1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,333 2 00:00:00,417 --> 00:00:10,417 [music] 3 00:00:13,375 --> 00:00:17,125 What do you think about the church? 4 00:00:20,167 --> 00:00:22,500 Do you love the church? 5 00:00:30,458 --> 00:00:32,875 Do you serve the church? 6 00:00:40,542 --> 00:00:43,917 When you see the church what do you see? 7 00:00:53,292 --> 00:00:57,500 Jesus loves his church. 8 00:01:13,250 --> 00:01:16,208 It's a crazy story. 9 00:01:16,292 --> 00:01:21,333 Two thousand years ago there's a guy around thirty. 10 00:01:21,375 --> 00:01:24,333 His mom was a teenager when he was born. 11 00:01:24,375 --> 00:01:26,417 His dad was a carpenter. 12 00:01:26,500 --> 00:01:29,333 They lived in a rural area, very poor. 13 00:01:29,417 --> 00:01:32,708 Probably grew up in a home about the size of a parking stall 14 00:01:32,792 --> 00:01:34,708 where you and I would put a vehicle. 15 00:01:34,792 --> 00:01:36,708 Part of that home was dedicated to animals. 16 00:01:36,792 --> 00:01:38,958 They didn't even use all of that square footage. 17 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:42,042 No indoor plumbing, no wealth, affluence, opulence, 18 00:01:42,125 --> 00:01:44,333 nothing like that. 19 00:01:44,417 --> 00:01:47,042 He worked with his dad for a while as a carpenter, 20 00:01:47,125 --> 00:01:49,333 and then he started preaching and teaching. 21 00:01:49,417 --> 00:01:53,417 And he had a group of about 12 followers, that's it. 22 00:01:53,500 --> 00:01:56,625 Comes from a small town, maybe dozens of people. 23 00:01:56,667 --> 00:02:00,667 There's only one well to sustain that entire population. 24 00:02:00,750 --> 00:02:03,417 He would have gone there every day, perhaps with his mother, 25 00:02:03,500 --> 00:02:05,458 Mary, to get some water. 26 00:02:05,500 --> 00:02:09,542 Very simple, very humble, very rural. 27 00:02:09,625 --> 00:02:14,333 No wife, no kids, no job. 28 00:02:14,417 --> 00:02:17,750 And then in Matthew 16:18 we read this statement that he 29 00:02:17,833 --> 00:02:22,458 makes even though he's only got about a dozen followers. 30 00:02:22,500 --> 00:02:25,833 Here's what he has to say, it's an astonishing statement, 31 00:02:25,917 --> 00:02:29,667 "I will--" this guy's pretty confident in his plan, 32 00:02:29,708 --> 00:02:31,958 "I will," what? 33 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:34,333 "Build my church." 34 00:02:34,417 --> 00:02:38,208 Not just some thing, his thing, "my church." 35 00:02:38,292 --> 00:02:39,625 Ownership. 36 00:02:39,667 --> 00:02:41,000 "Who's going to do it?" 37 00:02:41,083 --> 00:02:42,417 "I will," he says. 38 00:02:42,500 --> 00:02:43,833 "I will build my church, 39 00:02:43,917 --> 00:02:47,042 and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 40 00:02:47,125 --> 00:02:53,500 Just imagine a 30-year-old, unemployed, homeless guy, 41 00:02:53,583 --> 00:02:59,333 single, who grew up in a rural town, saying this with 42 00:02:59,417 --> 00:03:02,917 all authority to 12 guys. 43 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:06,542 How many of you would snicker, laugh, make fun of him, 44 00:03:06,625 --> 00:03:11,000 immediately Twitter, "Met the craziest guy on earth"? 45 00:03:11,083 --> 00:03:14,000 This is a big statement. 46 00:03:14,083 --> 00:03:16,250 Well, this guy's Jesus Christ. 47 00:03:16,333 --> 00:03:19,917 And 2,000 years later, we're the church. 48 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:22,750 Jesus builds his church. 49 00:03:22,833 --> 00:03:26,042 A few billion people on earth today claim to worship him 50 00:03:26,125 --> 00:03:29,625 as Lord, God, Savior, King, and Christ. 51 00:03:29,667 --> 00:03:32,042 The most famous person who's lived in the history of 52 00:03:32,125 --> 00:03:35,833 the world is this man, Jesus Christ, and the church 53 00:03:35,917 --> 00:03:41,750 2,000 years later loves him, serves him, follows him. 54 00:03:41,833 --> 00:03:44,542 How in the world did this happen? 55 00:03:44,625 --> 00:03:46,500 What were the events that transpired? 56 00:03:46,583 --> 00:03:50,250 How in the world did Jesus build his church? 57 00:03:50,333 --> 00:03:52,958 Well, it starts in Acts 1:8, 58 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:55,958 Jesus told us how he would build his church. 59 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:59,208 After his sinless life, after his death on the cross, 60 00:03:59,292 --> 00:04:01,667 after his resurrection from death, 61 00:04:01,750 --> 00:04:05,167 Jesus gets together what was at that point the early church, 62 00:04:05,208 --> 00:04:08,167 and it was 120 people. 63 00:04:08,208 --> 00:04:10,125 Not a lot of people. 64 00:04:10,167 --> 00:04:14,250 And he says this, "But you will receive power." 65 00:04:14,333 --> 00:04:17,208 Now the difference between those 120 people 66 00:04:17,292 --> 00:04:19,333 and a few billion people 67 00:04:19,375 --> 00:04:22,708 a few thousand years later is that they were given 68 00:04:22,792 --> 00:04:25,958 power and that power has continued from generation 69 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:27,667 to generation. 70 00:04:27,708 --> 00:04:31,542 It's supernatural, miraculous, God-appointed power. 71 00:04:31,625 --> 00:04:35,125 "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you." 72 00:04:35,167 --> 00:04:38,833 And so Jesus' promise to the 120 who were comprising 73 00:04:38,917 --> 00:04:41,458 the first church after his resurrection, 74 00:04:41,500 --> 00:04:43,667 "Your lives are going to be marked by power 75 00:04:43,708 --> 00:04:46,458 "because the Holy Spirit is coming and he is going 76 00:04:46,500 --> 00:04:48,333 to give you power." 77 00:04:48,417 --> 00:04:50,333 Jesus is the second member of the Trinity. 78 00:04:50,417 --> 00:04:52,458 There's one God in three persons. 79 00:04:52,500 --> 00:04:54,625 And he is God become a man. 80 00:04:54,667 --> 00:04:57,250 And when he rose from death, before he ascended into heaven, 81 00:04:57,333 --> 00:04:59,333 he said that the Spirit would be coming, 82 00:04:59,417 --> 00:05:01,375 the third member of the Trinity, 83 00:05:01,458 --> 00:05:03,667 to empower the Christians for what? 84 00:05:03,708 --> 00:05:09,542 Well, for ministry and mission, "And you will be my witnesses." 85 00:05:09,625 --> 00:05:13,167 Jesus is telling 120 people, "The whole world is going to 86 00:05:13,208 --> 00:05:16,042 "know who I am and what I've done through my death, burial, 87 00:05:16,125 --> 00:05:19,333 resurrection, and you're going to tell them." 88 00:05:19,375 --> 00:05:23,167 He tells the church that our mission is to be his witnesses. 89 00:05:23,208 --> 00:05:25,750 That means we live openly, and publicly, 90 00:05:25,833 --> 00:05:28,917 and honestly about a love for Jesus because we want 91 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:32,167 other people to know him, and to love him, and to meet him, 92 00:05:32,208 --> 00:05:35,833 and to become Christians devoted to him and following of him. 93 00:05:35,875 --> 00:05:37,333 And he says it'll happen in 94 00:05:37,417 --> 00:05:39,667 "Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth." 95 00:05:39,708 --> 00:05:42,042 That it would start where they were at 96 00:05:42,125 --> 00:05:43,750 and it would ring out from there. 97 00:05:43,833 --> 00:05:46,000 And that's how ministry is ultimately to work. 98 00:05:46,083 --> 00:05:48,250 You start with your neighbors, your family, your friends, 99 00:05:48,333 --> 00:05:49,667 your co-workers. 100 00:05:49,708 --> 00:05:52,333 Your heart grows for your city, for your region, 101 00:05:52,375 --> 00:05:55,167 for your nation, for the nations of the earth. 102 00:05:55,208 --> 00:05:57,625 And Jesus said this is how it would work. 103 00:05:57,667 --> 00:05:59,208 And here we are Mars Hill; 104 00:05:59,292 --> 00:06:01,500 we are officially the "end of the earth," 105 00:06:01,583 --> 00:06:03,167 amen? 106 00:06:03,208 --> 00:06:05,333 We're a long ways away from Jerusalem, 107 00:06:05,417 --> 00:06:08,167 but it's the same Jesus that we love, that we know, 108 00:06:08,208 --> 00:06:10,125 and we worship. 109 00:06:10,167 --> 00:06:12,458 That's the story of the Christian faith. 110 00:06:12,500 --> 00:06:14,042 We love the church. 111 00:06:14,125 --> 00:06:15,750 Jesus loves the church. 112 00:06:15,833 --> 00:06:19,042 Jesus loves us, and we love him back. 113 00:06:19,125 --> 00:06:22,708 And Jesus has built his church for 2,000 years, 114 00:06:22,792 --> 00:06:25,458 and he was right, the gates of hell have not prevailed 115 00:06:25,500 --> 00:06:27,167 against it. 116 00:06:27,208 --> 00:06:29,625 Satan, and demons, and their minions, and opinions 117 00:06:29,667 --> 00:06:33,750 have in no way been able to thwart the forward progress of 118 00:06:33,833 --> 00:06:35,833 the church of Jesus Christ. 119 00:06:35,917 --> 00:06:40,667 And 2,000 years later, with all her faults, flaws, and failures, 120 00:06:40,708 --> 00:06:43,458 the church of Jesus Christ persists and continues 121 00:06:43,500 --> 00:06:47,833 for one simple reason, Jesus loves his church. 122 00:06:47,917 --> 00:06:49,708 He just does. 123 00:06:49,792 --> 00:06:52,208 And he said he would build it, and he is. 124 00:06:52,292 --> 00:06:57,125 And he said he would send the Holy Spirit to her, and he has. 125 00:06:57,167 --> 00:06:59,833 What happens then is after Jesus promises, 126 00:06:59,917 --> 00:07:04,333 "Here's the global plan," to 120 people, 127 00:07:04,417 --> 00:07:07,833 the church is birthed through the preaching of a sermon 128 00:07:07,875 --> 00:07:11,333 by a leader whom Jesus personally trained, named Peter. 129 00:07:11,417 --> 00:07:15,250 We're going to read his sermon, and then we're going to look 130 00:07:15,333 --> 00:07:19,417 in succession at what happens when Jesus builds his church. 131 00:07:19,500 --> 00:07:22,625 What happens when the Holy Spirit shows up? 132 00:07:22,667 --> 00:07:26,958 And I'll just say this plainly and clearly, Jesus loves us, 133 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:30,167 and we want you to love Jesus, and we want you to love 134 00:07:30,208 --> 00:07:32,667 one another, and we want you to love our church, 135 00:07:32,708 --> 00:07:34,833 and we want you to love the whole church, 136 00:07:34,917 --> 00:07:36,625 all the churches that belong to Jesus. 137 00:07:36,667 --> 00:07:40,333 And as our church has grown, and we have so many new people, 138 00:07:40,375 --> 00:07:42,833 we're taking some time in this series, 139 00:07:42,917 --> 00:07:45,750 "Jesus Loves His Church" so you would know and understand, 140 00:07:45,833 --> 00:07:49,333 appreciate, and love the church of Jesus Christ. 141 00:07:49,375 --> 00:07:51,667 And here we're going back 2,000 years 142 00:07:51,708 --> 00:07:55,333 and we're looking at opening Sunday, as it were. 143 00:07:55,375 --> 00:07:58,667 Where 120 people that were the core group 144 00:07:58,708 --> 00:08:00,833 of that original church plant, 145 00:08:00,875 --> 00:08:03,917 they opened the door and Peter, their pastor, 146 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:07,333 stands up to preach the first sermon, and the New Testament, 147 00:08:07,417 --> 00:08:09,750 new covenant church is birthed. 148 00:08:09,833 --> 00:08:11,958 And we're going to see how the church started. 149 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:14,167 And we'll see how the church is sustained. 150 00:08:14,208 --> 00:08:17,333 And we want to look at the ways that the Holy Spirit worked 151 00:08:17,417 --> 00:08:19,833 because those are the same ways that the Holy Spirit 152 00:08:19,917 --> 00:08:21,667 is still working. 