We Are the Church: Three Mindsets You Need for a Better Year

Well, good morning. Welcome back to church. Good to have all of you here. I hope that you will go out and enjoy everything after service. Hi, good to see you, Evie is making sure that I know she’s here, I know you’re here. Anyway, one of our interns here. We’re excited about what God is doing, the way God is working in the church, the way God is working through so many of your lives.

And today, what I want to do as we get back to church is I actually want to offer a prayer right now for every family that you are heading back, to homeschool, to school, to high school, grade school, wherever you are, and you’re going to be sending your kids out the door. Maybe you did last week, maybe you’re about to this next coming week. But I want to be able to pray for the moms and the dads that have all the responsibilities to get everyone up and going and out the doors, make sure the homework’s done and the jerseys are washed. And I want to pray for the kids that you go through a lot of challenges with social things throughout the year, and the educational side of things, and all the relationship stuff that goes on, and then also challenges to your own faith. I want to pray that God will keep you strong this year, that you’ll be a light wherever you are. And then we have a lot of teachers and coaches and folks that are involved in the education system here in the area, maybe homeschool parents, and you just have a lot of work ahead of you where you want Jesus to shine through your life and make an impact. And yes, I have to acknowledge there are grandparents, and I know you’re the ones driving the kids and you’re taking them back and forth to everything, and you kind of have that responsibility with those kids as well, you’re helping them with the homework and talking to them about all the stuff going on at school. And I want to pray God’s grace and God’s blessing that this would be an incredible year of God’s mercy over your family, over your kids, over your life.

And if you would allow me to, will you stand so I can pray blessing over you? If you fall in that category, a ton of people in this service in the room, let me pray blessings and grace over your family.

Lord, we stand here together representing our kids, or as students ourselves, and teachers and coaches. Lord, I pray a special grace and a blessing right now over each one of our students, that this would be a year of great personal growth and intellectual growth and relational growth, but I pray for particularly spiritual growth to happen. Even if our faith is challenged, I pray for every student to know how to stand strong in their faith, how to be a witness, how to stay true to their faith in Christ, no matter what other kids are saying around them, to know who you are, to know who they are in you, and to stand on the word of God. I pray for parents to come around and strengthen, to have some endurance, and whenever they’re losing their patience, Lord, to find it again in you, because we know that’s a fruit of your spirit lived out in our lives as parents. So I pray that they would keep rediscovering that fruit of the spirit of patience, longsuffering, endurance, all these things. Lord, give them the grace they need. And Lord, for every teacher, coach, everyone involved in our school system, we pray the hand of God, the mercies of God, the strength of God, and the patience of God, and then for them to be the light of God to this world, to every student that’s needing to know that there’s hope. Let them find it as every worker here represents Christ in the best way they can, wherever you place them. I pray that grace over each family.

If you receive that over your life, would you give me a big amen? Amen. Amen. You can be seated. Thank you so much. We’re believing for a great school year for you. Sherry and I have done about 20 years, from our oldest kid to our youngest kid, of school, and we are officially done. Hallelujah. Anyway, no back-to-school clothing to buy this fall. It was okay with us that we didn’t have that. But we know that that’s a lot of challenge, and so we pray God’s grace and blessings over you as you walk through that.

Now, I want to talk to you. A lot of you come from different backgrounds, because we’re a non-denominational church. So I’m as likely to meet a Catholic and a Pentecostal as I am a Methodist and an irreligious person in this church. Everyone comes from all these different backgrounds. And it’s interesting, a lot of people will talk to me and say, “I’m assuming you have a lot of,” and then they fill in their blank here at this church, because you think, “Wow, I connect with these people, they must all have been raised whatever I was raised.” And the answer is no, we really don’t. We have a lot of everything in this church.

And because of that, it turns out that we have a lot of people with a lot of baggage that they brought into Eagle Creek Church because of some kind of bad church hurt experience. And because you’re not at your former church where you were hurt, can I ask for just a show of hands, how many of you in the history of your life attending a church have ever experienced what they call today church hurt? Anyone can say, “I’ve been there.” Okay, that’s close to half of the hands. All I’m doing right now is I’m trying to help you to understand you’re not the exception to the rule. This is a reality of life when you’re involved in a church.

