sage shape and size. And neither are we. We're not all the same. And that's good. That's how God designed the church. By the way, if you watch a stone Mason, sometimes he has to chip off some of the rough edges to make it fit into the wall. Sometimes he has to scrape at it. Sometimes he actually has to take the two rocks and just kind of mash them together for a while to get them to fit. That's what God does in the church. That's what, that's what, that's why not everybody in this church is going to agree with you on everything because God is shaping them. And you know what he's doing. He's shaping you too . And he's going to specifically put you with a group of people that are not like you. And he's even going to put you together with some people in your church that are a little bit difficult. Show of hands. How many have encountered at least one difficult person in your church? How many have found a few more difficult people during COVID-19 shutdown?

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Now, if you

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Didn't raise your hand, It just might be, you

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[inaudible]

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God's designed for his church was not that we would all fit this nice, neat form and all look up pretty a nice, it was to take all this ragtag group of people and put them together. And in. So doing while God is building his church, he is building you and I at the same time. And that's why it happens in community because only there will be yet together. And what happened with the early church was that all of a sudden, when people came to faith in Christ and they came together, they were not all alike, just like we aren't. And they didn't all agree on everything. In fact, they had a lot of different councils to come together to some resolution on some of the things, some serious theological things that need to be resolved, but he did it to build them as individuals and to build them together as the church, it's important to understand, by the way that the church is still under construction. I know people say, you know, hide your Gigamon up on the church because it's just a mess. But yeah , because it's still under construction. You go to a job site, it's a mess because it's under construction and it's made up of all kinds of different people with all kinds of different backgrounds and all kinds of different faults and weaknesses and failures of the Groucho Marx line. I would never become a group, a member of a group that would accept me as a member. Well , that's the church

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And he's

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Working in all of us. And when we talk about being a grace-filled community, it's because we are all in desperate need of grace. Peter went on to write this once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy and mercy and grace is what every one of us need. And so we need to treat each other with mercy and grace. And we talk around here very often about that. We were not, not just that we are a grace-filled community, but we are all people in process. Now what's implied in that is that there is a process and that we are all making progress in the process. People in process and Gracefield community is not an excuse to say, well, this is who I am taking on to leave it. And if you leave it,

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No,

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We are here being fit together as living stones. And you're going to be disappointed in the church. I've been disappointed in the church. I've been disappointed in myself, but we are built together and being built together. And we are still under construction and mercy and grace are the key to making it fit. And there's one more thing. That's the reason this is so

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Vital is that together. We have something to offer the world

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Because it's not just about that group of 12 that Jesus started with. And it's not just about this group that gathers together on a Sunday morning. It's about the world that God is doing something in the world and what he's doing in us. He also wants to do through us. So after affirming, Peter's confession of Jesus as the Messiah, he goes back and he finishes with this. He says, I tell you, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Now this you right here in the original language, it's plural.

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So Peter

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Says you are the Messiah, the son of the living God. And he says on that rock, I'm going to build my church. And then he turns to the other 12 and to all of us in this room and all of you joining us online and says, I'm giving you the keys. Then now you've got a mission and it's plural. I'm giving y'all the keys to the kingdom of heaven that we have a responsibility. It's Jesus building, but we are not idle bystanders. He has given to us the keys of the kingdom and what we do with those Kings, those keys will either open the kingdom up to other people, or it will shut it down because we refuse to open the door. We have a mandate, we have a mission. We have been given the keys. It's still his ownership, but we are the stewards. We are responsible for maintaining and expanding and growing. Those of you who have had teenage kids. Do you remember the very first time you turned the keys of your car over to the 16 year old new driver? It's a scary thought .

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I wonder

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You just felt that way. When he said it to the 12th , I'm giving you the keys, but you better take care of it. See, Jesus never taught that the kingdom of God was buying by pie in the sky. When I die,

