Hey, well listen, let me tell you happy new year.
Why don't you find somebody near you right next to you? Tell them happy new year real quick. We are we are five days into the new year. Can we still say happy new year? I feel like that's like what you do on January 1 and then it's like can it be happy new year throughout the year? I don't know and so but it is a happy new year. We're glad you're here.
It's the first Sunday of 2025. I appreciate Bob taking my joke about you having perfect attendance. I've been waiting all week to be able to make that joke and he kind of stole that from me and but no we are so glad that you are here here today. If we have never met before my name is Josh and I'm the pastor here at Union Grove and it's my joy and privilege to be able to share with you here. We were out of town last week and I appreciate Pastor Bailey filling in and always does a great job.
It's always awesome to have other pastoral staff members who can get up and preach and handle the word of God correctly and I'm just grateful for that. And so appreciate that but listen, it's a new year. And so I know many of you probably already made some resolutions things like that.
How many of you you don't tell us what it is. How many of you do have a new goal or a new thing that you're trying to start this year? Raise your hand any of you okay, and I'm not going to ask you this but it's January 5.
I mean, let's just be honest. How many of you have already messed up and you missed a day anybody going to be willing to admit that nobody's going to raise their hand on that I get it and so but it happens some of us don't even make New Year's resolutions because we know we're going to fail and we just don't want to do that. So we set the bar low, you know, it's like we're going to set the bar really low and but no with a new year. We are starting a new series today and the title of this series is I am a church member. I am a church member and we are starting a new series about the about the church and over the next few weeks. We're going to look at the mission of the church and how you can be deeply connected to to the mission and with kind of introduction introduction with it being a new year. I wanted to just kind of share. I think it's good that we celebrate that we highlight some things that the Lord has done.
I don't know in your personal life what 2024 look like it might have been hard. It might have been difficult, but sometimes it's good for us to be reminded about some things that the Lord has done in our in our church. And so in 2024, we saw over 20 Salvations this past year, which is awesome. Can we say Amen to that listen, we can clap for that. Listen, I know I know we're in a Baptist Church. We get a little nervous clapping in church.
I feel you and so that's a good thing. We want to be excited about what the Lord has called us to and so we saw that we saw I believe the number was like 37 baptisms in 2024. Can we clap for that? That's exciting and we give God all the glory for for that and we saw about 15 families join this body here at Union Grove. This our membership we saw about 15 family units. So obviously more people but those are family units that joined our church family, which we're super excited about that one thing that I thought was awesome was we went back in September. We went to two services and so we have to every single Sunday, which is great. So our attendance has has really jumped. So we are we're running as a church the highest attendance. I know since I've been the pastor over 400 people each and every weekend, which is exciting and it's not about numbers. I get that but listen, it's good to know that God is working here and that he is adding more and more to the church.
And so you might not know this but at 830 we we had a ton of people all throughout this building and and things like that. You guys just like to sleep-ins while you're here at 11. I get it. I get it. And so I understand it and but no we were able to do that this past year in 2024. We broke ground at our future property, which we're super excited about and so our educational building should be open in August and right now if you drive by it, I mean, it's just like a complete construction zone and we love every second of it. And so we're excited about that. That's been something we've been praying for for a very long time and it is here. So we're excited about that. But listen, God did some great things, but we are excited about 2025 and we are expecting and believing him for even greater things. Amen. And so we're excited about it.
I hope that you are as well and with the new year comes the new series. I am a church member and I want to kind of start this series off with a question and you don't have to answer this out loud, but I'd love for you to kind of think about this for a moment. What comes to your mind when you think of the word church? What comes to your mind when you think of the word church and I was thinking about that and just kind of like what comes to our minds when we think of church and and stuff like this kind of pops into my head quickly and I figure you'll probably resonate with some of these answers.
It's a place we go on Sunday, right Sunday morning. That's what church is or or perhaps it's a building when you drive by that's my church, right? It's a building that you that you see or traditions for some of you that have been in church possibly your whole life you think of just the different traditions that you have that are centered around church that place that you that you go for some of you it could be your Bible Fellowship class or the group that you attend, you know that you kind of are involved in or perhaps it's the people that that you you love and that have cared for you and walked with you through difficult times in your your life. We all have different feelings about what church actually is and and none of those things are bad.
