Rooted - Building Together: The Big House

Welcome to South Sub Church. We are so glad that you've decided to worship with us today. Whether you're in the room right now or watching from home, wherever it is, we're just so glad that we get to spend this time together and worship the Lord together as one. Here at South Sub Church, we believe we are one church with two expressions of worship, but we have one mission to bring people to Jesus Christ and together become passionate followers of him. Another way that we worship is through our tithes and offerings. And here at Southsub Church, we believe that we give the Lord back what he gives us. And there's a couple ways that I want to invite you to do that this morning. One is giving online at southub.urch/g. Another way is by texting the number that's on the screen right now. Or there's an envelope in your seatback pocket. And here's what I want to invite you to do. No matter what gift you give, big or small, we believe that whatever we give, the Lord multiplies that and we are able to be the hands and feet of Jesus here where we are right now. If you're new, we invite you to fill out a connect card. We would love to get to know you, pray for you, and find a way for you to get more connected with our church. And if you're watching us online, make sure you leave a comment wherever you are. Maybe you're going to the mountains, maybe you have a soccer game to go to. Whatever it is, we're just so glad that you've decided to join us for worship. You picked a great week to be here. Let's jump into God's word together. Let's worship him today.

Well, good morning again. Listen, if you're a guest with us here today, let me just personally say thank you for joining us today. Um, I've been here at South Sub Church about two and a half years and it is by far the very best church I've ever been part of. And one of the characteristics I love about South Sub Church is the generosity of the people. So, if you're a guest here today, here's one example of their generosity. When you came in today, you just saw food and food and more food. Okay? Now, they're not generous before the 9:00 service, but when we have what we call today sweet, they are very generous after the service. And so, um, as a guest, stick around. It's just a time of fellowship. The the outdoor foyer there will just be a buzz of a bunch of hungry snacking people. And you're more than welcome to join us in that in our sweet Sunday. But we're glad you're here today. You know, also if you're here today, you'll know this or you'll figure this out today. We've been in this series called Rooted. It's been a 10-week series, and you're joining us on week number 10. And so, we're really ending ending the Rooted series. But here's what I thought we would do today. We're going to as we end it, we're going to go back to the beginning. Not the beginning of the rooted series, but the beginning of the reason why we all meet. Today, our last week of rooted series, we're going to be looking what the Bible says and describes and sets a template up for us of the church. And so to know where the church started, sometimes you just think the church has always been around, but there really was no church in the Old Testament. There was the synagogue, there was the the tabernacle. They would come to worship, but it wasn't designed. There wasn't a template that God had set up like we would call the church today. And the church was really created back after Jesus was crucified, after he was resurrected. That's when the church was really created. And so I want to take you back to the very first incident we find in scripture of the church and it's Acts chapter 2. Let me just kind of tell you a little bit about Acts chapter 2. Often times I'll say this that it's a great chapter. I'm not going to read all of it. You should go home and read it today. Now let me tell you why the preacher says that. Not because I don't want to read it all, but because I think God's word is so good, it is not meant just to devour and take up up here. It is really better when you do it at home. In fact, for those of you that have participated in our rooted study, and we've had the devotional book that we've gone through for 10 weeks, that's the comment I'm hearing from so many people. Your your eyes have been opened. Your spirit's been just challenged by the word of God, not because of what I'm preaching on Sunday, but because you're interacting with it throughout the week. And so Acts chapter 2, here's what takes place in that. Again, it's after Jesus was crucified, he had been resurrected and and the people just kind of went back to doing life the way they were had always done it. They would gather the tabernacle. They would gather at different times. But in Acts chapter 2, here's what we find. There was a Jewish festival that was known as the feast of weeks or also called Pentecost. And so the people would gather. They would basically take a pilgrimage. The Jewish people would take a pilgrimage and they would come to Jerusalem every year. And this was an Old Testament feast. And they would gather for this the special week of celebration. And so because they were gathering from all these other countries, Jewish people had been scattered everywhere. They they there were a lot of different cultures present. There was different languages present. But they were all gathering to celebrate what's known as the feast of weeks or the feast or the Pentecost. You might consider it if our United Nations had a conference. And you can imagine the different languages, the different nationalities, the different cultures were present. That was kind of what was going. It was a melting pot and and and this feast of weeks that was going on. And the Bible records in Acts chapter 2 that where all these different Jewish people were gathered speaking their different languages, checking out and responding, reacting in different ways, all of a sudden the Bible says that the Holy Spirit came on this place. Now, if you're new to church and you've not really much the read much the Bible, I'm about to describe something to you that you're going, "Dude, that's weird." Okay? And can I just go ahead and say as a pastor, dude, that's weird what I'm about to describe to you. It was an incident. It's not the norm of when the Holy Spirit, God's presence comes on a place, but it took place on that day. And here's what the Bible says. As all these people were gathering, all of a sudden, the Bible says there was a sound of heaven that was like a rushing wind. So imagine being in this room. Imagine we had all these different languages going on. We had these different cultures going on. We're trying to communicate, but you really can't communicate. And all of a sudden in an indoor place, there's a rush of wind that comes in this place. Just a roaring of the wind. Now, you're like, "Well, that's not so weird. Maybe somebody left a window open somewhere, right?" It doesn't stop there because in Acts chapter 2, it says this, that it looked like flames landed on the people's head. So, can you imagine being in this room and we're hearing this rush of wind and all of a sudden people are looking around where the wind's coming from and you look over and the person next to you has like fire flames coming off their