153 00:08:21,708 --> 00:08:26,625 And so we read this, in Acts 2:38-47, 154 00:08:26,667 --> 00:08:28,125 we'll read it all together. 155 00:08:28,167 --> 00:08:29,500 "Peter said to them," 156 00:08:29,583 --> 00:08:31,708 so it's a sermon, you need to know this, 157 00:08:31,792 --> 00:08:34,250 Christianity starts, the church is birthed with a sermon, 158 00:08:34,333 --> 00:08:36,167 with a preaching of the Word of God, 159 00:08:36,208 --> 00:08:38,458 and the church is sustained through the preaching 160 00:08:38,500 --> 00:08:40,333 of the Word of God. 161 00:08:40,375 --> 00:08:42,958 That is why at Mars Hill Church every week 162 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:44,500 the Scriptures are opened, 163 00:08:44,583 --> 00:08:47,208 Jesus is proclaimed, the Bible is taught, 164 00:08:47,292 --> 00:08:49,250 the gospel is shared. 165 00:08:49,333 --> 00:08:53,333 And I believe in every way that if at any point we cease 166 00:08:53,417 --> 00:08:55,458 teaching the Bible, 167 00:08:55,500 --> 00:08:58,750 the Holy Spirit will cease blessing us. 168 00:08:58,833 --> 00:09:01,000 Because the power is in the Word of God, 169 00:09:01,083 --> 00:09:04,458 and the Holy Spirit who inspired the writing of Scriptures works 170 00:09:04,500 --> 00:09:07,458 through them, powerfully in the lives of people. 171 00:09:07,500 --> 00:09:10,667 And if we shut the Bible and set it off to the side, 172 00:09:10,708 --> 00:09:14,167 and we don't seek to understand and obey it by the grace of God, 173 00:09:14,208 --> 00:09:16,833 then the Holy Spirit is, in every way, 174 00:09:16,875 --> 00:09:20,542 unwelcome in our presence among our people. 175 00:09:20,625 --> 00:09:23,458 We want to be a people who always have the Bible open, 176 00:09:23,500 --> 00:09:25,667 who are always studying the Scriptures, 177 00:09:25,708 --> 00:09:27,833 seeking ways that we can learn, and change, 178 00:09:27,917 --> 00:09:29,833 and grow by the grace of God. 179 00:09:29,875 --> 00:09:31,667 The church was birthed by a sermon, 180 00:09:31,708 --> 00:09:33,333 and it is grown and sustained 181 00:09:33,417 --> 00:09:35,333 through the preaching of God's Word. 182 00:09:35,417 --> 00:09:37,542 And he says, "'Repent and be baptized.'" 183 00:09:37,625 --> 00:09:39,333 We'll unpack all of this. 184 00:09:39,417 --> 00:09:41,833 "'Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ,'" 185 00:09:41,917 --> 00:09:43,958 the church is Jesus' people, 186 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:47,750 "'for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift 187 00:09:47,833 --> 00:09:49,833 "'of the Holy Spirit. 188 00:09:49,917 --> 00:09:52,417 "'For the promise is for you and for your children 189 00:09:52,500 --> 00:09:56,250 and for all who are far off,'" that would include us, 190 00:09:56,333 --> 00:09:59,708 "'everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.' 191 00:09:59,792 --> 00:10:01,417 "And with many other words," 192 00:10:01,500 --> 00:10:04,333 so this is just a short summary of a long sermon, 193 00:10:04,375 --> 00:10:06,667 "he bore witness and continued to exhort them, 194 00:10:06,708 --> 00:10:10,250 "saying, 'Save yourselves from this crooked generation.' 195 00:10:10,333 --> 00:10:13,458 "So those who received his word were baptized, 196 00:10:13,500 --> 00:10:16,667 and there were added that day about three thousand souls." 197 00:10:16,708 --> 00:10:18,167 Can you imagine that? 198 00:10:18,208 --> 00:10:22,833 The church went from 120 to 3,120 in a day. 199 00:10:22,917 --> 00:10:24,250 Do you know how many 200 00:10:24,333 --> 00:10:25,667 Community Group leaders they needed? 201 00:10:25,708 --> 00:10:28,167 Problem was all the new people had been a Christian 202 00:10:28,208 --> 00:10:29,542 for a minute. 203 00:10:29,625 --> 00:10:31,542 They needed a lot of elders, deacons, members, 204 00:10:31,625 --> 00:10:34,042 I'm sure their budget was way out of whack. 205 00:10:34,125 --> 00:10:36,042 The line into kids' ministry was probably horrible. 206 00:10:36,125 --> 00:10:38,542 And it probably took an hour to get your camel 207 00:10:38,625 --> 00:10:39,958 out of the parking lot. 208 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:41,333 It was very complicated. 209 00:10:41,417 --> 00:10:44,958 They suddenly outgrew everything, praise be to God. 210 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:47,250 "And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching 211 00:10:47,333 --> 00:10:49,667 and the fellowship," that's friendship, 212 00:10:49,708 --> 00:10:51,833 "to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 213 00:10:51,917 --> 00:10:53,833 And awe came upon every soul." 214 00:10:53,875 --> 00:10:55,750 People were amazed because God showed up 215 00:10:55,833 --> 00:10:58,833 and the Holy Spirit was working. 216 00:10:58,875 --> 00:11:01,917 Jesus ascended back into heaven and sent the Spirit, 217 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:05,042 and when the Spirit of God dropped on the people of God, 218 00:11:05,125 --> 00:11:07,333 lives were changed in large number, 219 00:11:07,375 --> 00:11:09,708 and the world has never been the same. 220 00:11:09,792 --> 00:11:11,958 "And many wonders and signs were being done through 221 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:13,333 the apostles." 222 00:11:13,417 --> 00:11:16,458 We still see people healed and miracles done because God is 223 00:11:16,500 --> 00:11:19,458 the same yesterday, today, and forever. 224 00:11:19,500 --> 00:11:21,333 If you're sick, come forward after service, 225 00:11:21,375 --> 00:11:24,333 we'd love to pray for you and see if perhaps God has 226 00:11:24,375 --> 00:11:27,458 a miracle, a sign, or a wonder for you. 227 00:11:27,500 --> 00:11:30,958 "And all who believed were together 228 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:32,667 "and had all things in common. 229 00:11:32,708 --> 00:11:35,042 "And they were selling their possessions and belongings 230 00:11:35,125 --> 00:11:38,750 "and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 231 00:11:38,833 --> 00:11:42,542 And day by day, attending the temple together," 232 00:11:42,625 --> 00:11:45,333 these are big meetings, like we have on the weekends, 233 00:11:45,375 --> 00:11:46,833 "and breaking bread in their homes," 234 00:11:46,917 --> 00:11:49,250 these are like small meetings, Community Groups, 235 00:11:49,333 --> 00:11:52,250 "they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 236 00:11:52,333 --> 00:11:55,250 "praising God and having favor with all the people. 237 00:11:55,333 --> 00:11:57,917 "And the Lord added to their number day by day 238 00:11:58,000 --> 00:11:59,333 those who were being saved." 239 00:11:59,417 --> 00:12:01,917 That's the story. 240 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:04,250 Here's what I want to do. 241 00:12:04,333 --> 00:12:07,042 I want to look at eight things that happen when Jesus 242 00:12:07,125 --> 00:12:08,667 builds his church. 243 00:12:08,708 --> 00:12:11,125 I want to look at eight things that happen when 244 00:12:11,167 --> 00:12:13,833 the Holy Spirit shows up among the people of God. 245 00:12:13,917 --> 00:12:16,833 And I want you to see that the way he worked then 246 00:12:16,917 --> 00:12:18,333 is the way he works now. 247 00:12:18,417 --> 00:12:21,708 And Jesus continues 2,000 years later to build his church. 248 00:12:21,792 --> 00:12:24,458 And we are very excited to be a part of Jesus 249 00:12:24,500 --> 00:12:26,042 building his church. 250 00:12:26,125 --> 00:12:29,042 And in the providence of God, I didn't intend or plan it 251 00:12:29,125 --> 00:12:31,458 this way, when I laid out the preaching schedule, 252 00:12:31,500 --> 00:12:33,750 but this is the end of our fiscal year, 253 00:12:33,833 --> 00:12:35,458 in concludes at the end of June. 254 00:12:35,500 --> 00:12:38,458 And so in addition to seeing what the Holy Spirit was doing 255 00:12:38,500 --> 00:12:40,958 in their day, I also get to share with you 256 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:42,500 what the Holy Spirit is doing 257 00:12:42,583 --> 00:12:44,708 in our day as sort of a year-end summary. 258 00:12:44,792 --> 00:12:46,958 And so number one, when Jesus builds his church 259 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:49,833 it has regenerated church members. 260 00:12:49,917 --> 00:12:52,042 We see that here in the book of Acts, 261 00:12:52,125 --> 00:12:54,458 it says that the gospel was preached, 262 00:12:54,500 --> 00:12:57,167 that they asked, "What must we do to be saved?" 263 00:12:57,208 --> 00:13:00,667 Peter says, "Repent of your sin. 264 00:13:00,750 --> 00:13:02,750 "Repent of your sin. 265 00:13:02,833 --> 00:13:04,333 "Trust in Jesus. 266 00:13:04,417 --> 00:13:05,833 "Be baptized. 267 00:13:05,875 --> 00:13:07,542 Receive the Holy Spirit." 268 00:13:07,625 --> 00:13:10,042 It is very important for us that you know, 269 00:13:10,125 --> 00:13:13,250 if you're not a Christian you are totally welcome at 270 00:13:13,333 --> 00:13:15,333 Mars Hill Church, we love you, 271 00:13:15,417 --> 00:13:17,458 we are earnestly glad to have you. 272 00:13:17,500 --> 00:13:20,208 If you have young children that have not yet met Jesus, 273 00:13:20,292 --> 00:13:23,417 I'm a father of five, we love kids, Jesus welcomed kids, 274 00:13:23,500 --> 00:13:25,458 we welcome kids as well. 275 00:13:25,500 --> 00:13:28,667 And certainly children that are in the process of coming to know 276 00:13:28,708 --> 00:13:30,917 Jesus are welcome at Mars Hill. 277 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:34,833 But church membership is reserved for those 278 00:13:34,917 --> 00:13:37,250 who are Christians. 279 00:13:37,333 --> 00:13:40,542 Regenerated means born again. 280 00:13:40,625 --> 00:13:43,667 It means that they have experienced the indwelling 281 00:13:43,708 --> 00:13:46,333 presence and power of the Holy Spirit. 282 00:13:46,417 --> 00:13:49,458 How do you know whether or not you have the Holy Spirit? 283 00:13:49,500 --> 00:13:51,458 Well, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12, 284 00:13:51,500 --> 00:13:54,833 "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' but by the Holy Spirit." 285 00:13:54,917 --> 00:13:57,333 The one way you know you have the Holy Spirit 286 00:13:57,417 --> 00:13:58,750 is you love Jesus. 287 00:13:58,833 --> 00:14:00,333 You belong to Jesus. 288 00:14:00,375 --> 00:14:01,833 You worship Jesus. 289 00:14:01,875 --> 00:14:03,208 You serve Jesus. 290 00:14:03,292 --> 00:14:04,750 You confess your sin to Jesus. 291 00:14:04,833 --> 00:14:06,250 You want to be like Jesus. 292 00:14:06,333 --> 00:14:08,625 You're pretty fired up about Jesus. 293 00:14:08,667 --> 00:14:12,125 You know you've got the Holy Spirit when Jesus is 294 00:14:12,167 --> 00:14:15,958 the center of your life and the object of your affection. 295 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:17,958 That's what it means to be born again. 296 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:21,958 You could be physically alive but spiritually dead. 297 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:24,750 Regeneration is where you're made spiritually alive. 298 00:14:24,833 --> 00:14:27,542 You're connected to the resurrection life of Jesus 299 00:14:27,625 --> 00:14:30,167 through the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit. 300 00:14:30,208 --> 00:14:32,333 This is so important. 301 00:14:32,417 --> 00:14:34,958 Many churches allow anyone and everyone to become 302 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:36,958 a member of the church. 303 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:38,667 They get to vote on things. 