In fact, all those things are great and we love all of those things. But when you look at the early church, we can see that sometimes the way that we characterize or the way that we Define what church actually is it looks quite different than what the early church was was founded upon and when you look at the early church and that's where we're going to be in the book of Acts today the early church it really started out not about a building not about a place not about a certain time slot on Sunday or something like that. In fact, the early church it started out as a movement it started out as a movement that was really centered around this main idea. You'll see it up on the screen this main truth and here it is that Jesus was the son of God sent by God to reveal God and to ultimately reconcile the world back to God when you go back all the way to the beginning of when the church begin.
I want you to know that it was not centered around a building a tradition a place or a thing that you did with your family on Sunday morning. No, it was actually a group of people that gathered together and they went every single day and they lived with this thought that Jesus was the son of God in other words that Jesus of Nazareth came and he was who he said he was and he was sent by God to reveal God to us and to ultimately reconcile the world back to God and here's the good news. That's what the church was centered upon. That's why why we exist and that's why it was was started and now he invites us to be a part of that that movement called called the church and and so the question is is simply this and this is what I want to look at today.
But over the next few weeks, we're going to look at this. It's this are we as a church just running an institution or a business or an organization or are we actually a part of the movement? Are we a part of the movement that the early church was because it wasn't then it wasn't about buildings wasn't about a time slot on once a week wasn't about tradition wasn't about rules. It wasn't about you know, the way the worship is or the style of the church or the dress code of the church and stuff all the things that we kind of make out for what we define church as today back then it wasn't built upon all of those things. And so the question is are we as a church just running an institution or are we a part of the movement and then personally for you, you need to be asking yourself this question is church just a place you attend or is it actually a movement that you are personally a part of?
Is it just a place that you attend? You know when we think about church is just something that you do on a Sunday morning, you know, you show up here for an hour and you're like man. I did church this week and I did it. I checked it off my box and and I showed up or is are you a part of the movement like the early church was? So today we're going to talk about that and really here in the book of Acts we find I wanted to go back to the beginning when the church began and I want to look at the movement that all of us are called to be a part of or all of us are invited to be a part of if you have your Bible go to Acts chapter number two today Acts chapter number two if you left your Bible it will be up on the screens here today for you to follow along and but we're going to be in Acts chapter 2 which is where the church began. This is where the movement called the church actually started.
I want to give you a little bit of background. So, you know what's happening because there's a lot of stuff that's going on in the book of Acts. There's 47 verses. We're not going to read it all.
We're actually going to just be in 37 through 41 here today, but I want to give you some background about what's what's happening. So listen two weeks before Acts chapter number two started roughly about two weeks before this Jesus he stood this is after he resurrected from the dead and he revealed himself to the Apostles. He stood on a mountainside and he ascended up into heaven. But before he did that he had all of the disciples with him and he began to commission them. He gave them what we call the Great Commission that they need to go and they need to go out and share the good news of why Jesus came to the entire world. And so he commissioned them with the greatest news and the greatest mission that any of us could ever be a part of and then he before he ascended he told them hey, that's your commission, but I want you to wait. I want you to wait you say what was it? What were they waiting for? They were waiting for the comforter or the Holy Spirit to to come now if you're like me, I'm thinking like if I was one of those Apostles and and Jesus I saw him resurrect and I need to go tell everybody and he's given me the greatest commission ever.
I would think man. I want to get busy like let's get together as soon as I see him go up. Let's get together and let's strategize. Let's plan.
Let's figure out a way. What's the best way that we can go and reach the world with the good news of what we have seen Jesus do but he tells them to tells them to wait for the Holy Spirit. Well in Acts chapter number two, so they go back. This is a couple of weeks later Acts chapter number two happens and everybody has gathered in Jerusalem a specific purpose. Okay, and the purpose was the feast of of Pentecost the Feast of Pentecost was one of the seven Jewish feast on the calendar year where this was one of the three that all of the Jews had to travel into Jerusalem to observe this feast together and so everybody had come you say what was the Pentecost feast?
What were they observing? Well Pentecost they were observing and remembering when God descended from heaven and met with Moses on Mount Sinai. So once a year at Pentecost what they would do is all these people would gather in and they would they would bring all of the first fruits of the crops that they had been harvesting. They bring all these crops their first fruits and they would offer them to the Lord.