head. Now, the scripture doesn't say they're actual fire. It just said it appeared to be like fire. And the next thing that happened is everyone began to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And here's what took place. They all began to speak in languages not their own. So, they really had no idea what they were even saying. So imagine kind of just this room taking place, right? All these people from different places, different cultures, different languages, and this wind comes blowing it indoors. There's like flames on their head and all of a sudden they all start speaking different languages. I'm not sure about you, I might be looking for the closest exit, okay? Because that's just weird. Now again, I'm not saying scripture is weird. It's describing a very special incident in scripture that is the coming on of the Holy Spirit. But there's more that's going to take place that we're going to find out. Because when all this was going on, there must have been a much enough commotion that people outside the doors outside this particular building began to hear all these languages. But they didn't hear all these languages that they were unaware of. There were many Jewish people living in Jerusalem that had come from different countries and they actually spoke different languages. And so what they hear is somebody speaking their language and then someone else from a different nation, a different country, a different language going and someone speaking my language. And the Bible says that all of a sudden the neighbors in the community, they all came in there. So can you imagine what I just described happens in here and all of a sudden the different neighborhoods hears what's going on and this place is full of people and they're just going looking around going we don't know what this is. is like it feels like we need to we leave because it's kind of weird but it's so special. It's so something we don't even know what to call it. In fact, the Bible says this that the people in the room were both amazed and perplexed. Now you're going, "Well, when it comes to God, should you be perplexed?" It is good for sometimes for us to be perplexed because if we're not perplexed, that means we've got God figured out. And God was showing up in this room in such a way. And here's what we're about to find out. That is the beginning and the birth of the church. Because Peter, if you've been along for the rooted ride this series, Peter is the character we in scripture that we've been looking at and learning some of these things. Peter looks and he sees an opportune time. We've heard that story because the last few weeks we've looked at Peter and he's seen these times crowds come together and he's going, "If there's a crowd together, I'm about to preach." And so the Bible says there in Acts chapter 2 that he stands up and says, "Hey guys, time out for a second. And I know this is crazy seeming and I know this is weird seeming, but let me tell you what's going on. And Peter starts telling all these Jewish people about Jesus. Acts chapter 2 records this whole sermon. He can does he did a lot better preaching his sermon than I could repeat it for you. So I want you to go back and read it. But he tells the story of Jesus and he goes, "And what you see going on here is not some crazy weird something. It is the power of the Holy Spirit coming on this place and is Jesus showing us up, showing up, telling us and showing us who he is. And then the Bible says something interesting. And this is the part I want us to read together. It will be on the screen if you don't have your Bible here, but starting in verse 41, here's what happened next after all this stuff, all this weirdness, all this godness took place. It says those who believed. So talking about the people here in that room, those that believed what Peter said, talking about his sermon, those who believed what Peter said were baptized and they were added to the church that day. About 3,000 in all. That's a lot of people, isn't it? Remember I said when all this took place, it wasn't just those in the room. People came from all over the city. And so in this weirdness, they finally understood, "Wow, this is not weird. This is God." and over 3,000 in all. And those who believed what Peter said, they were baptized and they were added to the church that day. If you got that scripture, you can circle the word church because this is the first instance in scripture that we see the church in action. You can go back to Matthew and one of the passages or one of the series ser or one of the weeks that we preach in I think it was week six that Jesus predicted the church when he said, "Hey Peter, I'm going to change your name from Simon to Peter and I'm going to build a church on you." But this is the first actual practice of the church. This is the first concreteness of the church. And it says, "And they were added to the church that day about 3,000 and all." Probably should have bust out a birthday cake. Happy birthday, church. Because this was the beginning of all of it. And then what happens in the next few verses? I want to read these to you because it describes once they were added to the church, it describes what the church did. And here's what it says starting in verse 42. All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship and to the sharing in meals, including the Lord's supper and a prayer. And a deep sense of awe came over them all. And the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place, and they shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions, and they shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's supper, and they shared their meals with great joy and generosity. All the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of the people. And each day, the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. You see, in those few verses right there, we have the template of what the church should be. It's how the church started 2,000 years ago. It started with Bible study. It started with prayer. It started with generosity. It started with community, people coming together. Some of the very same things that we talk about today at South Sub Church because we're not trying to invent the church in our own image. We want the church to be in God's image. And so 2,000 years ago, what you read right there is the template that God set forth on what the church should be. And here's what's interesting is I if I take that template and we could say this template compared to many other churches, but let's just talk South Sub Church. I look at that and I'm going, we're doing pretty good church because you come here and we have prayer together. If you've been around South Sub Church, we believe in groups and connecting and so we connect with each other and we share lives. There's lots of generosity way beyond the food out in the hallway. There's financial generosity. There's time generosity. Our church is so generous. They're caring for one another. If there's anything I love about this church, it is if you're in need, someone's there to try to help you. And so, it's the template. But here's the question I have, and it goes back to that last sentence. Read that last sentence with me. It says this, "And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved."