304 00:14:38,708 --> 00:14:40,250 They get to lead ministries. 305 00:14:40,333 --> 00:14:41,708 They get to teach others. 306 00:14:41,792 --> 00:14:47,042 We do want to welcome everyone, but we reserve official 307 00:14:47,125 --> 00:14:51,625 membership of the church for those who know and love Jesus. 308 00:14:51,667 --> 00:14:54,333 Once you become a member then you can lead, 309 00:14:54,417 --> 00:14:56,000 you can teach a Community Group, 310 00:14:56,083 --> 00:14:58,333 you can lead others with a worship team, 311 00:14:58,417 --> 00:15:00,417 or a service team, or a Redemption Group 312 00:15:00,500 --> 00:15:03,042 for those who are addicted or abused. 313 00:15:03,125 --> 00:15:05,333 But we need to guard the gate of membership. 314 00:15:05,375 --> 00:15:08,208 And so we have something called a doctrine class. 315 00:15:08,292 --> 00:15:10,750 And I've written an entire book called "Doctrine" because we 316 00:15:10,833 --> 00:15:13,958 want you to know exactly what we believe and what 317 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:17,333 the Bible teaches because it's our highest authority. 318 00:15:17,417 --> 00:15:21,833 And we invite you to become members of the church. 319 00:15:21,875 --> 00:15:24,750 The Bible uses the metaphor of the church often, 320 00:15:24,833 --> 00:15:27,958 that it's like a body with many members or parts. 321 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:30,333 Our goal is if you would know Jesus, 322 00:15:30,375 --> 00:15:33,500 to become a part of our body, and to then find your place 323 00:15:33,583 --> 00:15:35,625 and to work with your brothers and sisters, 324 00:15:35,667 --> 00:15:39,125 the other members of the body, to be the hands and feet, 325 00:15:39,167 --> 00:15:42,833 to be the love and service of Jesus to our community. 326 00:15:42,917 --> 00:15:45,833 I would encourage you, if you're a Christian and you're not yet 327 00:15:45,917 --> 00:15:48,542 a member of the church, become a member of the church, 328 00:15:48,625 --> 00:15:51,333 go through the doctrine class, we'll tell you what we believe, 329 00:15:51,375 --> 00:15:53,250 answer your questions, and you'll know exactly what 330 00:15:53,333 --> 00:15:55,625 you're signing up for. 331 00:15:55,667 --> 00:15:57,000 But there are churches, friends, 332 00:15:57,083 --> 00:15:59,000 where the members are not Christians. 333 00:15:59,083 --> 00:16:02,958 I've consulted on a few deeply troubling situations 334 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:05,333 where a church is near dead 335 00:16:05,375 --> 00:16:07,542 and the members have the right to vote 336 00:16:07,625 --> 00:16:09,625 on what the church will do. 337 00:16:09,667 --> 00:16:13,750 On one of those occasions I actually was devastated because 338 00:16:13,833 --> 00:16:16,542 the majority of the people who were members of the church 339 00:16:16,625 --> 00:16:18,917 were not even Christians. 340 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:21,458 And they're voting what to do with all the assets 341 00:16:21,500 --> 00:16:23,333 and all the opportunities. 342 00:16:23,375 --> 00:16:26,667 I saw one church that was dying, near death, 343 00:16:26,708 --> 00:16:29,333 and it came down to where the members of the church 344 00:16:29,417 --> 00:16:30,750 had two options: 345 00:16:30,833 --> 00:16:32,958 "We're going to give our building to another church 346 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:35,417 or we're going to give it to a basketball league." 347 00:16:35,500 --> 00:16:38,417 And the people voted to give it to a basketball league because 348 00:16:38,500 --> 00:16:40,333 they love basketball more than Jesus. 349 00:16:40,375 --> 00:16:41,833 There's nothing wrong with basketball. 350 00:16:41,917 --> 00:16:43,250 Yay, basketball. 351 00:16:43,333 --> 00:16:44,833 We're pro-basketball. 352 00:16:44,875 --> 00:16:47,000 But if it comes down to Jesus and basketball, 353 00:16:47,083 --> 00:16:50,333 Christians should vote for Jesus. 354 00:16:50,417 --> 00:16:54,250 That's what happens when you have non-Christians who are 355 00:16:54,333 --> 00:16:56,458 members of the church. 356 00:16:56,500 --> 00:16:58,958 Then non-Christians become the leaders of the church. 357 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:02,250 And if the leaders in the church and the members of the church 358 00:17:02,333 --> 00:17:05,000 don't love Jesus, how in the world can they introduce 359 00:17:05,083 --> 00:17:09,667 the world to Jesus Christ? 360 00:17:09,708 --> 00:17:12,417 It says, "Those who received his word were baptized, 361 00:17:12,500 --> 00:17:15,208 and there were added that day about three thousand souls." 362 00:17:15,292 --> 00:17:17,042 They did know who the Christians were. 363 00:17:17,125 --> 00:17:20,250 Now, truth be told, sometimes it is hard to tell whether or not 364 00:17:20,333 --> 00:17:21,958 somebody is a Christian. 365 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:24,500 Sometimes it takes a while to see if they persevere 366 00:17:24,583 --> 00:17:26,417 in the faith that they profess. 367 00:17:26,500 --> 00:17:28,833 But they knew, "We had 120, and 3,000 people 368 00:17:28,917 --> 00:17:32,167 became Christians today, and they joined our church." 369 00:17:32,208 --> 00:17:35,167 If you're not a Christian, we want you to give your sin 370 00:17:35,208 --> 00:17:36,542 and your life to Jesus. 371 00:17:36,625 --> 00:17:38,250 He died and he rose for you. 372 00:17:38,333 --> 00:17:40,458 Number two, if you're a Christian, you're part of 373 00:17:40,500 --> 00:17:42,667 something that Augustine called the universal Church. 374 00:17:42,708 --> 00:17:44,333 You're one of God's people. 375 00:17:44,375 --> 00:17:46,542 You're also supposed to be part of something called 376 00:17:46,625 --> 00:17:49,042 the local church. 377 00:17:49,125 --> 00:17:51,125 Welcome to Mars Hill. 378 00:17:51,167 --> 00:17:52,750 We love you. 379 00:17:52,833 --> 00:17:54,458 We want you to be connected. 380 00:17:54,500 --> 00:17:56,458 We want you to be in community. 381 00:17:56,500 --> 00:17:59,958 We want you to care for others and be cared for. 382 00:18:00,083 --> 00:18:02,542 So it starts with regenerated church membership. 383 00:18:02,625 --> 00:18:05,458 And let me say, I've even seen churches where the pastor's 384 00:18:05,500 --> 00:18:07,333 not a Christian. 385 00:18:07,417 --> 00:18:10,708 I'll never forget the day, I was a brand-new Christian, 386 00:18:10,792 --> 00:18:12,917 and they brought me to teach at a conference, 387 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:16,125 and I had no right to be there, and I shouldn't have been teaching 388 00:18:16,167 --> 00:18:18,625 because I didn't even know what I was talking about. 389 00:18:18,667 --> 00:18:22,125 But I remember standing up and they had me do a session on how 390 00:18:22,167 --> 00:18:25,333 do you reach young people, and by young they meant 60 or under. 391 00:18:25,375 --> 00:18:27,333 These were some old people. 392 00:18:27,417 --> 00:18:30,333 And so I got up and I preached out of Romans 1, 393 00:18:30,417 --> 00:18:33,042 that the gospel is the power of God for the salvation 394 00:18:33,125 --> 00:18:36,500 of all who believe, and the power is in the gospel. 395 00:18:36,583 --> 00:18:38,333 I had a pastor raise his hand. 396 00:18:38,417 --> 00:18:40,333 There's a couple hundred pastors in the room. 397 00:18:40,417 --> 00:18:42,833 This was a major denomination, one of the largest denominations 398 00:18:42,917 --> 00:18:44,250 in America. 399 00:18:44,333 --> 00:18:46,458 He says, "Well, what if you don't believe that?" 400 00:18:46,500 --> 00:18:48,458 I said, "What if you don't believe what?" 401 00:18:48,500 --> 00:18:51,333 "What if you don't believe that Jesus rose from death?" 402 00:18:51,417 --> 00:18:54,958 I said, "Well, then you're going to hell." 403 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:57,708 I just said it like that, I would probably say it 404 00:18:57,792 --> 00:19:00,125 differently today, but I'd still say the same thing. 405 00:19:00,167 --> 00:19:03,458 So I said, "Then you're going to hell." 406 00:19:03,500 --> 00:19:05,667 I said, "Are you the pastor?" He said, "Yeah." 407 00:19:05,708 --> 00:19:07,667 And I said, "You think Jesus is dead?" 408 00:19:07,708 --> 00:19:09,542 He said, "Yes, I do." 409 00:19:09,625 --> 00:19:11,250 I didn't even know what to say. 410 00:19:11,333 --> 00:19:13,250 I didn't know you could be a pastor 411 00:19:13,333 --> 00:19:16,667 who thought Jesus was dead. 412 00:19:16,708 --> 00:19:21,833 But some pastors aren't even Christians. 413 00:19:21,875 --> 00:19:26,542 They don't believe in Jesus. 414 00:19:26,625 --> 00:19:31,458 We want to make sure that the members of this church 415 00:19:31,500 --> 00:19:33,042 really are Christians. 416 00:19:33,125 --> 00:19:34,750 Amen? 417 00:19:34,833 --> 00:19:37,667 Number two, what happens when Jesus builds his church? 418 00:19:37,708 --> 00:19:40,833 Well, they have qualified leadership. 419 00:19:40,917 --> 00:19:44,708 Here, it's Peter, he stands up to preach. 420 00:19:44,792 --> 00:19:46,500 He's the leader. 421 00:19:46,583 --> 00:19:48,667 With him are the other disciples. 422 00:19:48,708 --> 00:19:51,333 Qualified leaders. 423 00:19:51,375 --> 00:19:53,667 They're exercising leadership through preaching, 424 00:19:53,708 --> 00:19:55,667 and teaching, and leading. 425 00:19:55,708 --> 00:19:57,167 The church is to be led. 426 00:19:57,208 --> 00:19:59,542 Ultimately Jesus is our senior pastor. 427 00:19:59,625 --> 00:20:01,958 1 Peter 5 says he's the chief shepherd. 428 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:06,750 So he's the senior pastor and then under Jesus are to be 429 00:20:06,833 --> 00:20:09,708 other qualified leaders. 430 00:20:09,792 --> 00:20:14,542 Peter goes on to call himself a pastor, a shepherd. 431 00:20:14,625 --> 00:20:18,125 He says this in 1 Peter and 2 Peter. 432 00:20:18,167 --> 00:20:22,333 And what happens then is as the church grows, they have elders, 433 00:20:22,417 --> 00:20:25,333 also called pastors, and deacons. 434 00:20:25,417 --> 00:20:27,667 We're going to get into all of these issues 435 00:20:27,708 --> 00:20:29,042 in the coming weeks. 436 00:20:29,125 --> 00:20:31,750 We're going to take this 11-week series to look at 437 00:20:31,833 --> 00:20:33,542 all of these issues biblically. 438 00:20:33,625 --> 00:20:38,542 We want you to know what the Bible teaches about the church. 439 00:20:38,625 --> 00:20:42,833 But suffice it to say, those pastors, elders, 440 00:20:42,917 --> 00:20:47,042 and those deacons, those two offices of leadership, 441 00:20:47,125 --> 00:20:50,333 the qualifications are found in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. 442 00:20:50,417 --> 00:20:52,833 We'll get into that in the coming weeks. 443 00:20:52,917 --> 00:20:55,500 What we're looking for is people who love Jesus 444 00:20:55,583 --> 00:20:57,000 who have exemplary lives. 445 00:20:57,083 --> 00:21:00,917 Not perfect, but humble people, growing in the grace of God, 446 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:03,750 who really love the church. 447 00:21:03,833 --> 00:21:07,250 And to be a leader, the Bible says, is to be like a shepherd. 448 00:21:07,333 --> 00:21:10,250 And so there's Jesus, the good shepherd, 449 00:21:10,333 --> 00:21:12,042 that's who he says he is. 450 00:21:12,125 --> 00:21:15,167 And the church is filled with people, they're like sheep. 451 00:21:15,208 --> 00:21:19,000 And that leaders are to be like shepherds who love, and protect, 452 00:21:19,083 --> 00:21:22,042 and care for, and tend to the church. 