That's why it's also called the Feast of firstfruits as well as the Feast of Pentecost and they would offer these firstfruits to God and they would remind themselves and praise God for that amazing time when he came from heaven down and met with Moses and gave them the wall. Well, everybody had gathered and they were remembering this thing together. The scripture says in Acts 2 that they were all in the same accord and the same mind that means that they were there together for the exact same purpose. But here this time when they gathered God is going to descend again. But this time in a different way he descends from heaven down to earth in the form of the Holy Spirit the third person of the Trinity and so he comes and now in Acts chapter 2 he indwells the believers for the very first time he indwells those that have believed that Jesus of Nazareth is the Savior of the world the Messiah that they have waited for so they're gathered together. They're remembering the Feast of Pentecost and all of a sudden in the midst of of all of them. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell and and things go go crazy.
It says that there were cloven tongues like fire. There was a mighty rushing wind that went through and when the Holy Spirit indwelt them things changed around them. So they were starting to speak to people in different languages. They were starting all this craziness that was happening and everybody was like what in the world is going on? Can you imagine if that happened in here, right? We'd all go nuts and we'd be you know, everything would go insane and that's exactly what was happening here in this moment.
So all of the people that are gathered that didn't get the indwelling Spirit of God. They're looking at the craziness and the fire and the people speaking in other languages and all this stuff and they begin to say man. These people have gone mad, right? These people have gone crazy. They must be they even said they must be drunk with wine because this is not normal.
This is wild. This is absolutely crazy when the midst of that and the cray chaos that is on the day of Pentecost Peter he stands up and he begins to deliver his very first sermon. This is the first sermon that Peter is preached since Jesus had ascended and so Jesus said a commissioned them to share the good news of why Jesus came so Peter stands up and he delivers a sermon to all of them and the sermon in a nutshell you can read it some other time in chapter number two in a nutshell his sermon was all about how Jesus came sent by God right sent by God to reveal God so that we could be reconciled back into a relationship with God and the good news is this was for this was for everybody. So in verse number 26, you can even see this that he talks about how now because of Jesus and what Jesus has done for us our souls have hope the hope of heaven that we can live forever in heaven one day that is great news for for all people and Peters delivering this sermon and he's speaking with boldness and he's proclaiming this good news the best news ever and in verse number 37 is where we're going to pick up. It says this verse 37 now when they heard this that's all the people that were gathered and they heard Peters sermon. They were pricked in their in their heart the word pricked if you look it up in the Greek it literally means to be cut. It means to be cut today. We would say this word.
We wouldn't use the word pricked as much. Here's what word we would use in our English conviction conviction. You remember that time for you that know Jesus as your Savior you remember that time where you stood or are you sat under maybe a sermon or you read the word and the Holy Spirit he convicted your heart and he showed you your knee early age and and so I was privileged to grow up in a Christian household my parents kind of drug me to church right when I was born so I was I was around the gospel so much and when I was a kid five years old I can remember vividly sitting in a service and the Holy Spirit convicting me telling me that I needed to trust in Jesus that there's nothing that I can do to get myself reconciled to him. I need to trust in what Jesus has done for me. And so I accepted Christ that that very night.
Well here what we find here is all these people they were convicted. They were pricked in their heart and they said into Peter and to the rest of the Apostles men and brethren. What shall we do in other words? What do we do with what we've just heard and by the way, if you've kind of slipped in here somebody invited you or whatever and you don't know Jesus as your Savior possibly you've been in this church for for you know, 20 plus years and you're sitting there and you're like man. I don't know Jesus as as my Savior. This is the question. You need to be asking yourself.
What must I do? What what shall we do with what we have heard with with what we see in God's Word. What is the next step if you would verse 38 Peter he said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and he shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promises unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call with many other words. Did he testify and exhort saying save yourselves from this unto word or pagan generation verse 41 then they that gladly received the word were baptized in the same day.
They were added unto them about 3,000 Souls. In this chapter chapter number two, we see the mission of the local church and how it was born the movement that we all of us have been invited to be a part of we see the birth of the church here in chapter number number two now as we talk about the mission and what that looks like and how Union Grove needs to be accomplishing the mission. It is important to note this that God doesn't just have a mission for our church. He made a mission for or he made a church for his for his mission. Let me explain that it's this is that God didn't just create a church with the mission. No, he came on mission, you know, when Jesus came to Earth and he walked about Earth.