If we're running the same game plan that was instituted 2,000 years ago, if we have the same template here at South Sub Church that was in place 2,000 years ago, there is a difference in the church then and the church now called South Sub Church, we're not seeing people saved every single day. Now, a few weeks ago, we had a baptism and we rejoice and it's so awesome and we love it when that happens. But can we be honest? The moments that we see people saved are more rare than they are common. The more times that we have to or the times that we have to fill the baptistry so we can experience the baptisms together happens occasionally but not on a regular basis. So if we're running the same game plan as what described in scripture 2,000 years ago, how come we're not seeing the same results that they had 2,000 years ago? And hear me as I ask this question. This is not just a question for South Sub Church. I could stand in front of any church in America today and we might ask the same question. Why don't we experience the same thing the church did back then? And why don't we experience it today? And I think the difference is this. Somewhere between 2,000 years ago and 2025, we have transitioned the church from being his church to my church. Let that one sink in for just a second. I mean, it still looks the same, right? We still run still like I said run the same game plan. But somewhere along the way his church meaning God's church we have transitioned and we have taken ownership and said this is my church. In fact the problem is not what we do but why we do it. We've kept the methods of the early church but maybe we've lost the motivation of the early believers. You see, the power that the early church had wasn't found in their programs. It was found in their posture before God. And God never intended his church to be my church or your church. Now, it's the church we go to. It's easy. Oh, yeah, that's my church. But somehow we've taken ownership instead of stewardship. And I think one of the reasons that we don't see the power that they saw 2,000 years ago in that early church is because now we consider ourselves the owner of God's church and not the stewards of God's church. And so I want to do something today. I want to take the next minutes we have together and if you're taking notes, it's on your outline. I want to compare what does it look what is the difference in his church and my church because it seems so insignificant but it's actually pretty significant. And so if you're taking notes here's the first thing the difference. His church lives on mission but my church lives in memory. His church lives on mission but my church lives in memory. The Bible says this that they devoted themselves to the gospel. Verse 42 that we we just read, they devoted. When they're devoted, when you're devoted to something, you're about moving that thing forward. You're not about hanging on to the past. You see, Acts chapter 2 church, they weren't trying to preserve a moment in history. They were advancing a movement of God. See, we consider Christianity in the church this thing, but it was a movement back then. It was just starting then. It was like a snowball rolling and picking up pieces and more pieces. That's why they went on that day of Pentecost, that day that we just read about in Acts chapter 2. They went from a few to 3,000 people in a day. Here's some things you might consider as you think about what it's the difference in a mission and a memory. His church is outward focused and unafraid of change if it meant more people coming to know Jesus. Whereas when it becomes my church, it's inward focused and afraid of losing the traditions. A church on a mission, his church is about whatever it takes. We'll reach people. When it becomes my church, we're like, you can do whatever you want to, but don't mess what's comfortable to me. Don't mess with my traditions. His church asked this question, who are we reaching? My church asked the question, who might we upset? Let me say that again. When it's his church, we ask the question amongst ourselves, who are we reaching? But when it becomes my church and I'm no longer the steward, but I'm the owner of the church, we ask the question, who might we upset? His church, God's church, values people over preferences.