Now, what happens when people experience church hurt? Typically for Sherry and I, what we hear is a common thing. People will talk to us after they’ve been here for three or four or five months, and they’ll say to us, they’ll say, “I’ve been here for,” fill in the blank, however long, “but I’ve just been hanging back because I experienced,” fill in the blank, whatever church, “this is what happened, I just have not really trusted leaders. I’ve wanted to watch to see if,” you know, “your husband’s the real deal or not, or whether your people are for real.” It’s like everyone acts friendly, but is anyone really going to be my friend? And all sorts of different things, watching to see what’s going on.

I want to assure you of something in a negative direction, a negative reassurance. Doesn’t everyone love negative reassurances. I’m going to give you a negative reassurance though, and then you’ll understand where I’m going with this. So, we’re going to go to the perfect church. You want, let’s go to the perfect church this morning. Book of Acts. Jesus has just resurrected from the dead, he’s ascended into heaven, he’s told the disciples, “Go and wait for the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon you all, and you’re going to be empowered to be witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the world.” And he says, “Lo, I’m with you always.” And there’s power, and the church is exploding in growth. And in one day, 3,000 people are saved.

How many say church is happening? How many say if I could be part of that church, boy, I’d know I went to church, right? I’d know I’d walk out of Sunday knowing I went to church. And in the middle of all that, people get crazy in a good way. They are so excited about what God is doing that they realize the kingdom of God is worth more than the kingdom of man. By the way, we all technically know that, but it’s different when it becomes real to you. And for them, it became so real that the kingdom of God is more important than the kingdom of man, that they literally started selling their lands and their homes and giving the money to move the gospel forward, to take care of the poor, to feed people that are hungry. And just crazy, crazy generosity has overtaken them.

And in the middle of that perfect moment, someone at church decides, “Well, I want to look good too, so I’m going to tell everyone I sold my land and I gave all the money to the church, only I’m going to keep it and give a little of it, but I think I’d like to keep some of it for myself. But boy, I want credit for doing everything good.” How many of you ever heard of a hypocrite, right? And I know some of you have church hurt because you maybe even knew the leadership of a church you were a part of, and you’re like, “That guy, that lady, that deacon, that youth pastor, that,” fill in the blank, “was a hypocrite,” right? And so you know that there’s hypocrites in the church. And so you wish you could go to the perfect church with no hypocrites. And then Ananias and Sapphira come along in the first century and they totally kill that. All the way from the start of the church, there have been hypocrites. All the way from the start of the church, there have been hypocrites.

And it causes us to lose some faith. There’s people that want to take it comfortable and make it easy and ride along and act like they get credit for everything. And you look at Jesus and you’re like, “But wait, why are people so like that?” Because Jesus was not that guy. Jesus never played it safe. Like Jesus would literally, this is how in he was on helping people, he could walk up to someone who was totally diseased and rotting in their flesh with leprosy and grab hold of a leprous, rotting person. Everyone knows there’s no cure for it in their day and age. “You’re going to die if you do that, Jesus.” And you just grab hold of him and pray for him and they’ll be healed. And then he doesn’t die.

He’ll totally lose his reputation with every religious person, because he allows a prostitute to literally, at dinner, fall down at his feet and start crying and then washing his feet with her hair and her tears. And they all say, “This is so unseemly. How could you be a man of God and let a prostitute do that? You’re a bad guy.” And then he turns right around, he says, “Well, let me up one you guys. Who’s the most hated person in your Jewish society?” Well, it’s those tax collectors, because they’re Jews who steal our money and give it to Romans and keep a bunch extra for themselves, and they all got rich by cheating. Those are the most hated people. He said, “Great, I’m going to have dinner with some of them.” And you know what? “I’m going to make one of them my apostle.” And not only am I going to make one of them my apostle, “I’m going to go to his house, I’m going to say, bring all your sinful friends, and I’m going to have dinner with the worst of the worst.” And you want to talk about wrecking a reputation with the religious community? Jesus was all in.

But when he showed up, they’re all getting saved. And Matthew’s life, Levi’s life, was transformed, he becomes a follower of Jesus Christ. And not only does he become a follower of Jesus Christ, what’s the first book of the New Testament named? Matthew. He took the worst and he made them the first. That’s what Jesus does in his kingdom. He never gets stuck behind in these little boxes, that’s not who he is, that’s not the way he operates. He gets outside the boxes and he goes and he cares. And that’s what the church is supposed to do. The church is supposed to get outside the box and go out and care for the world around us. Right?