He would say things like I come to do the will of my father or he said my meat is not for my own. It's for the will of the father. I have come to seek and to save that which was lost you see Jesus came on mission and when he ascended back up into heaven.
Here's what I want you to know. He created a church to accomplish the mission on Earth that he originally came to to accomplish and so we got to understand this. He is inviting you the church to join him as he does the work in and through you. So when we talk about mission, here's what I want you to know. It's not all about our church and and our church getting the glory.
No, here's what it is. It's about us being invited by God to be a part of the mission that he wants to do in and through every single one of us here on this Earth. You see that is the mission and that is what we're talking about. So so our mission and you can see this from Acts chapter 2 what we're going to look at today. You can see this from Acts chapter 1 verse 8.
You can see Matthew 28. The mission is mentioned in a bunch of different places the Great Commission, but here's our mission as a church and here's how we talk about it and and let me just say this that if you're a guest here today, we are so glad that you are here and I want you to know I know sometimes when we talk about the church's mission or you see a series like this you're thinking and it's it really for me or whatever. This is more for the people here. Here's what I want you to know if you're a guest here today and you're kind of looking for a church.
This is an absolute awesome day to be here. And here's why you're going to learn a whole lot about who we are. You're going to learn about why we exist you're going to learn about why we are placed here in this community today and why we exist as a church. And here's what it is our mission is this we exist or Union Grove exist to reach as many people as possible with the gospel and to disciple them into becoming devoted followers of Jesus. That's our mission. We exist to reach as many people as possible with the gospel of Jesus and to disciple them into becoming devoted followers of of Jesus for a couple of moments. I want to show you and we say this often our mission but I want to show you where we get that mission from from Acts chapter number 2 that this isn't just something we thought of this is actually what the Lord Jesus has commissioned this church to participate in to he's invited us to be a part of the movement that he has started called the church and I want to break this down for you and show you how it's found here in Scripture the first thing let's look at the first statement of our mission to reach as many people as possible with the gospel look at verse 38 and verse 39 of our text today again then Peter said unto them repent be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promises unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call when you see this the first part of our mission to reach as many people as possible with the gospel I really here in verses 38 and 39 it really shows us exactly what that is in the form of a few different words that I want you to see today the first word is this that he mentions the word repent the word repent you say what exactly does that word mean and by the way let me just say depending on your church background we don't like to use this word a whole lot the word repent is a word that in our modern English we don't like to talk about a whole lot right you say why is that it's in the scripture why wouldn't we use this word all of the time I agree but a lot of people don't use this word a lot of churches don't want to talk about this word you say why is that it's because when you look at the meaning of what to repent means or repentance is here's what it means it means a remorse over your sin you see repent literally means we turn from our ungodly way of living and we turn toward a godly way of living that's why we don't like to talk about it because it's very confrontational right it's very confrontational when we see a word like repent because it involves us turning from something that we go after the flesh and what makes us feel good and things like that and when we repent it means that we are going to turn and we are going to turn toward God's way of living and what he has described in scripture and so here in this sermon Peter he stands up all these people are like what what do we need to do like what is going on what do we need to do and Peter starts his sermon and he gives it and they're like what do we need to do and his first thing is hey you need to repent you need to repent you need to repent you need to turn to God and by the way turn to God without turning away from the world and that's what that's what he's trying to remind us of there is no salvation aside from repentance there is no salvation aside from us repenting and turning from something and turning toward God our lives are going to change as a result of this so the movement the church that we're invited to participate in it's going to look different than than a life that's not a part of the movement because of that repentance we should look different we should act different we should behave different we should go after different things because we repent but then he goes on and he says repent and be baptized now baptism I want you to know depending on your church background we know this that baptism it doesn't make you more saved or or something like that it doesn't confirm your salvation or anything like that baptism is literally the next step after after salvation you see that in the book of Acts with the Ethiopian eunuch he trusted Christ and then they're like let's go down and and get get baptized and and so we know even if you think about it this way that the thief on the cross remember when Jesus is there being crucified he's got the thief on the cross and what is he telling me says hey you're going to be with me and in paradise right in heaven and he didn't have time to come off the cross get baptized things like that make sure everything's good before he could go go to heaven but I'll tell