My church values comfort over calling. And I wonder again, we can only talk south church because that's us, okay? But we could take the same exact sermon. We could say take the same exact talk and we could ask it at any single church in America because somehow we moved from his church to my church. If the heartbeat of the first church was go, the danger of today's church is to stay.

So as we look across the board and just take some time just self-evaluation, self-awareness. Are we a church on a mission or are we church that lives in memory? Let me give you the second one, the second characteristics. How do we distinguish between my church, his church? Which one are we? His church, if you're taking notes, you can fill this in the blank. His church participates while my church I spectate. If I'm really a part of his church, then I participate in it. If I'm more part of my church, I may just turn more into a spectator. Verse 44 of the verses that we just read said this. And all the believers and all the believers, not some of the believers, not 20% of the believers, not a few special people. It says, "And all the believers met together in one place and they shared everything they had. They all participated. There were no spectators. All participated. In fact, here's some comparisons. As you think about spectating and participating, when it's his church,

we become a community of people that are giving. When it's my church, we become a crowd of consumers. You see, when we're consumers and we come to church, we're like, I didn't like the songs they sang that day. Those aren't my kind of songs. When we become consumers and it becomes my church, we're more interested in what I got out of it when I came to church that day than what I put into it. That's the difference between my church and his church.

In the old or the New Testament church there in Acts chapter 2, every believer saw themselves as an active part of the mission. You see, Christianity was never designed to be a spectator sport. But there's too many times that we come to church like we would come to a Denver Bronco football game. Okay, I want to get the best seat in there and if I can't get the best seat, then somebody's in my seat and I didn't I need to move them over, make sure I get my drink, make sure I get my food, and this will only be good if my team wins. You're my my my my my my in there. Wouldn't it be good? Wouldn't it be better if we came to church on a Sunday morning going, "Who can I give my seat to? Who who can I make sure they hear better? Who can I make sure that they walk out of there filled up instead of emptied out?" I am convinced in churches across America, the reason you see more people staying home than going to church in our country right now is because people go to church and they leave there as empty or more empty than when they came. I mean, think about the first church for all those folks that were there and the whooing of the wind and the fire on the heads and the speaking of languages. They went home to tell somebody they're going, "Dude, I got to tell you about this. like I am like different. Again, that was a very unique situation. I do not believe that God expects and wants and desires us to come to church and if we don't have fire in our heads and the whooing of the wind and we don't have people speaking in different languages, we didn't meet Jesus. I don't believe that at all. That was a very unique incident. But here's what I know. The people that came that day left the different people. They were full of the Holy Spirit. They were full of what God was doing. And for many in American churches across the country, they leave there, check it off the box. I went to church and I'm no better off or no more filled up than when I came. And do you know why? Because we come as consumers.