So Jesus says this, this is who he is, this is what he does. What does he say? He says, “I will build my church, and” what, “the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Did Jesus say, “I will build a 501(c)(3), a nonprofit in the state of Missouri”? No. “I’ll file for articles of, whatever, hey, get my bylaws filed, I’ll get a board of 12, and we’ll all have a nonprofit in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.” No, he didn’t say any of that. Did he say, “I’ll build a charity organization where we’ll care for the poor in India”? No. And those are wonderful things, nothing wrong with that, nothing at all. What did he say? There was only one thing he said he would build. What did he say he would build? The church. What did he say he would build? Church. The church.

Now, how important was that to him, to build that church? What would he do? What lengths would he go through to ensure that there were people who would become part of the family of God, adopted into the family of God, their sins forgiven, their future? Sure, what lengths would he go through to build that church? He would die on the cross for that. He would die so that everyone who was outside could become insiders, adopted into the family of God.

So here’s my problem. The church we know today is in many cases not living up to its potential. Can we just say that in some cases it’s a mess? And yet Jesus died to build the church, and it was never perfect. You’re like, well, it was perfect when Jesus had it. Anyone heard of Judas? He’s one of Jesus’s 12, one of the 12 apostles was a mess up. Anyone heard of Peter, who denied Jesus three times the night he was crucified. How many of you know Jesus was always putting up with a mess, and yet he said he would build his church, and he knew we were a mess. Someone give me an amen on that.

Amen. So what do we do? Do we say, “Until the church is perfect, I can’t be part of building it”? Or do we say, “Jesus built a church on top of imperfect people like me and like you, and I will be a part of the imperfect church that Jesus is building,” understanding that it will be imperfect. Right? Now, does it mean that I put up with sin? No. In the church, we call out sin, right? In leadership, wherever it is, it doesn’t matter if it’s me, if it’s you, wherever it is, we deal with stuff, right? So, we’re not going to hide and cover up and pretend. We’re going to be real, we’re going to be open, we’re going to be accountable, all of us, me included. Everyone’s going to do this because we don’t want to make a mess of things. But when we do, we understand we’re still part of building the church that Jesus called us to build.

And so, we’re going to focus on how to do that. Acts chapter 2:42, the church is launched, 3,000 people become Christians, they had 120. How many of you know when you’re scaling an organization, and some of you have led organizations through one level or another, maybe you’re in management, maybe you’re an entrepreneur, maybe you’re a business owner, but how many of you know that when you take a jump from 120 to 3,120, you may not be structured and organized quite yet for that load? How many say that could be? Okay, so, we’ve jumped from 120 that Jesus was running, no one had run it except Jesus, to now 3,120 that mostly Peter, James, and John are having to figure out how to run. The others are contributors, but there’s three leads in this.

And so, what do they do? Here’s what they do. It says, “And,” all these people, “devoted themselves,” everyone say devoted, “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.” So we’re going to show up at church, we’re getting to the temple, we’ll all be there, Peter’s on Monday mornings, “I like Peter, I’m going to be there every Monday morning because he’s a good teacher, well, John’s on this day, well, James is, I’m going here.” So, they all going to show up, teaching, and “to fellowship,” everyone say fellowship. Now, what were they? They were devoted to it, right? It wasn’t an optional thing for them. They were devoted to teaching, they were devoted to fellowship, they were in, in other words, I will have friends at my church, everyone say that with me, I will have friends at my church, “fellowship, and to the breaking of bread.” Now, this is considered in two different ways, some consider it as a sign that they were taking communion when they gathered together, others just mean it was like they were eating. So, I don’t know exactly, but either way, it’d be fine to do either one. You’re like, “Oh, but you have to do that at church on Sundays.” No, you don’t. How many of you know you can take communion in your own home, right? You can take communion at your community group, right? Nothing, nothing, the Bible says you can’t do it that way, you can do it that way. So, “breaking of bread and prayers.” They’re devoted to prayer. So, how many say, boy, I’d love to have someone devoted to praying for me. How about you get devoted to pray for someone else? How about when you get together in your community group, you pray for one another?

So he’s saying this is what the church looked like. And then it says, in that kind of environment, let me tell you what happened. Something overtook the environment, awe overtook it. People are just like, “Whoa, this is incredible, this is that, that is church, that’s amazing, what’s going on?” “Overtook every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.” Miracles are happening in the church. And it says, “And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions” and belongings, “distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.” And it continues, “And day by day, attending the temple together,” that’s where the apostles were teaching, “and breaking bread in their homes,” the fellowship, “they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God, and having favor with all the people.” At that point, they weren’t under persecution quite yet. And it says, “And the Lord added to their number day by day those that were being saved.”