you this when you die you're going to be up there with the thief on the cross even though he didn't have time to do that here's what I'm telling you baptism doesn't make you more more safe but it's the next step after salvation say what what's so important about baptism them baptism is you going public with what Jesus has done in your heart it's about you when you're standing up here and you're standing in the water and you're standing like this and the water is going this way it's really reminding you and and telling everybody that's watching that you're not ashamed that you have trusted in the cross it's a picture of the cross and when you go under the water and that's what the word baptized literally means to be immersed when you go under the water it's a picture of the death and when you come out it's a picture of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and here's what I want you to know Peter is saying this repent change your life give your life over to Jesus Christ trust in him for salvation and go public with that because that is the church but he goes on and he says repent be baptized and he says every one of you let me say this that everyone's greatest need in life is salvation every single one of us we can't be reconciled to a relationship with God without going through Jesus he said he is the way he is the truth he is the life he's not just a way he is the way he is the one and only way to get reconciled back to God it's one of our needs every neighbor you have every person that you work with their greatest need is to go through Jesus the gospel is the hope of every single person and then he goes on he says what for the remission of sins you say what's the word remission mean means forgiveness you see what your greatest need is is you need forgiveness of your sins and here's the thing the scripture says that when we die we're going to stand before God what a terrifying thought right we're going to stand before our creator before a holy righteous perfect father and when you stand before him here's what's going to make the difference in your life and where you spend eternity is this have your sins been forgiven have your sins been forgiven because that's what's going to make all the difference in the world have you trusted in Jesus and had all of your sins forgiven and so Peter saying listen all this crowd of people that's just so confused and they're skeptical about everything that they're seeing he's saying listen here's what you need to do repent be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins and then he goes on and every single one of us should be so grateful for verse number 39 and it says this for this promise this promise of salvation it's unto you now think about it in context he's talking to all those Jewish people that have gathered for Pentecost right for them right if it stopped there it wouldn't be good news for you and I today right so he says it's for you then he says it's also for your children man struck out again not a part of the Jewish family so once again if it stopped there it wouldn't be good but then he goes on and say to all that are afar off here's who that is that's you you see up to this point salvation was only for those who were of the Jewish family it was only for for the Jews and so if you wanted to know God you had to be in the Jewish family so here Peter is saying because of Jesus because he was sent here to die for us so that we could have our sins forgiven he says now that salvation that gift that invitation to be a part of this movement called the church it now is for every body all of us every Gentile every person that is far from God the gospel is now for and that's very good news for us because all of us were afar off and so the gospel got to us here's the here's the point when we look at this this is where we get our mission from to reach as many people as possible with the good news of the gospel this is where we get our mission from it's from acts 2 when when that was the Great Commission so you say what what do we need to learn today is this is that this is your your mission this is your purpose this is the reason why you exist let me just say this as long as there are people afar off this world needs the church this world needs the church you see the church is the hope of the world government is not the hope of the world Washington is not the hope of the world okay who gets elected is not the hope of the world right no the hope of the world the hope for everybody that is a far-off it's the local church and there's nothing special about Union Grove here's what it is it's about God working through us sharing the good news of the gospel to everyone a far-off you see that is our purpose but yet here's the problem when we ask ourselves what's the church what do we think of when we think of the word church we come up with the building right style tradition all this stuff I mean think about the early church they didn't have a pastoral staff team they didn't have a lot of buildings they didn't have all these good perks that we have they didn't have constitutions did they they have bylaws they have all this stuff that we enjoy and I think all those things are great and I'm not at all advocating that we get rid of all that stuff right no we love those things and I think some things have evolved in the business side of church and I think they're great but here's what I want you to know and this is where you need to realize is that when the church began they didn't have all those things they weren't built on tradition they weren't built on buildings they weren't built with a constitution or built with bylaws or built with a bunch of pastors and stuff no when the church began it was a bunch of people like you like me they gathered together and every single day they took the mission and the Great Commission upon themselves to get the gospel to Jerusalem Judea and unto the uttermost parts of the world and because they said yes to that mission you and I can be a part of the same church today you see that is what we are called to do listen we must be committed to doing anything and everything to reach