453 00:21:22,125 --> 00:21:24,833 And Satan's always sending in wolves, the Bible says, 454 00:21:24,875 --> 00:21:26,250 to hurt the flock. 455 00:21:26,333 --> 00:21:30,000 So a good shepherd also has to fight wolves, false teachers, 456 00:21:30,083 --> 00:21:32,833 those who would use and abuse people. 457 00:21:32,917 --> 00:21:35,167 And they're not to be like hirelings. 458 00:21:35,208 --> 00:21:39,333 John 10, Jesus says that there are leaders and hirelings. 459 00:21:39,375 --> 00:21:41,958 Hirelings are people who are just in it for the power, 460 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:43,750 they're just in it for the money, 461 00:21:43,833 --> 00:21:45,333 they're not in it for Jesus, 462 00:21:45,417 --> 00:21:47,208 they're not in it for the people. 463 00:21:47,292 --> 00:21:50,542 And when crisis comes, a hireling runs away. 464 00:21:50,625 --> 00:21:52,042 You can tell the difference between 465 00:21:52,125 --> 00:21:53,750 a shepherd and a hireling, 466 00:21:53,833 --> 00:21:55,625 when there's a crisis or a problem, 467 00:21:55,667 --> 00:21:59,333 the shepherd runs to it, and the hireling runs from it. 468 00:21:59,375 --> 00:22:04,708 Because a shepherd will lay down their life for the sheep 469 00:22:04,792 --> 00:22:08,958 and a hireling does not want to be inconvenienced. 470 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:13,958 Is God calling you to be a leader in our church? 471 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:17,667 Is he calling you, some of you men, to be an elder or a pastor, 472 00:22:17,708 --> 00:22:19,333 paid or unpaid? 473 00:22:19,417 --> 00:22:22,250 Let us know, we have a process we'll take you through. 474 00:22:22,333 --> 00:22:24,750 We're going to evaluate you and get to know you. 475 00:22:24,833 --> 00:22:28,167 It's not fast because we want to make sure we get shepherds 476 00:22:28,208 --> 00:22:30,667 and not wolves or hirelings. 477 00:22:30,708 --> 00:22:34,167 Is God calling you to be a deacon, a man or a woman, 478 00:22:34,208 --> 00:22:37,958 in paid or unpaid ministry, serving God's people, 479 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:39,333 the church? 480 00:22:39,417 --> 00:22:42,833 If so, please let us know, we'd love to meet with you. 481 00:22:42,875 --> 00:22:44,333 We'd love to talk with you. 482 00:22:44,417 --> 00:22:48,042 We'd love to help you see if you qualify in the grace of God 483 00:22:48,125 --> 00:22:50,625 for that noble office. 484 00:22:50,667 --> 00:22:55,333 Is God calling you to be a Community Group leader? 485 00:22:55,417 --> 00:22:58,667 To be someone who loves and shepherds a group of people? 486 00:22:58,708 --> 00:23:01,083 Is God calling you to get trained to be 487 00:23:01,167 --> 00:23:03,125 a Redemption Group leader in Bible counseling 488 00:23:03,167 --> 00:23:04,667 and helping those who are addicted, 489 00:23:04,708 --> 00:23:08,958 or abused, or struggling with pernicious sin or pain? 490 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:10,625 Let us know. 491 00:23:10,667 --> 00:23:13,125 Are you someone that God is calling to work with 492 00:23:13,167 --> 00:23:15,667 the children and introduce them to Jesus? 493 00:23:15,708 --> 00:23:17,333 Let us know. 494 00:23:17,375 --> 00:23:20,042 Are you someone that has musical ability and is feeling called 495 00:23:20,125 --> 00:23:21,458 to lead a worship team? 496 00:23:21,500 --> 00:23:22,958 Let us know. 497 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:25,708 Are you someone who loves to serve and God's calling you 498 00:23:25,792 --> 00:23:28,042 to lead a serving team somewhere in the church? 499 00:23:28,125 --> 00:23:29,833 Let us know. 500 00:23:29,875 --> 00:23:33,208 The door is wide open, we love you very much. 501 00:23:33,292 --> 00:23:37,542 And as Jesus builds his church you may be one of those bricks 502 00:23:37,625 --> 00:23:41,542 that he lays down to build his church. 503 00:23:41,625 --> 00:23:44,542 But you need to be qualified, so we're looking at your doctrine, 504 00:23:44,625 --> 00:23:45,958 what do you believe. 505 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:48,250 We're looking at your lifestyle, how do you live. 506 00:23:48,333 --> 00:23:51,000 We want to know that you're a member of the church, 507 00:23:51,083 --> 00:23:52,542 and that you love the people. 508 00:23:52,625 --> 00:23:55,542 And here's the truth, and one of the reasons we're doing this 509 00:23:55,625 --> 00:23:58,042 series, our church has really grown in the last year. 510 00:23:58,125 --> 00:24:01,167 Actually, it's really grown in the last 15 years. 511 00:24:01,250 --> 00:24:04,333 It just keeps growing, in the grace of God. 512 00:24:04,417 --> 00:24:07,250 And so what happens is most of our growth is September, 513 00:24:07,333 --> 00:24:10,000 October, November, and then things level off between 514 00:24:10,083 --> 00:24:11,833 Thanksgiving and Christmas. 515 00:24:11,917 --> 00:24:15,458 And then things really grow historically from January 516 00:24:15,500 --> 00:24:17,458 through Easter. 517 00:24:17,500 --> 00:24:19,958 And then during the summer it kind of levels off 518 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:22,333 because people have their holidays and vacations, 519 00:24:22,417 --> 00:24:24,833 and then we hit another growth season in the fall. 520 00:24:24,917 --> 00:24:28,750 We're in that season right now where we're getting ready for 521 00:24:28,833 --> 00:24:30,250 the big fall push. 522 00:24:30,333 --> 00:24:32,833 It's the time between the busy times, 523 00:24:32,875 --> 00:24:36,458 so this is the time that we need you to become a member, 524 00:24:36,500 --> 00:24:40,458 to step up and nominate yourself as a leader because we believe 525 00:24:40,500 --> 00:24:44,167 in the next year Jesus is going to bring thousands of new people 526 00:24:44,208 --> 00:24:47,333 to Mars Hill, and we need leaders to care for them. 527 00:24:47,417 --> 00:24:50,667 So one of the reasons we're doing this sermon series 528 00:24:50,708 --> 00:24:52,542 "Jesus Loves His Church" 529 00:24:52,625 --> 00:24:56,542 is to help you understand how important you are, 530 00:24:56,625 --> 00:24:58,417 how necessary you are, 531 00:24:58,500 --> 00:25:00,583 and how vital you are. 532 00:25:00,667 --> 00:25:03,958 And help you get ready for whatever Jesus would have you to be 533 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:06,167 and do for the upcoming season in the church. 534 00:25:06,208 --> 00:25:08,667 And I hope this makes you really excited. 535 00:25:08,708 --> 00:25:11,667 You get to be part of a church that's talking about growing, 536 00:25:11,708 --> 00:25:13,042 not dying. 537 00:25:13,125 --> 00:25:14,750 Where people are meeting Jesus. 538 00:25:14,833 --> 00:25:16,417 Where people are getting married. 539 00:25:16,500 --> 00:25:17,833 Where babies are being born. 540 00:25:17,917 --> 00:25:19,417 Where lives are getting changed. 541 00:25:19,500 --> 00:25:21,917 If the Holy Spirit is in you, 542 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:24,208 you're really excited about that. 543 00:25:24,292 --> 00:25:26,750 And what I'm saying is the door is wide open, 544 00:25:26,833 --> 00:25:29,167 we'd love to find a place for you. 545 00:25:29,208 --> 00:25:31,917 Number three, I've preached so much I've almost 546 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:34,042 preached myself out. 547 00:25:34,125 --> 00:25:38,500 Preaching and worship, that's how Jesus builds his church. 548 00:25:38,583 --> 00:25:42,208 Again, the church is birthed here in Acts with Peter 549 00:25:42,292 --> 00:25:45,208 stepping up and preaching. 550 00:25:45,292 --> 00:25:46,833 We believe in preaching. 551 00:25:46,875 --> 00:25:49,000 Paul tells a young man in the New Testament, 552 00:25:49,083 --> 00:25:50,417 "Preach the Word." 553 00:25:50,500 --> 00:25:52,750 So we are a Bible- preaching church. 554 00:25:52,833 --> 00:25:56,042 And here's my vow to you, as long as I'm here, the Bible 555 00:25:56,125 --> 00:25:59,708 will be open, Jesus will be taught, every single Sunday, 556 00:25:59,792 --> 00:26:02,333 we believe in the preaching of the Word of God. 557 00:26:02,417 --> 00:26:05,208 On any Sunday you can bring family, friend, neighbor, 558 00:26:05,292 --> 00:26:08,833 co-worker, enemy and they're going to hear about Jesus. 559 00:26:08,917 --> 00:26:10,708 And we're going to open the Bible. 560 00:26:10,792 --> 00:26:12,125 Amen? 561 00:26:12,167 --> 00:26:16,750 That's my prayer and that's my pledge. 562 00:26:16,833 --> 00:26:18,167 So here's what it says, 563 00:26:18,208 --> 00:26:20,917 "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching." 564 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,042 We devote ourselves to the apostles' teaching; 565 00:26:23,125 --> 00:26:25,208 we open the Word of God. 566 00:26:25,292 --> 00:26:27,167 God used them to teach the Old Testament, 567 00:26:27,208 --> 00:26:28,833 to write some of the New Testament, 568 00:26:28,917 --> 00:26:31,625 and to be eyewitnesses to others who wrote the rest of 569 00:26:31,667 --> 00:26:33,000 the New Testament. 570 00:26:33,083 --> 00:26:34,833 Everything connects to apostolic teaching. 571 00:26:34,917 --> 00:26:36,333 We believe in the Bible. 572 00:26:36,417 --> 00:26:37,833 We believe in the whole Bible. 573 00:26:37,917 --> 00:26:40,042 We're not trying to invent a new religion. 574 00:26:40,125 --> 00:26:41,625 We're not trying to change anything. 575 00:26:41,667 --> 00:26:44,667 Our goal is faithfulness to the timeless truths 576 00:26:44,708 --> 00:26:46,458 of the Word of God. 577 00:26:46,500 --> 00:26:50,958 And so we believe in preaching, and so if you're new, 578 00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:53,167 kind of here's what it looks like for us, 579 00:26:53,208 --> 00:26:55,833 most of the time we go through books of the Bible. 580 00:26:55,917 --> 00:26:58,042 Sometimes we'll do a series like we're in now. 581 00:26:58,125 --> 00:27:01,625 So we spent a few years in Luke, and then we did "Real Marriage" 582 00:27:01,667 --> 00:27:04,667 and then we did "The Seven" series (Revelation 1, 2 and 3), 583 00:27:04,708 --> 00:27:07,208 and this summer we're doing "Jesus Loves His Church." 584 00:27:07,292 --> 00:27:09,667 In the fall we're going to do Esther. 585 00:27:09,708 --> 00:27:13,458 Okay, if you like the book of Esther, amazing, crazy story. 586 00:27:13,500 --> 00:27:16,208 Nobody touches it because the girl does a whole bunch of 587 00:27:16,292 --> 00:27:19,208 things she shouldn't do, okay, and then she does a few things 588 00:27:19,292 --> 00:27:20,708 that she should do. 589 00:27:20,792 --> 00:27:22,208 So she's a little complicated. 590 00:27:22,292 --> 00:27:24,708 So we're going to get into Esther in the fall. 591 00:27:24,792 --> 00:27:27,208 In January we're going to start the book of Ephesians. 592 00:27:27,292 --> 00:27:28,708 We're going to take 16 weeks 593 00:27:28,792 --> 00:27:30,417 and go through the book of Ephesians. 594 00:27:30,500 --> 00:27:33,417 And I've got a book coming out, and we're going to do 595 00:27:33,500 --> 00:27:34,833 a big campaign around it. 596 00:27:34,875 --> 00:27:37,958 And after that we are going to do the Ten Commandments. 597 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:41,167 Then I think we're going to do a short series in the Psalms, 598 00:27:41,208 --> 00:27:42,667 and then we're looking at James. 599 00:27:42,708 --> 00:27:45,958 So for the next few years we've got sermons series laid out, 600 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:49,333 books of the Bible that we're in the process of preparing for. 601 00:27:49,417 --> 00:27:51,125 Right now, to be honest with you, 602 00:27:51,167 --> 00:27:53,542 I'm working heavily on Esther, and on Ephesians, 603 00:27:53,625 --> 00:27:56,000 and on the Ten Commandments 'cause that's where we're going 604 00:27:56,083 --> 00:27:58,167 to be going in the coming years. 