Jesus said, what did he say? “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it,” right? I will build my church, I will. Jesus said, “I will build my church.” Now, Jesus, when you read this verse, is no longer on earth, Jesus has ascended into heaven. He’s not here physically with this New Testament church. And yet when you read this verse, it’s as if Jesus is present with that church, because it’s speaking, the Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ. So right now it’s saying, and he’s already in heaven, but in heaven, what’s he doing? It says, “And the Lord Jesus Christ was adding to the church” that he said, “I will build.” Do you get that? What that’s saying is that actively, after Jesus left earth, he continued to draw people that were outside of relationship with Christ into the church, to build his church.

Meaning, whenever I came and started Eagle Creek Church with my wife 22 years ago, our primary verse that the two of us quoted over and over and over again, we’d pioneered in Chicago before, that church right now is doing amazing in Chicago. And when we decided to come here 22 years ago, we both said, “I don’t want to carry the weight of building Eagle Creek Church.” And this is why, when I pioneered in Chicago, I had a burnout season in my life. You ever gone through burnout? Burnout’s miserable, you just don’t have any energy, any drive, you just don’t want to get up and get going anymore, you’re just kind of done. And tell me if you’ve ever gone through burnout, how many of you know it’s hard on your spouse too? I mean, they’re feeling bad for you, they don’t know what to do, and they don’t know what the right words are to get you up and going.

And so when Jesus led us to pioneer Eagle Creek Church, I almost couldn’t get myself the courage to do it, until I came across the scripture, and Jesus said, “I will build my church.” And I was like, “That’s so good, because I can’t do it, God. It’s bigger than me, I can’t do this work that you have, it’s too much for one man, I don’t know how to do this, Lord, it’s just too much. So, would you please just build your church, and I’ll give you my best. But I know that whatever happens at Eagle Creek, it’s got to be bigger than what Matt can do, it’s got to be God size, which means God’s got to do it. So Jesus, would you build your church?”

And it turns out, in the book of Acts, that’s exactly the way Jesus operated. “And the Lord added to their number daily those that were being saved.” Since we’ve been here, the miracle has been seen the way God adds to his church, the way God builds, the way God transforms lives. And so, we’re looking and saying, how do we get to be the people that say, “God, work through my life, I want to be part of your church, I want to make an impact. This is something you decided to do. How do I become part of that with you and build something that is amazing and transformational to the world?”

And so, I’m going to give you these three thoughts. Here they are.

We Will Be an Intensely Devoted Church

Number one is this. We will be devoted this next year at Eagle Creek Church, starting at the school year here. We’re going to be devoted to three things. There are three things I’m going to ask this church to give yourself to. One is this. We will be an intensely devoted church. Everyone say devoted. And this is what it says in Acts 2:42. It says, “And they” did what, “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to breaking of bread, and to prayers.” They were committed, they were all in.

The word in the Greek is proskartereo, and what it means is it means that you are living in a constant state of relentless pursuit. You are going after something, not letting up and continuing in it. Now that is hard for us. How many of you would admit you’ve gone after things like your diet, your exercise, your going to read through the Bible, and you fail sometimes in your relentless pursuits. You’re like, “My relentless pursuits are not always relentless,” right?

And so when you look at this and you say, “How do I live up to that? How do I go after that?” Well, I would tell you the only way to be devoted at a full level is you’re going to have to rely on the Holy Spirit’s power a lot more than you do today, and a lot less on your own ability, and say, “Lord, I need you to help me to get up today and get fired up and go after what God has for me.” Can I tell you a little secret? As a pastor, every Sunday I don’t feel as inspired as I do this morning. There are some Sundays where I feel a little bit tired, but can I tell you, whenever I’m over here worshiping and I’m praying up in the morning before I get here, I am just praying, “Lord, help my heart to give myself 100% to the work. I want to be devoted heart and soul to what you’ve given me.”