as many people with the gospel of Jesus Christ this is why we as a church this is why we do events like say why do you spend your time and money and all that stuff on like things like trunk-or-treat is so that we can we can connect with our community in hopes of sharing the gospel with them and reaching more people with the good news of the gospel why do you do things like food truck Friday like should we be spending our time more for we do these things so that we can reach as many people as possible with the gospel you see that's the mission of why we exist listen if you're in here today and you think church is just about you giving up an hour of your Sunday every single week you've missed the point of why the church was created you've missed the point of the invitation to be a part of the movement if you think the church is just an hour on Sunday no the church is you every single day yes the gatherings important and in this series we're going to look at the importance of the gathering but in this here's what I want you to know is that at the core of why the church existed and why the church began it began it began with this mission go into all the world and be witnesses of what we have seen that's where the church started and that's what we need to be about to reach as many people as possible with the with the gospel the second thing is this in our mission is we want to disciple them into becoming devoted followers of Jesus and and you say okay what is this what does this mean it isn't reaching them enough yes somewhat but that's not the end game that's a great great thing and we're excited about that but the end game is to make disciples the end game is to to make better followers of Jesus look what he says here in verse 41 then they that gladly received the word that means that they received the word they believed it they were saved after that they were baptized the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls so in other words what you see is salvation it's like a progression salvation now they're gonna be baptized right they're gonna join the church and then you know what you see here verse 42 they continued steadfastly and the Apostles doctrine so take that progression they join the church now they're absorbing teaching right fellowship they're involved relationally in the church breaking of bread and praying with one another and then if you drop down verse 45 they sold their possessions and goods and part of them to all men as every man had need in other words they became generous right and then they continued steadfastly once again in the temple they showed up for the gatherings down now breaking bread they went from house to house fellowshipping eating their meat with gladness and singleness of heart and they were praising God and having favor with all the people here's what I want you to see is this is that after salvation their life was changed like everything about them changed because of the gospel because they believe that Jesus was who he said he was and that yes he was sent by God to reveal God and ultimately to reconcile the whole world back into a relationship with God we believe that and when we really get a hold of that let me tell you this your life's going to change your life's going to look different you're going to start to get involved in things that beforehand you didn't care to be involved in you're going to start to desire things that at one time you didn't desire you're going to start to want to spend your money differently because at one time you wanted to spend it for yourself you're going to start to attend things that you would have never attended before why is that because when the gospel comes in there comes a moment after the gospel where we need to be disciples we need to be disciple and we need to grow and what you see here is discipleship you see this idea of discipleship and and getting connected and deeply connected to the mission of the church you see here's what I want you and I want you to listen to me real carefully when I say this we don't just want to make converts now that that's important and we want as many people as possible to trust in Jesus as Savior but more importantly here's what we want we want to make disciples we want to make disciples because listen here's what I'll tell you when you make a disciple out of a convert they take the mission and why the movement was created and they make it their own and they go out and they want to now reach as many people as possible and disciple them into becoming devoted followers you see that's the endgame that's the endgame of our mission that's why we exist it is we want to reach as many people as possible with the gospel and to disciple them into becoming devoted followers of Jesus so here's my question to you as we kind of wrap this thing up is this think about church again right that's why we're here guys got up this morning freezing cold by the way wasn't it cold and I came in bundled up saw Trent Emery with a short-sleeve shirt on I was like what in the world I was like crazy and I was like I look like an Eskimo walking in here I was so cold and and you know you know it's the place we go place we go on Sunday and and that's good but listen here's what I want you to think about and what you need to think is ask this question is church just a place that you attend or is it a movement that you are personally a part of church just a place you attend is that what it is is this it this is your church experience your whole church experience right here I did it and we showed up we gave Jesus an hour of our week yes gold star at the end of the day yes we did it right listen here's what I want you to know is that we through the course of time have regulated such an incredible movement that we have been invited to be a part of incredible incredible like that God our creator the one that spoke the world into existence he came to us the form of Jesus to reveal himself to us so that now we could be reconciled back to him so that we could be a part of the movement called the church what a privilege what an honor it is for us to be a part of that and somewhere down