605 00:27:58,208 --> 00:28:00,917 And it says that they would meet in the temple courts, 606 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:02,333 these were large meetings, 607 00:28:02,417 --> 00:28:04,333 and then they'd meet from house to house. 608 00:28:04,417 --> 00:28:05,833 That's how we do it. 609 00:28:05,917 --> 00:28:07,333 That's how Jesus builds his church. 610 00:28:07,417 --> 00:28:09,833 People get together for a big meeting, the Bible's taught, 611 00:28:09,917 --> 00:28:12,625 and then they meet together in small meetings to figure out, 612 00:28:12,667 --> 00:28:14,167 "What questions do you have? 613 00:28:14,208 --> 00:28:15,833 "And how can I pray for you? 614 00:28:15,917 --> 00:28:17,833 "What is the Lord calling you to do? 615 00:28:17,917 --> 00:28:19,833 And what does this look like for us?" 616 00:28:19,917 --> 00:28:22,625 So we believe in the preaching of the Word of God. 617 00:28:22,667 --> 00:28:24,958 And I just want to say this: thank you. 618 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:27,333 I get to teach the Bible at Mars Hill. 619 00:28:27,417 --> 00:28:30,542 I am blessed, and honored, and glad that I get to teach 620 00:28:30,625 --> 00:28:32,500 the Bible at Mars Hill. 621 00:28:32,583 --> 00:28:36,417 I know of pastors and their people don't want to hear 622 00:28:36,500 --> 00:28:38,750 the Scriptures. 623 00:28:38,833 --> 00:28:40,750 I know of some guys, at 25 minutes, 624 00:28:40,833 --> 00:28:45,708 people check their watch, get up, and leave because that's all 625 00:28:45,792 --> 00:28:48,750 they're going to give the preacher is 25 minutes. 626 00:28:48,833 --> 00:28:52,958 We are experiencing the grace of God in a unique way, 627 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,750 long sermons, massive conversions. 628 00:28:56,833 --> 00:28:58,458 That's amazing. 629 00:28:58,500 --> 00:29:00,375 See, there's a lie that's been told, 630 00:29:00,458 --> 00:29:02,833 "Oh, you can't teach the Bible and reach the people." 631 00:29:02,917 --> 00:29:04,250 We don't believe that. 632 00:29:04,333 --> 00:29:07,958 We believe you can reach the people by teaching the Bible. 633 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:10,458 And so we go through the books of the Bible, 634 00:29:10,500 --> 00:29:11,833 and people get saved. 635 00:29:11,917 --> 00:29:14,833 A few thousand people gave their lives to Christ and got baptized 636 00:29:14,917 --> 00:29:17,542 in a 2-year study of Luke. 637 00:29:17,625 --> 00:29:19,750 That's fantastic. 638 00:29:19,833 --> 00:29:22,833 You can teach the Bible and reach the people. 639 00:29:22,917 --> 00:29:25,167 And I just want to say thank you, 640 00:29:25,208 --> 00:29:27,458 I preach with great freedom. 641 00:29:27,500 --> 00:29:29,667 I preach with great joy. 642 00:29:29,708 --> 00:29:33,958 There are other pastors who preach at Mars Hill as well, 643 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:36,667 but I get to do the lion's share of the preaching. 644 00:29:36,708 --> 00:29:38,833 And I'll tell you this, I have more joy, 645 00:29:38,917 --> 00:29:43,917 more freedom teaching here than anyone I know, anywhere else. 646 00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:45,708 It's a great joy. 647 00:29:45,792 --> 00:29:47,208 So thank you. 648 00:29:47,292 --> 00:29:49,708 And now that we live in the age of technology— 649 00:29:49,792 --> 00:29:52,917 Acts 17 says that God determines the times and places in which we 650 00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:54,667 live—he put us here now. 651 00:29:54,708 --> 00:29:58,333 And when we started Mars Hill this thing came online called 652 00:29:58,375 --> 00:30:00,833 the Internet, I don't know if you've heard of it, 653 00:30:00,875 --> 00:30:02,625 it's sort of taken off since then. 654 00:30:02,667 --> 00:30:06,542 And there was a little company not far away called Microsoft. 655 00:30:06,625 --> 00:30:08,708 And we started putting our sermons online 656 00:30:08,792 --> 00:30:11,417 in the mid to late 1990s. 657 00:30:11,500 --> 00:30:16,167 Do you know that in the last year 12 million sermons 658 00:30:16,208 --> 00:30:18,083 were downloaded? 659 00:30:18,167 --> 00:30:21,625 That means every week not only do I get the great joy 660 00:30:21,667 --> 00:30:26,708 of preaching to the people of Mars Hill, preaching beyond. 661 00:30:26,792 --> 00:30:31,125 God blesses his Word, 662 00:30:31,167 --> 00:30:34,167 and we are seeing that fact. 663 00:30:34,250 --> 00:30:36,625 And so it's about preaching, the Bible opened up, 664 00:30:36,667 --> 00:30:39,167 Jesus proclaimed, and worship. 665 00:30:39,250 --> 00:30:41,833 And that's the response of the people. 666 00:30:41,875 --> 00:30:45,083 So one of the reasons we put our service order together the way 667 00:30:45,167 --> 00:30:49,833 we do, we'll sing to prepare our hearts, we hear the Word of God, 668 00:30:49,875 --> 00:30:52,333 and then we leave time to respond. 669 00:30:52,375 --> 00:30:54,708 You need to know that our whole service order 670 00:30:54,792 --> 00:30:57,000 is put together theologically. 671 00:30:57,083 --> 00:31:00,125 It's not enough for you to simply hear the Word of God, 672 00:31:00,167 --> 00:31:03,333 you need to respond, you need time to repent, or time to pray. 673 00:31:03,375 --> 00:31:04,833 Take Communion, remember the broken body 674 00:31:04,875 --> 00:31:06,667 and shed blood of Jesus. 675 00:31:06,750 --> 00:31:09,792 Come forward to be prayed for, come forward to give your life 676 00:31:09,833 --> 00:31:11,917 to Christ and be baptized. 677 00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:15,333 To sing, which is how we pray together, in the Spirit, 678 00:31:15,375 --> 00:31:18,625 honoring Jesus, glorifying God together. 679 00:31:18,667 --> 00:31:21,417 And so we believe that worship includes our life 680 00:31:21,500 --> 00:31:23,583 and what we do when we scatter. 681 00:31:23,667 --> 00:31:27,125 It includes our times together when we gather. 682 00:31:27,167 --> 00:31:31,417 And I want you to never leave after the sermon. 683 00:31:31,500 --> 00:31:36,333 If you're a Christian, take Communion, pray, 684 00:31:36,375 --> 00:31:40,167 reconcile with anybody that you're not reconciled to 685 00:31:40,250 --> 00:31:43,125 in the church, come forward for prayer. 686 00:31:43,167 --> 00:31:45,625 If there's someone around you and you know they're struggling, 687 00:31:45,667 --> 00:31:49,000 pray for them, right there. 688 00:31:49,042 --> 00:31:53,000 Sing with the people of God as a form of prayer. 689 00:31:53,042 --> 00:31:56,917 We give you time to respond in worship after the preaching 690 00:31:57,000 --> 00:31:58,667 of God's Word. 691 00:31:58,708 --> 00:32:01,375 And one thing I would give you is something that's 692 00:32:01,458 --> 00:32:03,167 really exciting is our bands— 693 00:32:03,250 --> 00:32:05,000 and worship is more than just singing, 694 00:32:05,083 --> 00:32:08,833 but it includes singing—our bands are now Mars Hill Music. 695 00:32:08,875 --> 00:32:12,083 We've got 34-ish bands at Mars Hill. 696 00:32:12,167 --> 00:32:15,333 Tons of volunteers, they write songs, they practice, 697 00:32:15,375 --> 00:32:18,708 they serve, some of them show up very early, 698 00:32:18,792 --> 00:32:22,417 and they stay very late, and they work very hard. 699 00:32:22,500 --> 00:32:25,125 And I want you, when you see them, to thank them. 700 00:32:25,167 --> 00:32:27,500 They're people who love you, they love Jesus, 701 00:32:27,583 --> 00:32:29,583 and they're very talented. 702 00:32:29,667 --> 00:32:32,417 And so with Mars Hill Music we're recording those bands, 703 00:32:32,500 --> 00:32:35,167 we're working on a distribution deal with a major record label, 704 00:32:35,250 --> 00:32:37,667 we want to get our bands out on the radio, 705 00:32:37,750 --> 00:32:39,417 they're playing main stage at Creation. 706 00:32:39,500 --> 00:32:43,000 We recently released a little $200 EP we recorded 707 00:32:43,083 --> 00:32:46,125 in a warehouse and it went to number three on iTunes. 708 00:32:46,167 --> 00:32:49,125 And so the future looks really good for Mars Hill Music. 709 00:32:49,167 --> 00:32:52,625 'Cause we want people to worship Jesus and for us we love 710 00:32:52,667 --> 00:32:56,292 the fact that a lot of the songs that we sing and hymns that we 711 00:32:56,333 --> 00:32:59,917 rewrite, they come from people in our church who are members, 712 00:33:00,042 --> 00:33:03,917 in community who do love Jesus, and are serving. 713 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:08,000 It's music from the church, for the church, because of Jesus. 714 00:33:08,042 --> 00:33:09,708 Isn't that cool? 715 00:33:09,792 --> 00:33:11,417 It is to me. All right. 716 00:33:11,500 --> 00:33:14,667 Point number four, what happens when Jesus builds his church 717 00:33:14,750 --> 00:33:16,833 and the Holy Spirit shows up? 718 00:33:16,875 --> 00:33:19,167 There are rightly administered sacraments. 719 00:33:19,250 --> 00:33:20,667 And again, in the coming weeks 720 00:33:20,750 --> 00:33:22,417 we're going to unpack all of this. 721 00:33:22,500 --> 00:33:24,417 What we're talking about here are two sacraments, 722 00:33:24,500 --> 00:33:27,417 baptism and Communion. 723 00:33:27,500 --> 00:33:32,125 Some of you are brand-new to church, brand-new Christians, 724 00:33:32,167 --> 00:33:34,333 "Why do you do it the way you do?" 725 00:33:34,375 --> 00:33:38,125 We want to follow the teaching of the Bible. 726 00:33:38,167 --> 00:33:40,333 And what happens is first of all there's baptism. 727 00:33:40,375 --> 00:33:43,708 So it says, "Those who received his word were," what? 728 00:33:43,792 --> 00:33:45,833 "Baptized." 729 00:33:45,875 --> 00:33:51,167 This means they are showing what Jesus has done for them. 730 00:33:51,250 --> 00:33:52,583 Jesus lived without sin. 731 00:33:52,667 --> 00:33:55,417 Jesus died and was buried. Jesus rose. 732 00:33:55,500 --> 00:33:58,500 When we're baptized we're saying, "Jesus did that for me, 733 00:33:58,583 --> 00:34:00,708 and I belong to him." 734 00:34:00,792 --> 00:34:02,792 And we love baptisms at Mars Hill. 735 00:34:02,833 --> 00:34:05,000 How many of you love seeing people get baptized? 736 00:34:05,083 --> 00:34:06,417 Isn't that cool? 737 00:34:06,500 --> 00:34:08,083 It's great. 738 00:34:08,167 --> 00:34:10,583 So again, if you become a Christian today or you're 739 00:34:10,667 --> 00:34:13,000 a Christian who's never been baptized, meet with a leader, 740 00:34:13,083 --> 00:34:16,792 let us know, we'd like to talk to you, and baptize you. 741 00:34:16,833 --> 00:34:21,792 We believe that baptism is a way of you publicly witnessing. 742 00:34:21,833 --> 00:34:24,167 Jesus said, "You will be my witnesses." 743 00:34:24,250 --> 00:34:27,500 One of the ways we witness, we show the world who he is 744 00:34:27,542 --> 00:34:29,833 and what he's done, is through baptism. 745 00:34:29,875 --> 00:34:33,208 Baptism doesn't save, Jesus saves, 746 00:34:33,292 --> 00:34:35,500 but he saves through his death, burial, resurrection, 747 00:34:35,583 --> 00:34:38,917 and baptism shows something of his death, burial, 748 00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:41,000 and resurrection for us. 749 00:34:41,042 --> 00:34:45,292 And so we can't always count how many people got saved, 750 00:34:45,333 --> 00:34:49,125 but we can count how many people got baptized because that's 751 00:34:49,167 --> 00:34:51,792 a good indicator of who became a Christian. 