How many of you have ever stood up, I’m looking at Nicole, you ever feel that way on a Sunday when it’s time to lead worship? Sorry, one of our worship leaders, and John’s right behind her, our worship pastor, you ever have to say, “Holy Spirit, give me the energy because I don’t quite have it right now”? There’s moments where you have to say, “I don’t have it, I need the Holy Spirit to give it to me,” right? So, I’m not telling you you have to figure out how to just do it, you have to realize you can’t do it, and you need the Holy Spirit to help you get fired up to go be a youth sponsor that night, right? That you need to not call in and say, “Well, I’m not feeling up to it tonight.” Get over yourself, get yourself together and get up and go, right? You understand that? That’s just being responsible. That’s saying, “I got spiritual responsibility to people, and so I’m going after it, I’m putting myself out there no matter what I feel like.”

I heard the story of a husband that just wouldn’t get up and go to church. His wife was on his case, and she’s like, “Honey, you got to get up, you got to go, we’re going to be late, we got to get to church.” “I don’t feel like it this morning.” “Well, I don’t care if you feel like it, we got to be in church.” “Well, give me one good reason why we got to go to church.” She says, “You’re the pastor, you got to go.” I’m going to tell you, my wife so far has never had to tell me that. I’m going to try to keep it that way. But there’s just times where you just say, “I got to get up and go.” Why? “Because I’m teaching the kids’ church today.” Why? “Because I’m the front-door lady and they’re going to miss me if I’m not there.” And so this is what I do, I make an impact, I make a difference. And so they’re just devoted, they’re just totally into it.

So what’s the one thing you could devote yourself towards this year in your faith? Maybe you’re going to read your Bible. Now be careful, you start reading your Bible, first of all, it becomes a little bit addictive, and secondly, it’ll cut right down into the issues of your own soul and it’ll change your life. So if you’re not ready for life change, warning, start reading your Bible, some change is going to happen. But I encourage you to go for it, it’s a good thing to let God do. Maybe join in a ministry team. We have some crazy addicts, I’m sorry, but you just gave me an amen, but I know you become a little bit addicted to missions trips. I don’t know about this guy out here, but there are just times where you go out and serve and you didn’t even know you were going to love it, and then you do it, and next thing you know, you’re like, “Sign me up for the next one, sign me up for the next one, I want to go with the teenagers to youth camp.” You’re crazy folks that want to go to youth camp, but God bless you.

We have people that are like that, that’ll take a week off work to do kids’ camp. I’m literally like, you took a week’s vacation to hang out with children, you’re kind of crazy. But I love that God has called you and you’re so devoted and you’re so inspired, and you’re going after the thing that you know God has called you to. Whenever you start stepping it up, it’ll be interesting to see how God begins to work.

We Will Be an Incredibly Generous Church

Now the second area, I want you to jot this down, this is this next year, I think things can happen here. It’s, we will be an incredibly generous church. Can you say, “Let’s be generous”? Amen. Let’s be generous.

Now, here I want to tell you something about your church. You may not know, but this year we’ll probably give, I don’t know, we’ll see, but we’re going to give 300, $350,000 away, right, to all sorts of different places. But can I tell you one of the really cool things that’s happened in the last three years? About three years ago, we decided to say, “Hey, let’s start a location of Eagle Creek Church in Warrensburg, Missouri, and let’s get that thing up and going,” because they have a ton of college students, they have a ton of people that are right there at the base, there at the Air Force base. And so we got all these guys at the Air Force base, all these college students. And we know the community well enough, I actually went for a semester down to college there, and so I’d always drive by there and say, “Someone needs to reach this community. There’s not a good gospel-preaching, Bible-preaching, strong, growing, thriving, evangelistic, contemporary church there that’s reaching this. So, we’ve got to get after it, we’ve got to do something about this.” And so, God opened up the door for us to be able to go there, to be able to start that church about three years ago.

So, what we did was we found a pastor, he came and joined us, we said, “Let’s get it up and going.” Can I tell you, it cost us like a couple hundred thousand out of our general fund and Kingdom Builder fund to be able to launch that. That was a couple hundred thousand that did not go into the Lee’s Summit budget. Some of you are really mad about that because you’re like, “I give the money for us.” How many of you know that we give the money to build God’s kingdom, not our kingdom, right? Amen, I’ll give a hand for that. I believe in that. I believe that we are here on earth to serve his purposes, right? My money, my bank account’s about his purposes, not mine. If God wants it, it’s his, it’s not mine. Everything I have belongs to the Lord, the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. So, we just gave it away.