the road I don't know where we went wrong but we've regulated the church from that incredible movement where all of us would be collected the early church listen they didn't need a thousand pastors to reach their community because every saint of God took up the mission that they were called to and they took it upon themselves that day that's our mission that's why we exist that's our purpose as they went to work and did their normal day-to-day they took the mission for them they didn't need a thousand pastors on their staff team in order to do that why because they took it upon themselves and somewhere down the road we've regulated that incredible opportunity that we get to be a part of to where now I mean it's just an hour a week what churches just our week where I go on Sunday that's the building we we meet in listen all those things are good and that's a part of it but it's so much more the church is so much more and the invitation to be a part of the movement called the church God wants to do so much more in life you say how in the world do I get to be a part of it over the next few weeks we're going to talk specifically about how you can be a part of the church but in the short term here's what I want you to know is this you take that mission we exist to reach as many people as possible with the gospel and to disciple them into becoming devoted followers of Jesus that's every church's mission at the core of what it is that's the church's mission that's the mission that Jesus gave the church and why he created the church so you say here's what that looks like for you we leave here and we take that mission with us wherever we go where you sit for lunch today right the the ball field or the gym that your your kids play in that one's for me because I need that every time I go to these ball fields around here I need to go there although I love watching my kid play and stuff but at the end of the day I'm on mission there I should be a missionary in those communities that's what I'm called to be church isn't just a place I go it's something I'm a part of everywhere I go right for some of you when you go to school tomorrow right that's your mission field for you that go to work right that's your mission field your neighborhood God might have placed you in the neighborhood you got neighbors all around you that is your mission you see that's what it's part what it's like to be a part of the movement don't regulate church to just what you do for an hour a week don't regulate church demand this is we did it no we're a part of a movement that we take with us every single day of the week and every place that we get to go would you bow your heads with me I'm going to invite you to stand with me everybody everywhere heads bowed hearts are lifted in prayer this is what we call here at Union Grove a invitation or or you could call it a response time it's a time for us to respond to what we just heard to the Word of God I think every time we hear the Word of God there's a response that's needed from our hearts and listen is not my intent in this place to ever embarrass somebody to come to you to call you out anything like that that is not why I'm here I promise you that but listen I want you to be honest nobody's looking around in our church we we love you and there is no judgment in this place but if you're in here today and you say pastor where I'm at today is I'm probably in that a far-off category where I don't know Jesus is my Savior or perhaps you've been trusting in church attendance or trusting in being a good person and those things and stuff and you're trusting in those things to reconcile yourself back into a relationship with God and you're trusting in those things to save you and the scripture says you can't be saved with those things you got to trust in what Jesus has done for you if that's you and you're in here today and you say that's where I'm at pastor I don't know Jesus as my Savior but I would like to know would you slip up your hand high enough for me to see it long enough for me to recognize it say pastor I just don't know Jesus as my Savior looks like a lot of believers in this place here today so church listen here's what if you're in here and I want you to be honest we had a lot of honest people in the first service and I'm grateful for that because that's the only way to be because you might be able to hide from the person next to you but here's who you can't hide for him you can't hide from God he knows where you're at today so just be honest and there's no judgment here but if you say pastor I'm one of those church people that I've kind of regulated church to just that hour on Sunday where I don't really think about how I'm a part of the church Monday through Saturday I just that morning on Sunday that's what I give him and today I was convicted about that and I want this year I want to be a part of that movement everywhere I go not just a place that I go on Sunday if you're like that and you want to be honest about where you're at would you slip up your hand and say that's where I'm at today yes I see hands going up thank you for your honesty I'm there with you my hands there I haven't been true a lot of times to to that even in my own life and the places that I go I want to be better about that as well well listen I'm going to pray and then here's how we do invitations here at Union Grove this altar is open if you want to come pray at the altar you are welcome to if you need to come pray or talk with a pastor today we got our pastors down front and we would love to be able to pray anything and everything you can come to us and we would love to pray with you here today or you can stay right where you are and pray but I'm going to pray out loud and lift you up those that raise their hands today and then you can respond to what God is leading you to do father we love you blessing this invitation time give us the courage to respond here today for it's in your name we pray amen if God speaks to you you come and we are here to help you in any way that we can
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-10 14:33:55 / 2025-01-10 14:52:48 / 19