752 00:34:51,833 --> 00:34:56,292 Now, it is our annual, year-end financial report, 753 00:34:56,333 --> 00:34:59,542 would you like to know how many people got baptized at Mars Hill 754 00:34:59,625 --> 00:35:02,000 in the last year? 755 00:35:02,083 --> 00:35:03,625 Okay, would you like to know? 756 00:35:03,667 --> 00:35:07,708 I'll check the number, 1,135 people baptized 757 00:35:07,792 --> 00:35:11,167 in the last year. 758 00:35:14,500 --> 00:35:18,000 You break it down, that's about 100 people a month. 759 00:35:18,083 --> 00:35:22,208 That's 3 people a day. 760 00:35:22,292 --> 00:35:24,417 The Bible says in the book of Acts, 761 00:35:24,500 --> 00:35:27,000 "The Lord added to their number daily." 762 00:35:27,042 --> 00:35:30,000 And he still is. 763 00:35:30,083 --> 00:35:35,667 Every day at Mars Hill people are becoming Christians. 764 00:35:35,750 --> 00:35:38,667 What we're not talking about is, "Here's what we want to do." 765 00:35:38,750 --> 00:35:40,167 Here's what we're talking about, 766 00:35:40,250 --> 00:35:41,667 "Here's what God's already doing." 767 00:35:41,750 --> 00:35:47,625 Every night that you go to bed, pray and thank Jesus for 768 00:35:47,667 --> 00:35:52,292 the three people who met him that day at our church. 769 00:35:52,333 --> 00:35:55,833 Every night, "Thank you Jesus for 770 00:35:55,875 --> 00:35:59,500 "the one, two, three people who met you today. 771 00:35:59,583 --> 00:36:03,208 And Jesus I pray for the three more tomorrow." 772 00:36:03,292 --> 00:36:05,417 How great is that? 773 00:36:05,500 --> 00:36:08,125 And some of you know, these are your family, friends, 774 00:36:08,167 --> 00:36:09,708 co-workers, neighbors. 775 00:36:09,792 --> 00:36:13,000 I saw earlier today, I was preaching, 776 00:36:13,083 --> 00:36:15,333 and a young man gave his life to Christ, 777 00:36:15,375 --> 00:36:17,500 and I don't know what the whole story is, 778 00:36:17,583 --> 00:36:20,125 there was a line of 20 or 30 young men 779 00:36:20,167 --> 00:36:25,333 that ran up after him, hugging him, praying for him. 780 00:36:25,375 --> 00:36:28,125 It was obvious that this was a friend of theirs 781 00:36:28,167 --> 00:36:30,917 that they'd been praying for for a long time. 782 00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:34,333 And he got born again. 783 00:36:34,375 --> 00:36:36,833 And he gave his sin to Jesus. 784 00:36:36,875 --> 00:36:39,375 And he became a Christian. 785 00:36:39,458 --> 00:36:41,917 And when someone becomes a Christian their whole life 786 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:44,125 changes, their eternity changes. 787 00:36:44,167 --> 00:36:46,625 So many of their family and friends get to celebrate 788 00:36:46,667 --> 00:36:48,417 in their joy. 789 00:36:48,500 --> 00:36:51,833 And who they marry changes, how they parent changes, 790 00:36:51,875 --> 00:36:56,375 legacies change, generations change because the Holy Spirit 791 00:36:56,458 --> 00:36:58,958 indwells that person, and who they are changes, 792 00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:02,500 and the legacy they leave is forever altered. 793 00:37:02,583 --> 00:37:07,083 So we praise God for 1,135 people. 794 00:37:07,167 --> 00:37:11,125 And the second sacrament is Communion. 795 00:37:11,167 --> 00:37:13,500 Some of you have noticed this; we take Communion 796 00:37:13,542 --> 00:37:16,125 at Mars Hill Church every single Sunday. 797 00:37:16,167 --> 00:37:20,500 We're going to get into this in a future sermon in this series. 798 00:37:20,583 --> 00:37:22,917 But that's what happened, it says, 799 00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:24,500 "Breaking bread in their homes, 800 00:37:24,542 --> 00:37:26,833 "they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 801 00:37:26,875 --> 00:37:28,500 praising God." 802 00:37:28,542 --> 00:37:31,583 The Bible talks about the Lord's Table, or the Lord's Supper, 803 00:37:31,667 --> 00:37:33,792 where when the people of God come together 804 00:37:33,833 --> 00:37:35,625 they remember Jesus. 805 00:37:35,667 --> 00:37:38,625 See, Jesus, one of the last things he did before he died, 806 00:37:38,667 --> 00:37:40,583 he had a meal with his disciples. 807 00:37:40,667 --> 00:37:42,417 He took the bread and he said, 808 00:37:42,500 --> 00:37:44,792 "This is my body broken for you." 809 00:37:44,833 --> 00:37:48,500 And he took the cup and he said, "This is my blood shed for you. 810 00:37:48,583 --> 00:37:50,833 Do this in remembrance of me." 811 00:37:50,875 --> 00:37:55,208 So when we partake, we're to remember Jesus, body broken, 812 00:37:55,292 --> 00:37:59,667 blood shed for us and our sin. 813 00:37:59,708 --> 00:38:03,000 And so when the early Christians started meeting, it says that 814 00:38:03,083 --> 00:38:05,417 they broke bread together. 815 00:38:05,500 --> 00:38:06,917 So for us at Mars Hill 816 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:08,917 after the preaching of the Word of God, 817 00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:12,083 we allow time for Communion every week. 818 00:38:12,167 --> 00:38:14,208 And the Bible says, "Don't partake unless you're 819 00:38:14,292 --> 00:38:16,708 "repentant of sin, otherwise you're bringing judgment 820 00:38:16,792 --> 00:38:18,500 upon yourself." 821 00:38:18,583 --> 00:38:22,167 Communion is not for, the Lord's Table is not for non-Christians. 822 00:38:22,250 --> 00:38:23,917 We love you. 823 00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:25,917 We don't want you to feel awkward. 824 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:29,708 And one of the reasons we serve Communion the way we do is 825 00:38:29,792 --> 00:38:33,083 we want people to come forward, if they're Christians 826 00:38:33,167 --> 00:38:35,417 when they're ready. 827 00:38:35,500 --> 00:38:37,917 And so if you're a Christian you can come forward, 828 00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:39,500 and if you're not, don't. 829 00:38:39,583 --> 00:38:43,083 And we're not passing it by you or pressuring you in any way. 830 00:38:43,167 --> 00:38:44,708 Because we don't want non-Christians 831 00:38:44,792 --> 00:38:46,917 to partake of Communion. 832 00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:49,417 Number two, we want the Christians to partake 833 00:38:49,500 --> 00:38:51,417 when they're ready. 834 00:38:51,500 --> 00:38:54,417 You may hear the sermon or maybe just the Holy Spirit convicts 835 00:38:54,500 --> 00:38:57,833 you, and you say, "Ugh, I got to talk to the Lord about this." 836 00:38:57,875 --> 00:39:00,333 Take your time and pray if that's what you need. 837 00:39:00,375 --> 00:39:01,708 Work it through with God. 838 00:39:01,792 --> 00:39:04,208 Think it through with God. Pray it through with God. 839 00:39:04,292 --> 00:39:06,708 Maybe you came with somebody and you're arguing with them 840 00:39:06,792 --> 00:39:09,208 or fighting with them, and not getting along with them. 841 00:39:09,292 --> 00:39:11,500 Then reconcile with them, work it out with them, 842 00:39:11,583 --> 00:39:14,000 and then come forward together for Communion. 843 00:39:14,083 --> 00:39:16,667 That's why we do it the way we do. 844 00:39:16,750 --> 00:39:19,500 We do it every week so there's always an opportunity. 845 00:39:19,542 --> 00:39:22,875 And the remembrance and the celebration of Jesus is 846 00:39:22,958 --> 00:39:25,125 at the center of our service. 847 00:39:25,167 --> 00:39:28,208 And we tend to offer wine and juice so that you 848 00:39:28,292 --> 00:39:30,000 can operate according to conscience, 849 00:39:30,083 --> 00:39:32,667 and you don't have to violate your conscience. 850 00:39:32,750 --> 00:39:35,500 And some would ask, "Well, I'm a Christian but I'm visiting 851 00:39:35,542 --> 00:39:37,000 from another church." 852 00:39:37,083 --> 00:39:39,000 You're welcome to partake of Communion with us 853 00:39:39,042 --> 00:39:41,667 because if you're part of the church of Jesus Christ, 854 00:39:41,750 --> 00:39:44,333 you're welcome at this church of Jesus Christ. 855 00:39:44,375 --> 00:39:47,000 So, in a moment, we're going to give you, pretty soon, 856 00:39:47,083 --> 00:39:48,917 an opportunity to be baptized. 857 00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:51,500 And if you want to get baptized, let us know, 858 00:39:51,542 --> 00:39:53,000 let the leaders know. 859 00:39:53,083 --> 00:39:55,708 We're going to give you an opportunity to take Communion 860 00:39:55,792 --> 00:39:58,708 because that's one of the ways that Jesus builds his church. 861 00:39:58,792 --> 00:40:02,417 And I want you to just see it, when people get up out of their 862 00:40:02,500 --> 00:40:05,625 seat, here's what I think of, one day we're all going to get 863 00:40:05,667 --> 00:40:07,125 out of our graves together. 864 00:40:07,167 --> 00:40:09,125 And just like we're walking forward for Communion, 865 00:40:09,167 --> 00:40:11,875 we're all going to walk into the kingdom of God together. 866 00:40:11,958 --> 00:40:13,500 We're a family. 867 00:40:13,583 --> 00:40:16,417 And Communion is where we remember our Savior 868 00:40:16,500 --> 00:40:18,625 until we see his coming. 869 00:40:18,667 --> 00:40:21,292 Number five, how does Jesus build his church? 870 00:40:21,333 --> 00:40:23,875 Well, there's Holy Spirit unity. 871 00:40:23,958 --> 00:40:26,000 It says it this way in the Bible, 872 00:40:26,042 --> 00:40:27,875 "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, 873 00:40:27,958 --> 00:40:30,000 "to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread 874 00:40:30,083 --> 00:40:32,000 and to the prayers." 875 00:40:32,042 --> 00:40:33,625 So what do they do? 876 00:40:33,667 --> 00:40:37,000 Study the Bible, fellowship, they're friends, 877 00:40:37,042 --> 00:40:40,292 breaking of bread, meals together, 878 00:40:40,333 --> 00:40:42,500 and praying for each other. 879 00:40:42,542 --> 00:40:44,500 That's unity. 880 00:40:44,583 --> 00:40:46,625 As a church we want to be unified. 881 00:40:46,667 --> 00:40:49,167 Now, we're not uniform. 882 00:40:49,250 --> 00:40:51,417 We disagree on some secondary issues. 883 00:40:51,500 --> 00:40:54,625 Some of us have different interests than others. 884 00:40:54,667 --> 00:40:58,667 But we're unified even though we're not uniform. 885 00:40:58,708 --> 00:41:02,625 Because what really counts, the Bible, Jesus, love, 886 00:41:02,667 --> 00:41:04,500 we agree on that. 887 00:41:04,583 --> 00:41:06,792 And by the power of the Holy Spirit 888 00:41:06,833 --> 00:41:09,125 we want to live in unity. 889 00:41:09,167 --> 00:41:12,292 And what this means is that the church really is like 890 00:41:12,333 --> 00:41:15,917 a family and God is a father, and Jesus is our big brother. 891 00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:19,083 The Bible says that ladies are to be treated like sisters 892 00:41:19,167 --> 00:41:21,208 and men are to be treated like brothers. 893 00:41:21,292 --> 00:41:23,708 And just like every family, we're going to have 894 00:41:23,792 --> 00:41:26,792 our squabbles, and our spats, and our conflicts, 895 00:41:26,833 --> 00:41:29,292 but you fight with your family different than you fight 896 00:41:29,333 --> 00:41:31,000 with your enemy, right? 897 00:41:31,083 --> 00:41:33,792 Any of you guys have a brother growing up? 898 00:41:33,833 --> 00:41:38,000 You would fight with him, but not to kill him. 899 00:41:38,042 --> 00:41:39,917 You would work it out, wrestle it out, 900 00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:42,625 and there was a limit to the conflict. 901 00:41:42,667 --> 00:41:44,833 Say, "Well, I'm not going to cross that line. 902 00:41:44,875 --> 00:41:47,333 I do love him, just driving me crazy right now." 903 00:41:47,375 --> 00:41:49,000 And they're thinking the same thing. 