And then that church grew so much that by this past Easter, they were running 350 to 380 people on a regular basis right now. And so, we said, “You know what, it’s time for you to launch and be your own church right now, but we’re going to back you up financially, we’re going to help you.” We still are supporting them, they still come up and do staff meetings, one of them offices up here, Sandra is still handling bookkeeping, and we’re doing all sorts of stuff to help that church get up and get going. But whenever we cut them loose, the deacons said, “You know, we can’t cut them loose without making sure they have a good strong bank account.” We got to make sure they have at least three months worth of income in the bank so that they’re in a good strong, that’s, we run more than that, but we want to make sure they were there. So, we gave away another, I don’t know, 50, 60, $70,000 to their bank account.

You’re like, “That’s a lot of money.” How many of you know that Jesus said these words, and then it was repeated in the book of Acts, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Amen. And so I want us to be a church of people that is living an irrationally generous life. And this is what it says was happening, one more time, I want to read this. Acts chapter 4:33-35. It says, “Great grace was upon them all. And there was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands and houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.” They just took care of folks, they were able to take care of the needs of the church, of the people, they could keep being a blessing wherever God wanted them to be.

I want our church to be a church where there is great blessing and no need. Amen, great blessing and no need. How do you get to a place of great blessing and no need? By giving, not by hoarding, right? The principle of God is what, keep it all for yourself, and God will bless it and pour into your bosom blessings such that you cannot contain, and open up the windows and pour? No, it’s when you give that God pours in the blessing that you cannot receive, right? It’s when you give.

And so our church will be a church of crazy generosity, we’re going to keep blessing, we’re going to keep giving, we’re going to keep all these Kingdom Builder stories, we’re not going to stop the Kingdom Builder stories, because we’re going to keep blessing and being generous. But I want to encourage you, if you’re part of building his church, how many of you know, if you’re going to be part of building the church that Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it,” part of building a church is financially building the church, right? So I want to encourage you this year to say, “I’m going to be intensely devoted to generosity as well this year.”

We Will Unapologetically Share the Love of Jesus

And then the third one that I want to give you is this. The third one is this. We will unapologetically share the love of Jesus. Amen. We will unapologetically, in our youth services, in our kids’ services, did you know that we preach to our children in children’s church about Jesus, about the cross, about Jesus’s resurrection, about how they need to get saved, that we teach that from the time a kid is little. And some of you are shocked to hear that, you’re like, “Oh, you can’t teach little kids that.” Did you know that I accepted Christ when I was a little kid because they preached the gospel straight whenever I was a kid, and I understood it and I believed it? How many of you would prefer that your child accepts Jesus at age six and serves him for a lifetime, right? Amen, amen.

So, we’re going to share Jesus with every little kid, every teenager, every adult, over and over and over again. And you know what we’re going to encourage you to do? Go do the same, go share Jesus. Who do you know that doesn’t know about Jesus? And God has just put them on your heart. And you know he’s put them on your heart because you find yourself thinking about whether they’re a Christian, whether they’re saved. You sometimes think, “I don’t know how to start a conversation, I wish I could, how do I say something to them? I don’t know what to do.” I would tell you, start with prayer, pray for them over and over and over, for God to open up a door, an opportunity, and be really friendly to them and just have a relationship, care about them genuinely, and then wait to see how God opens the door.

Maybe God opens the door to say, “Hey, would you come to church with me? They’re doing a series on this.” Or, “Hey, let me talk to you about something, I had this really cool thing I felt like God did in my life, the way God took care of my kid, or you, whatever.” I don’t know, just be real, be real about your faith with them. So, we’ll unapologetically share Jesus.

In Acts 2:47, what’s it say? It says, “And the Lord” did what, “added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” So what’s the weight of this? The weight of the scripture is, it, 

 

and they went out and recruited lots more church members? Does it say, “And they recruited a lot more church members”? No. It says, “The Lord added to their number daily those that were being saved.”

Now I believe they were the light of the world, I believe they were following the Great Commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel, I believe they were doing that, I have no doubt about that, because we see that Peter and James, they were at the temple and they went there to pray, and then they heal the guy, and then they preach, and thousands more come to Christ. And so they just kept doing this, go out and preach. But it wasn’t what they were doing as much as what God was doing through them.