What do I get? What do I get? I didn't get enough. I want more. They didn't do it this way. I might need to change churches because they do it better or different. And that's what I'm looking for.

I'm I'll admit to you, I'm a fair weather fan when it comes to NFL football. And I started the season half Cowboys and half Broncos. The Cowboys are dead to me. And many of you are saying they were dead before the season started. You're just kind of slow to the game. But how many fair weather churchgoers do we have? Didn't get what I was looking for. I got to move on down the road to someplace else. Let me give you the last one.

The last one. His church is courageous, but my church is comfortable.

His church is courageous. My church is comfortable. In verse 43 of the verses that we read, it says, "A deep sense of awe came over them." You don't experience awe by staying safe. You experience it by stepping out.

You don't experience the awess of God by playing it safe. You experience it by stepping out.

Tell you a story that's happened this weekend. My friend Tim Murphy over here was asked to share his testimony at the men's prayer breakfast, the men's breakfast yesterday. Tim will tell you when Randy asked him four weeks ago was like, "Yeah, sure." And as soon as Randy walked off, he thought, "My goodness, what have I just done?" Tim's never shared his testimony like that. him stepping out in courage instead of staying in comfort stretched my friend Tim in a way for the last four weeks that you're glad those four weeks are done you're ready to move on glad that prayer breakfast is over with but it grew him in such a way because he had to step out into courage and not stay back and save but this is what Tim told me today after he sat down from sharing his testimony after he stepped out from taking the steps of courage he sat down and this is what he said that's my church and I belong there you see he would have gave the testimony before this for the last year and a half two years that he and his wife have attended here le they came they called it their church but he never felt like he could be a he just he felt like he was lacking something did he have enough to give and he showed courage and he participated and all of a sudden now it's not somebody else's church it is God's church that he gets to be a part of I belong. So here's some things about his church versus my church when it comes to courageous versus comfortability. When it comes to comfort or when it comes to comparisons, his church is fueled by faith. My church is driven by fear. His church is spiritled, prayerfilled, and dependent on God. My church is self-led, meeting heavy and risk aversed. You see, when it's my church, we got to have meetings to discuss it. When it's my church, we got to have meetings to figure it out. When it's his church, we're going, we're going to meet together because it's good to meet. It's good to talk. But we're not going to set the agenda. We're going to let God's Holy Spirit set the agenda. We're not going to show up and say, "God, here's what we want you to do." We're going to show up and say, "God, what do you want us to do?"

My church says, "Let's pray and move forward." His church says, my church says, I'm sorry, his church says, let's pray and move forward. My church says, let's discuss this and delay the decision.

The world has never been changed by comfort.

God did not create the church 2,000 years ago, nor did he create it for us today in 2025 for a safe place for us to just come hang out together. God created this church not to be some cruise ship that you get to sit back and enjoy. He created it more to be an aircraft carrier that he sends us out in courage to the world. Billy Graham said this, "Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.

I am more resolved in my faith to live it out because of my friend Tim Murphy over there because he stood up with great courage and said, "I'm not a public speaker. I'm not a pre pastor. I don't never give my testimony, but by golly, I'll do this because God is calling me to do it." and his courage gives me courage. Comfort keeps us in the pews while courage moves us into the streets.

Maybe some of us need to get off the pews and into the streets.

The world isn't changed by hesitation. It's changed by transfer by faith in action.

And so here's the question. Remember I said this is not like some shame shame shame south sub church. This is a message that needs to be preached to every church out there. But there's this moment that we need to take the message and run it through the filter of South Subchurch. And the question is what church are we?

his church or my church? But there's actually a question that needs to be asked before that question. Not which church are we, but the question begins with which church am I? You see, the church is the fullness of everybody, right? But it's made up of eyes. It's made up of you and you and you and you and you and you. And if you and you and you and me don't live out the church and make it his church and not my church individually, then corporately it will never be his church. It will always be our church. And so yes, it is a question that we ask amongst ourselves and examine the body of Christ that we call southsuburch. But it's also a question that we get in our own private prayer closet and going, "God, who and what am I in your church?"