904 00:41:49,083 --> 00:41:50,792 That's how it is in the family. 905 00:41:50,833 --> 00:41:52,208 Families disagree. 906 00:41:52,292 --> 00:41:53,833 Families have conflict. 907 00:41:53,875 --> 00:41:56,625 Families sometimes have odd moments. 908 00:41:56,667 --> 00:42:00,625 Families sometimes even have a struggle to work it through. 909 00:42:00,667 --> 00:42:02,417 But a family always does. 910 00:42:02,500 --> 00:42:06,625 A real, good, true family works it out and sticks together. 911 00:42:06,667 --> 00:42:08,625 And so it is for the family of God. 912 00:42:08,667 --> 00:42:11,333 Paul calls us the household of God. 913 00:42:11,375 --> 00:42:17,083 What's interesting too, is that for some of you this family's 914 00:42:17,167 --> 00:42:19,875 the only family you've got. 915 00:42:19,958 --> 00:42:23,500 In a day when families are fractured, they're divided, 916 00:42:23,542 --> 00:42:28,333 they're splintered, the church becomes for many, first family. 917 00:42:28,375 --> 00:42:30,875 And so the spiritual unity is very important, 918 00:42:30,958 --> 00:42:34,167 that not only does Jesus love us, and we love Jesus, 919 00:42:34,250 --> 00:42:36,667 but we take Jesus' love, and we love one another. 920 00:42:36,750 --> 00:42:38,708 How's it going? 921 00:42:38,792 --> 00:42:42,375 Are you working on obeying the Bible? 922 00:42:42,458 --> 00:42:44,333 Having friends in the church? 923 00:42:44,375 --> 00:42:48,000 Eating meals together and praying for one another? 924 00:42:48,083 --> 00:42:51,917 The easiest two ways, I think, to become friends with 925 00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:55,833 another Christian is eat a meal and pray together. 926 00:42:55,875 --> 00:42:57,958 It's what they did. 927 00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:00,708 Eating a meal is what you do with a friend, 928 00:43:00,792 --> 00:43:04,500 or someone you want to become a friend. 929 00:43:04,583 --> 00:43:07,167 And they would meet in homes and have meals together. 930 00:43:07,250 --> 00:43:10,208 We encourage you to meet in homes and have meals together, 931 00:43:10,292 --> 00:43:13,000 and sometimes that's in and around Community Groups. 932 00:43:13,083 --> 00:43:15,000 Pray for one another. 933 00:43:15,083 --> 00:43:18,667 I know it's sometimes awkward if you're not used to this. 934 00:43:18,750 --> 00:43:22,208 Let me just encourage you, when someone says, "Hey, I need this. 935 00:43:22,292 --> 00:43:23,833 I'm struggling with this." 936 00:43:23,875 --> 00:43:26,000 Or they just let you know something, don't say, 937 00:43:26,083 --> 00:43:27,583 "I'll pray for you." 938 00:43:27,667 --> 00:43:29,500 Just pray for them. 939 00:43:29,583 --> 00:43:31,208 Just pray for them. 940 00:43:31,292 --> 00:43:32,708 You can pray right then. 941 00:43:32,792 --> 00:43:34,292 You can pray on the phone. 942 00:43:34,333 --> 00:43:36,417 You can pray in person. 943 00:43:36,500 --> 00:43:40,917 Feel free to pray with them after, but pray for them. 944 00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:43,833 When's the last time you prayed for someone? 945 00:43:43,875 --> 00:43:46,208 Just, "You know what, let me pray for them." 946 00:43:46,292 --> 00:43:49,208 When's the first time that someone prayed for you? 947 00:43:49,292 --> 00:43:50,625 I can still remember that. 948 00:43:50,667 --> 00:43:53,583 I was a non-Christian, I was a boy playing Little League 949 00:43:53,667 --> 00:43:56,500 baseball, and I think I got injured, hit by a pitch, 950 00:43:56,542 --> 00:43:58,167 I don't remember what. 951 00:43:58,208 --> 00:44:01,417 I remember one of the boys on the team, his mom came over, 952 00:44:01,500 --> 00:44:03,167 and she said, "How are you doing?" 953 00:44:03,250 --> 00:44:04,833 I said, "Not good. Something's wrong." 954 00:44:04,875 --> 00:44:10,500 She said, "I'll pray for you." She didn't ask, she just did. 955 00:44:10,583 --> 00:44:12,125 She said, "I'll pray for you." 956 00:44:12,167 --> 00:44:14,875 She put her hand on me and she prayed for me. 957 00:44:14,958 --> 00:44:16,875 I don't remember what she prayed, 958 00:44:16,958 --> 00:44:21,083 but I remember at that moment thinking, "That was wonderful. 959 00:44:21,167 --> 00:44:24,833 She prayed for me." 960 00:44:24,875 --> 00:44:27,833 Pray for each other. 961 00:44:27,875 --> 00:44:29,500 I still remember that woman. 962 00:44:29,542 --> 00:44:32,083 I still remember her son. 963 00:44:32,167 --> 00:44:34,833 He was one of the first Christians I knew. 964 00:44:34,875 --> 00:44:37,125 They made a big impression on me. 965 00:44:37,167 --> 00:44:40,708 Part of our evangelism, too, is praying for people. 966 00:44:40,792 --> 00:44:43,833 We say, "Man, my friend does not want to hear about Jesus." 967 00:44:43,875 --> 00:44:45,708 Are they sick? Pray for them. 968 00:44:45,792 --> 00:44:49,417 I've yet to hear a sick person say, "Do not pray for me." 969 00:44:49,500 --> 00:44:51,583 It's a start. 970 00:44:51,667 --> 00:44:53,708 It's how we invite people into friendship. 971 00:44:53,792 --> 00:44:56,000 It's how we grow our friendships. 972 00:44:56,083 --> 00:44:59,125 You know you can pray in church on Sunday? 973 00:44:59,167 --> 00:45:01,667 You know during Communion you could pray over people? 974 00:45:01,750 --> 00:45:04,167 Do you know after service you could pray for people? 975 00:45:04,250 --> 00:45:06,667 Do you know you could come early and pray together? 976 00:45:06,750 --> 00:45:10,083 Do you know if you need prayer and you don't know who to have 977 00:45:10,167 --> 00:45:12,083 pray for you, you can come forward afterward 978 00:45:12,167 --> 00:45:13,500 and we'll pray for you? 979 00:45:13,542 --> 00:45:16,000 And that's how we build unity in the Holy Spirit, 980 00:45:16,042 --> 00:45:18,583 studying the Bible, building friendship, eating meals, 981 00:45:18,667 --> 00:45:21,333 praying together. 982 00:45:21,375 --> 00:45:26,625 Number six, Jesus builds his church through holiness. 983 00:45:26,667 --> 00:45:31,000 Now, Peter says it this way, he stands up and he says, "Repent." 984 00:45:31,083 --> 00:45:33,792 What he's saying is sin is a real issue, 985 00:45:33,833 --> 00:45:36,333 sin is a real problem. 986 00:45:36,375 --> 00:45:39,792 So one of the things that a church has to do to be 987 00:45:39,833 --> 00:45:42,500 obedient to the Scriptures and the leading of the Holy Spirit 988 00:45:42,583 --> 00:45:44,917 is deal with sin. 989 00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:47,917 If you're in sin, we love you. 990 00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:49,417 Jesus loves you. 991 00:45:49,500 --> 00:45:52,000 But if you're a Christian, we want to help you 992 00:45:52,083 --> 00:45:53,625 walk in holiness. 993 00:45:53,667 --> 00:45:56,417 We want to help you walk away from sin. 994 00:45:56,500 --> 00:45:59,958 We want to help you walk toward Jesus. 995 00:46:00,083 --> 00:46:02,833 Now, we don't want to be controlling. 996 00:46:02,875 --> 00:46:06,333 There's far too many people, we could never control. 997 00:46:06,375 --> 00:46:10,208 But we do want to influence you to submit to the Scriptures, 998 00:46:10,292 --> 00:46:12,208 to be filled with the Holy Spirit, 999 00:46:12,292 --> 00:46:14,875 and to pursue holiness by the grace of God. 1000 00:46:14,958 --> 00:46:17,500 Holiness means "like God." 1001 00:46:17,542 --> 00:46:20,417 Not that we are gods and goddesses, but that God is holy, 1002 00:46:20,500 --> 00:46:23,125 God is without sin, God is perfect, God is good. 1003 00:46:23,167 --> 00:46:25,208 His name is Jesus. 1004 00:46:25,292 --> 00:46:28,167 And when we sin we're not just breaking the laws of God, 1005 00:46:28,250 --> 00:46:30,208 we're breaking the heart of God. 1006 00:46:30,292 --> 00:46:33,125 Just like a father who looks at his rebellious kids and they're 1007 00:46:33,167 --> 00:46:38,917 just destroying their life, and it destroys his heart. 1008 00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:43,167 So when we sin the Father's heart is broken. 1009 00:46:43,250 --> 00:46:46,125 And our brothers and sisters are supposed to come around and say, 1010 00:46:46,167 --> 00:46:48,417 "We love you. The Father loves you. 1011 00:46:48,500 --> 00:46:51,292 "Please stop. Please repent. 1012 00:46:51,333 --> 00:46:54,292 "Please let us help you. Please let us walk with you. 1013 00:46:54,333 --> 00:46:58,208 "Please let us pray for you. God wants good for you. 1014 00:46:58,292 --> 00:47:01,208 And what you're doing is very bad." 1015 00:47:01,292 --> 00:47:04,000 Any church that refuses to deal with sin, 1016 00:47:04,042 --> 00:47:08,208 any church that refuses to compel people toward holiness, 1017 00:47:08,292 --> 00:47:13,083 doesn't love the people. 1018 00:47:13,167 --> 00:47:17,417 Some churches will say, "Well, come as you are." 1019 00:47:17,500 --> 00:47:21,083 Here's how we say it, "Come as you are, meet Jesus, 1020 00:47:21,167 --> 00:47:24,083 and change forever." 1021 00:47:24,167 --> 00:47:27,417 Everyone is welcome to come, but once you meet Jesus, 1022 00:47:27,500 --> 00:47:30,417 you start to change. 1023 00:47:30,500 --> 00:47:34,500 You start to hate sin and pursue holiness. 1024 00:47:34,583 --> 00:47:37,708 You stop rebelling, you start obeying. 1025 00:47:37,792 --> 00:47:41,417 Your nature changes, your desires change, 1026 00:47:41,500 --> 00:47:44,083 your life changes. 1027 00:47:44,167 --> 00:47:49,583 Let me put it this way, any church that doesn't encourage 1028 00:47:49,667 --> 00:47:52,917 its people toward holiness, in love, in community, 1029 00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:55,583 doesn't really love the people. 1030 00:47:55,667 --> 00:47:58,958 I've got five kids, I'm a dad, imagine if what I told my kids 1031 00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:02,000 was, "Do whatever you want, I don't care. 1032 00:48:02,042 --> 00:48:05,292 "That's deadly, that's dangerous, 1033 00:48:05,333 --> 00:48:06,917 "you're going to hurt yourself, 1034 00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:11,000 you're going to hurt someone else, but that's okay." 1035 00:48:11,083 --> 00:48:15,208 I don't love my children if that's what I say. 1036 00:48:15,292 --> 00:48:19,208 I don't love them at all, in fact, I hate them. 1037 00:48:19,292 --> 00:48:21,708 And it doesn't bother me that they're going to destroy 1038 00:48:21,792 --> 00:48:23,500 themselves and others. 1039 00:48:23,542 --> 00:48:26,333 A loving father says, "I love you but I don't love 1040 00:48:26,375 --> 00:48:28,333 "what you're doing. 1041 00:48:28,375 --> 00:48:31,000 "And I want to help you to stop doing that 1042 00:48:31,083 --> 00:48:33,708 because it brings death." 1043 00:48:33,792 --> 00:48:36,208 So it is with the church of Jesus Christ. 1044 00:48:36,292 --> 00:48:40,083 And that big word, "repent," it's hugely important. 1045 00:48:40,167 --> 00:48:43,167 So as a church, yes, we'll talk about sin, 1046 00:48:43,250 --> 00:48:47,583 our sin and help others work through their sin. 1047 00:48:47,667 --> 00:48:50,333 When the Holy Spirit shows up, these are the things that 1048 00:48:50,375 --> 00:48:55,125 happen. Sin comes to light and people get the help they need. 1049 00:48:55,167 --> 00:48:58,500 Number seven, the Great Commandment to love. 1050 00:48:58,583 --> 00:49:01,083 It says it this way, 1051 00:49:01,167 --> 00:49:02,792 "They were selling their possessions," 1052 00:49:02,833 --> 00:49:07,708 this is pretty major, "And belongings and distributing 1053 00:49:07,792 --> 00:49:11,375 the proceeds to all, as any had need." 1054 00:49:11,458 --> 00:49:13,583 So what they're doing, they're meeting spiritual needs; 1055 00:49:13,667 --> 00:49:16,875 they're praying for one another and teaching one another. 