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He always

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Taught as the kingdom come to this. And in fact, he taught us to pray your kingdom, come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That is our job. We are here to offer the world. The one thing they cannot get anywhere else, this message of grace and hope and forgiveness and redemption. This Messiah who gave his own life to establish the kingdom of God on this earth so that we could expand it to other people. That's what he came to do. And he came to make it available to everyone. Now, let me give you, cause what is the kingdom of God? I'm going to give you my definition as best I could do it. Okay, here it is. And the kingdom of God is wherever the grace of God and the will of God and the power of God is brought to bear in this world. Any time the grace of God breaks through in this world, the kingdom is advancing the will of God being done. The kingdom of God is advancing and the power of God is being unleashed. The kingdom of God is advancing to make it available to everyone by this simple act of faith. And anytime someone acknowledges their own inadequacies and failures and sin, and turns to Jesus for forgiveness and redemption, the kingdom of God advances. Anytime I surrender my control over situations and let God take control the kingdom of God advances. And when I recognize my own weaknesses and failures, and I turn to him for strength and hope, the kingdom of God advances, it's a life-changing message. And it has to be delivered with more than words. And that's why Peter wrote to the early church. He said, lifts , good such it's coming is live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong. They may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day that he visits us. Now, pagans, that's not a pejorative there. That's just simply anybody. Who's an unbeliever. What he's saying is you should live such good lives along the people around you. That don't believe in Jesus, that even though they would accuse you of doing wrong, they'll see your good deeds and glorify God. And they will see there's something different in you. You're not perfect by a long shot, but there's something different dare. God's gotta be doing something in your life. And you know, under the Roman persecution was a guy named plenty of the younger, the guy the beer was named after, by the way, for those of you who are beer fans, he was a governor in what is modern day Turkey. And he was, he was put in charge of arresting these Christians and he was trying to figure out, well, what can I arrest them for? I mean, what are they doing wrong? And so he actually sent investigators in an infiltrated, the Christian Church to find out what are these people doing and why are they up against the Roman government and all these things? So we would have some reason to arrest him . And this is what he wrote. He wrote back to emperor Trajan he says the summits substance of their fault and error had been, they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before Dawn and sing responsibly to a hymn to Christ. Worst thing they did is they got together and they sang as to God and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime. And there was, they weren't saying, okay, we got a conspiracy here. We're going to , he said, no , not to some crime, but to not to commit fraud or theft or adultery or not falsified their trust. They'll refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. In other words, he said, I wanted to find something to rest them for. But all I could find is that they get together on the first day of the week, they sing some songs and they promise to be good people. If only that's all we could be accused of the kingdom of God advances, but not just in words, it advances through our actions. And whenever the church has remembered our mission and stayed on mission, the kingdom of God has advances. And when the church has got into trouble is when it's gotten too much power, too much influence and too much money. And that's why Jesus said to 12 people who had no influence, no power and no money. There's a bigger rock. We're going to build this thing on and nothing's going to stop it. John orphan , most of you know, one of my favorite authors wrote a book called the eternity is now in session advancing the kingdom of God. This is what he writes. We are not in charge, but we are not idle. We are engaged. We become a part of God's project. Every time we bring a slice of up their life down here, the kingdom of God breaks into this messed up Kings kingdoms of this world. Every time you're in conflict with someone, when you want to hurt them and gossip about them, avoid them. But instead you go to them, seek reconciliation and forgiveness. That kingdom is breaking into this world. Every time you have a chunk of money and you decide to give sacrificially. So somebody who is hungry or homeless or poor, that the kingdom of God is breaking into this world. Every time somebody who has an addiction wants to partner with God so badly that they're willing to stop hiding, acknowledge the truth and get help from a loving community. That kingdom of God is breaking into this world. Every time a workaholic parent decides to stop idolizing their job and rearranges their light to begin to love and care for those little children and trust it to them. The kingdom of God is breaking into this world. This good news happens through Jesus, Jesus himself through his incarnation is literally up there coming down here. The good news is not that we're called to do these things on our own. And so we've been given a longer to-do list . The good news is that the power has become available to increasingly turn us into the kinds of people who naturally and recreationally do such things so that the kingdom of God may break into this world. So I'll leave you with three questions for you to consider this week. Put them up here on the screen. First question for you is this does my level of involvement in my church, Devon ,

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Straight love and commitment to the community.

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This is my personal involvement. My engagement with my church demonstrate any kind of

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Love and dedication to the space community. Another question,

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One thing I can do this week to strengthen my engagement with another Christ follower

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Might be a phone call, maybe a meeting in your backyard, maybe a letter, but somehow engaging this week with another Christ follower because we're living stones being built together. And then the last one are my words, my actions and my life making God's kingdom more or less accessible and inviting for those around me. Questions for us to think about, take them home with you. Think about them this week, but think about them now, as we stand together in this reflection on where we're building our life, as we sing it.