You see, his church and my church may still sing the same songs and meet in similar buildings, but only one still believes God is not finished yet. in South Sub Church. Here's what I can tell you with great confidence. God is not finished with us yet. And just so you know, the love in the heart of your pastor, I I look at these things and I'm going, God, we're doing pretty good. Okay? I don't look at this filter going, "Oh, God, get this church together because these people don't have it going on." No, I am thankful for you as individuals, as a body of Christ. But once we become thankful of ourselves and we pat ourselves in the back, then we begin coasting and then we start leaning more towards being my church and not his church.

And so church, as long as I'm the pastor of this church, you're always going to feel me nudging and pushing because that's where God pushes us. As long as there are people out there that don't know Jesus and don't have a personal relationship with him, we all have work to do. And that work begins with us.

I think it's so interesting if you go back to Matthew chapter 16 when Jesus was having the conversation with Simon who would change his name to Peter. He looked at Peter and said upon you Peter I will build my church. He was talking in the singular. I don't think he was giving this authority of Peter over all people. I think he was going, "You're just going to be the one of many in the future to come." Think if Jesus was standing here right now, he could look at every single one of us and upon you I will build my church. Upon you, I will build my church. Upon you, I will build my church. That's our individual active role with it. So, church, let's not spend all of our energy protecting what was. Let's participate in what God was still wants to do through us. There's so many things that God wants to do through us. The band's going to come up here and we're going to finish with a song, but can I tell you one specific thing that I believe God wants to do through us? And it is, you've heard it last week, we're just now starting to mention it. We're doing this event called Welcome Christmas. It's going to be December the 7th. It is designed for people to come to South Sub Church and take a step into knowing more who Jesus is through us. You're going to hear more details. It's going to be a fun night. As that night, it's going to start at 6 p.m. We're going to start in here with just kind of a 30-minute Christmas program for all ages. We'll go out there and there'll be hot chocolate. There'll be food. We'll have the Christmas stuff going on. There'll be characters going around. There'll be characters. It's just going to be, let's just take a cheap version of Disneyland. That's the whole goal of this. A very cheap version of Disneyland. But it's designed for all ages. You're going, "Keith, what does that have to do with his church versus my church?" Because that night is designed for you and you and you and you and you and me to invite people that they can see what kind of church we are. And then as the month rolls around, people be looking for a Christmas Eve service. And what are they going to think? Where's a great place to go to Christmas Eve service if they don't go anywhere?

Oh, but but if I invite my friend, then like I can't walk around with all my friends from church. Absolutely. That's supposed to be what's supposed to happen. But I'm going to challenge every one of you to think of somebody or somebody's that you can invite. do better than invite going, "Hey, I'll pick you up at 5:30 because this thing starts at 6 and bring them with you." And we can say, "We want you to experience not my church. We want you to experience his church." And through his church, they will experience his grace. And so that's just one of many ways that we cannot look to the past, but we can look to the future. We have never done one of these here before. I'll be honest with you, we've been planning about four or five weeks and about three weeks ago, your pastor got really cold feet going, I don't know if we can pull this thing off. And there's part of me going, maybe we should just cancel it. We've never done this before. People don't even know what we're doing. And I just got all nervous. And God said, Keith, move forward in courage. It's going to be amazing night where this room and this building is full of people that will start getting a taste of who Jesus is. Father, we come before you now and and the light that we want shed on our personal lives, the light that we want shed on our church is not our thoughts, not our opinions, but Jesus, your Holy Spirit to shine light and see us as you see us. And God, I'm thankful that you never shine a light for condemnation. You shine a light for conviction. That we can rearrange and change and move more in the direction you want us to go.

And so, holy God, I confess now that at times we do lean on the past and we lean on our traditions and we lean on what's easy and comfortable. In times, God, I take ownership of this church, but you never made it for any of us to own. and we confess that we offer our church, your church, back up to you going, Jesus, it is your church and may we be good stewards of your church. And so Jesus, may the power that we read about in Acts chapter 2, we're not asking for flames on our head. We're not asking for special tongues, but God, may that same power live in us and through us that the world around us will get a p picture, a clearer picture of you. Come Jesus, live in us and through us. And we pray this in your name. Amen.