And if you could just be settled and be safe and be secure and say, “You know what, I don’t think it’s what I’m going to do this year at work that’s going to lead to people getting saved, I think it’s what God’s going to do through me that’s going to lead to people getting saved and God adding to his church.” I think if I would let God work through me at school this school year, God could lead someone to faith in Christ. If I would just be open to the moment when God 

says, “Hey, this is your moment, speak up, offer to pray for them, invite them to come with you, start a little Bible study with these two guys” and say, “Oh, I think it’d be cool if we figured that out, maybe we should study the Bible over lunch and figure out, well, I just wonder this or that or the other about Christianity or about God or about end-time events, you know what, why don’t we just start reading about that?” What if, in the moment when God was moving, you stepped into that moment with him?

I would tell you something, if you would open your eyes and you would look around you this year, you would see God was moving all around you. How many of you have ever had a moment where it was a God moment, and God was moving, and you’re like, “This is God moving”? This week I was in Lowe’s, I’m helping my son Evan, I’m sorry, it took me like hours at Lowe’s, but Laura Villarreal was there too, I didn’t know she worked at Lowe’s in Raymore. And I just started talking with this lady, and before long I’m talking to her about faith and about her faith and about her past and where she grew up and all this stuff, and got her number so I could give it to my wife so she could get plugged into a Bible study. But in the moment, you know what I wanted? I wanted 8-foot 2x4s. That’s what I wanted. And God said, “Stop, there’s something more that needs to happen right now.”

Over and over and over, if we open our eyes, God says, “I’m here right now to do this. You’re doing that, I’m doing this, you make your choice right now.” I stopped looking for boards and I started looking for what God was going to do. And I let that happen over and over. That’s what God wants to do. Would you just open your eyes and say, “Lord, show me, I’m stepping in, let’s see God do something right now”?

And so I want to encourage this church. This is a New Testament church. As imperfect as the New Testament church was, we are just as imperfect and we are just as called. We are just as sinful and we are just as forgiven. We are just as flawed and we are just as purposeful. Jesus is still the king of Eagle Creek Church, and we will keep following him and serving him and being devoted and being irrationally generous and sharing faith and opening up our eyes and letting him work through imperfect people like Matt and like you. And this year will be different, not because of us, but because of what he can do through people like us. Amen.

And so I want to invite you, if you’re not yet a follower of Christ, I’m going to ask you to engage in the greatest adventure of your lifetime. I’m going to ask you to engage in the greatest adventure of your eternal lifetime, because you are, believe it or not, an eternal soul that when this life ends, will continue, cognizant and aware, separated from God or connected to him, endlessly in darkness or forever in light.

Jesus loved you so much that he was willing to come to earth and to die for the sins that would separate you from God his father, by giving his own sinless life to pay for your sinful life. And God says if you would just believe in Jesus, receive what he did on that cross for you, not try to be good enough, receive his goodness for you, then you would be saved from his judgment, and you would never face hell beyond this life. You would have the expectation of eternal life, raised from the dead one day with God, with those who believe. This is your hope, this is your future.

If you will receive this, if you will have faith in who Jesus is, if you will confess, “I’ve sinned, I need you, I can’t fix me, I need you, God.” So today, when we pray all across this room and for everyone online, if you’re willing to humble yourself and admit you can’t fix you, you need God, then I’m going to lead you in a prayer right where you’re seated, with everyone in the room, we’ll all pray along together. If you’re already a Christian, it’s an affirmation of faith, if you’re not, it’s a new beginning, a new walk with God. Let’s start now.

Could you bow your heads, all across the room, with every head bowed, every eye closed? If you’d say, “Pastor Matt, I’m absolutely in, I want every sin forgiven, I want God to help me to live the holy life, the called life, the separated life, the incredible life that he actually has for me, that I don’t think I’ve really been experiencing, but I want it, I believe Jesus died for my sins, and I want to follow him.” Now, wherever you are, in a moment when I ask you to raise your hand, I want you to put it up high, I want you to put it up quick, because Jesus said these words, “If you confess me before men, I’ll confess you before my father in heaven.” So, this is your moment to confess, “I am following Jesus now.” And I’ll lead you in a prayer right where you’re seated.

If this is you and you’re ready right now, hands up high, hands up high. All across the room, and that’s what’s happening literally all across the room, people are reaching out to Jesus saying, “Save me.” If you didn’t do that, you need to join in. Put your hand up high with them and say, “I need to join in, I need to pray, I need to be forgiven, I need to trust in Jesus.” You can put your hands down.

Church, all across the room, would you pray out loud? Let’s pray together right along with our brothers and sisters…