1056 00:49:16,958 --> 00:49:20,667 They're meeting emotional needs; they're spending time together, 1057 00:49:20,750 --> 00:49:22,875 fellowship, friendship. 1058 00:49:22,958 --> 00:49:26,292 They're also meeting physical needs: food, shelter, 1059 00:49:26,333 --> 00:49:27,875 and the like. 1060 00:49:27,958 --> 00:49:31,167 And those who have a lot are selling what they have to give 1061 00:49:31,250 --> 00:49:34,125 to those who need. 1062 00:49:34,167 --> 00:49:36,583 See, you get the picture of the rich guy, 1063 00:49:36,667 --> 00:49:40,000 puts all his stuff on eBay, takes the proceeds, 1064 00:49:40,083 --> 00:49:42,417 hands it to the single mom. 1065 00:49:42,500 --> 00:49:43,875 Right? 1066 00:49:43,958 --> 00:49:46,417 The kids who have a really hard-working, good dad, 1067 00:49:46,500 --> 00:49:49,917 well, a friend of theirs, his dad walked out and isn't loving 1068 00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:52,125 and caring for his family. 1069 00:49:52,167 --> 00:49:56,000 So the kids come home and say, "Dad, he's got no dad 1070 00:49:56,083 --> 00:49:58,333 and the mom's struggling." 1071 00:49:58,375 --> 00:50:00,833 And then the kids and the mom and the dad, 1072 00:50:00,875 --> 00:50:02,917 they all adopt that family. 1073 00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:08,208 They want to love that mom; they want to serve that child. 1074 00:50:08,292 --> 00:50:10,833 See, when the government does this it gets very convoluted 1075 00:50:10,875 --> 00:50:12,292 and complicated. 1076 00:50:12,333 --> 00:50:17,875 When the Holy Spirit does it, it works a whole lot better. 1077 00:50:17,958 --> 00:50:20,917 The government here isn't coming in and practicing communism, 1078 00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:25,917 and socialism, and equitable distribution of resources. 1079 00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:28,833 The Holy Spirit is compelling people to be generous. 1080 00:50:28,875 --> 00:50:30,375 That's it. 1081 00:50:30,458 --> 00:50:33,500 It's more loving, it's more kind, it's more compassionate, 1082 00:50:33,583 --> 00:50:35,667 it's more like Jesus. 1083 00:50:35,750 --> 00:50:39,208 We don't have to force Jesus to be good to us, he just is. 1084 00:50:39,292 --> 00:50:41,500 "For God so loved the world, he gave." 1085 00:50:41,583 --> 00:50:44,917 One of the ways that we know that we love people is we give, 1086 00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:47,292 we give to help them. 1087 00:50:47,333 --> 00:50:50,292 And here in the early church this is one of the ways 1088 00:50:50,333 --> 00:50:52,208 that the church grew. 1089 00:50:52,292 --> 00:50:56,292 You need to know, in that day, this was not done. 1090 00:50:56,333 --> 00:51:00,417 If you're poor, you're a slave, that's it. 1091 00:51:00,500 --> 00:51:02,875 If you're a child, you may just be abandoned, 1092 00:51:02,958 --> 00:51:05,417 especially if you're a daughter. 1093 00:51:05,500 --> 00:51:09,708 If you're a woman, let's say you're a widow, well, 1094 00:51:09,792 --> 00:51:13,708 you really don't have any rights in society. 1095 00:51:13,792 --> 00:51:15,417 You're not supposed to testify in court, 1096 00:51:15,500 --> 00:51:17,375 you're not supposed to own property, 1097 00:51:17,458 --> 00:51:20,708 you're going to be abused and mistreated. 1098 00:51:20,792 --> 00:51:23,208 And then people become Christians and all of a sudden 1099 00:51:23,292 --> 00:51:25,417 what they do, is they start treating one another 1100 00:51:25,500 --> 00:51:26,917 like family. 1101 00:51:27,000 --> 00:51:28,917 "Well, you're my sister, I need to help. 1102 00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:31,125 And you're my brother and I need to help." 1103 00:51:31,167 --> 00:51:34,292 And they start caring for one another to the degree that 1104 00:51:34,333 --> 00:51:40,125 the church starts even possibly 1105 00:51:40,167 --> 00:51:43,125 up-ending all of Roman civic structure. 1106 00:51:43,167 --> 00:51:46,125 I think I've said this before, but in that culture you couldn't 1107 00:51:46,167 --> 00:51:48,625 call anybody brother or sister unless they were a biological 1108 00:51:48,667 --> 00:51:51,667 relative because inheritance and property rights were tied 1109 00:51:51,750 --> 00:51:53,417 to the family. 1110 00:51:53,500 --> 00:51:55,208 And the Christians said, "We don't care. 1111 00:51:55,292 --> 00:51:57,458 "We're going to call them brother, and them sister, 1112 00:51:57,500 --> 00:52:00,583 "and we're going to treat them as good as we would treat 1113 00:52:00,667 --> 00:52:03,417 "biological family because God's our Father, 1114 00:52:03,500 --> 00:52:06,375 "and Jesus is our big brother, and through salvation 1115 00:52:06,458 --> 00:52:09,375 we're all adopted into the same family." 1116 00:52:09,458 --> 00:52:11,500 Now, the government had a problem with this. 1117 00:52:11,542 --> 00:52:14,417 "You're going to mess up the whole inheritance structure." 1118 00:52:14,500 --> 00:52:16,333 "That's okay." 1119 00:52:16,375 --> 00:52:19,625 Because what matters is loving one another. 1120 00:52:19,667 --> 00:52:24,333 Loving one another in word, and in deed, and in gift. 1121 00:52:24,375 --> 00:52:27,500 And sometimes the way we love people is by giving. 1122 00:52:27,583 --> 00:52:30,417 Now, one of the ways this is practiced at Mars Hill 1123 00:52:30,500 --> 00:52:32,625 is something called Community Groups. 1124 00:52:32,667 --> 00:52:35,417 Again, they met in the temple courts, large groups, 1125 00:52:35,500 --> 00:52:37,708 thousands of people, and they met, it says, 1126 00:52:37,792 --> 00:52:41,667 from house to house, small groups, a dozen or so people. 1127 00:52:41,750 --> 00:52:43,708 We call these Community Groups. 1128 00:52:43,792 --> 00:52:46,167 The Community Groups get together every week to do 1129 00:52:46,250 --> 00:52:51,708 just this: study the apostles' teaching, fellowship, 1130 00:52:51,792 --> 00:52:54,792 breaking of bread, have a meal, and pray. 1131 00:52:54,833 --> 00:52:56,417 We call it Community Groups. 1132 00:52:56,500 --> 00:52:58,958 How many Community Groups do you think we have at 1133 00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:00,417 Mars Hill right now? 1134 00:53:00,500 --> 00:53:02,208 Over 600. 1135 00:53:02,292 --> 00:53:04,167 How many people are in Community Group 1136 00:53:04,250 --> 00:53:05,917 on any given week? 1137 00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:08,833 Over 8,000. 1138 00:53:08,875 --> 00:53:11,417 That's amazing. 1139 00:53:11,500 --> 00:53:14,417 That means on any given week at Mars Hill there might be 1140 00:53:14,500 --> 00:53:17,333 8,000 people having dinner together, 1141 00:53:17,375 --> 00:53:22,417 praying for one another, helping one another to grow in holiness, 1142 00:53:22,500 --> 00:53:25,125 and loving one another. 1143 00:53:25,167 --> 00:53:28,208 What that means is there's all of these gifts being given, 1144 00:53:28,292 --> 00:53:31,708 and prays being offered, and services being rendered by 1145 00:53:31,792 --> 00:53:33,875 people who love one another. 1146 00:53:33,958 --> 00:53:37,333 We can't account for all of it, there's too much to even record. 1147 00:53:37,375 --> 00:53:41,375 That's how Jesus builds his church. 1148 00:53:41,458 --> 00:53:43,417 If you're not in a Community Group, 1149 00:53:43,500 --> 00:53:46,708 please get connected to one. 1150 00:53:46,792 --> 00:53:49,708 Some of you walk in and say, "It feels very cold and impersonal." 1151 00:53:49,792 --> 00:53:51,708 Wait 'til you get in a Community Group, 1152 00:53:51,792 --> 00:53:53,125 that'll solve it. 1153 00:53:53,167 --> 00:53:55,833 And some of you will get into a Community Group and say, 1154 00:53:55,875 --> 00:53:57,333 "These people are driving me crazy." 1155 00:53:57,417 --> 00:53:58,750 They're thinking the same thing. 1156 00:53:58,833 --> 00:54:00,208 You're great for each other. 1157 00:54:00,292 --> 00:54:02,208 You're going to grow in holiness through frustration 1158 00:54:02,292 --> 00:54:04,125 and that's God plan for you. 1159 00:54:04,167 --> 00:54:06,708 You're going to have an opportunity to serve. 1160 00:54:06,792 --> 00:54:09,500 Is God calling you to lead a Community Group? 1161 00:54:09,583 --> 00:54:11,333 To host a Community Group? 1162 00:54:11,375 --> 00:54:13,083 To start as an apprentice? 1163 00:54:13,167 --> 00:54:14,583 To become a leader? 1164 00:54:14,667 --> 00:54:17,083 Now's the season where we're inviting you to do that. 1165 00:54:17,167 --> 00:54:19,583 And I believe, even today, the Holy Spirit is going 1166 00:54:19,667 --> 00:54:21,583 to call some of you into Community Groups. 1167 00:54:21,667 --> 00:54:24,708 He's going to call others of you to lead Community Groups because 1168 00:54:24,792 --> 00:54:27,333 we believe in the fall he's going to bring 1169 00:54:27,375 --> 00:54:30,208 thousands more people, and he wants you to help love them. 1170 00:54:30,292 --> 00:54:31,792 Amen? 1171 00:54:31,833 --> 00:54:35,000 And here's what's so cool, you get to see the kingdom of God 1172 00:54:35,042 --> 00:54:36,375 show up on your couch. 1173 00:54:36,458 --> 00:54:38,625 People are going to get saved on your couch. 1174 00:54:38,667 --> 00:54:41,833 Sin is going to get dealt with on your couch. 1175 00:54:41,875 --> 00:54:46,333 People might even fall in love on your couch. 1176 00:54:46,375 --> 00:54:53,000 Number eight, if I say any more I have to fire myself. 1177 00:54:53,042 --> 00:54:55,667 Number eight, the Great Commission 1178 00:54:55,750 --> 00:54:59,750 to evangelize, make disciples, plant churches. 1179 00:54:59,833 --> 00:55:05,375 Here's what Jesus said at the end of Matthew's Gospel, 1180 00:55:05,458 --> 00:55:09,083 "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 1181 00:55:09,167 --> 00:55:12,000 "Go and make disciples of all the nations, 1182 00:55:12,083 --> 00:55:14,000 "baptizing them in the name of the Father, 1183 00:55:14,083 --> 00:55:15,500 the Son, and the Holy Spirit," 1184 00:55:15,542 --> 00:55:16,875 that's the Trinity, 1185 00:55:16,958 --> 00:55:19,208 "teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you," 1186 00:55:19,292 --> 00:55:20,625 that's holiness. 1187 00:55:20,667 --> 00:55:23,083 "And behold, I'm with you always, 1188 00:55:23,167 --> 00:55:24,792 to the end of the age." 1189 00:55:24,833 --> 00:55:27,833 We read in Acts that the Lord added to their number daily 1190 00:55:27,875 --> 00:55:29,417 those who were being saved. 1191 00:55:29,500 --> 00:55:32,625 Mars Hill, I want you to always have a heart for the people 1192 00:55:32,667 --> 00:55:37,000 that aren't here yet. 1193 00:55:37,042 --> 00:55:40,500 Before you were here someone had a heart for you. 1194 00:55:40,583 --> 00:55:43,000 They were praying that you would come. 1195 00:55:43,042 --> 00:55:46,167 They were giving to provide an opportunity for you. 1196 00:55:46,250 --> 00:55:51,625 They were preparing their Community Group to welcome you. 1197 00:55:51,667 --> 00:55:55,833 Before you showed up someone loved you. 1198 00:55:55,875 --> 00:55:58,500 And they were waiting for you. 1199 00:55:58,583 --> 00:56:01,583 And I want our heart to always be open for the people 1200 00:56:01,667 --> 00:56:03,917 that aren't with us yet. 1201 00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:07,333 It's very grievous to me when a church becomes 1202 00:56:07,375 --> 00:56:11,500 insular and selfish. 1203 00:56:11,583 --> 00:56:14,292 "It's only about us. 1204 00:56:14,333 --> 00:56:17,292 It's not about them." 1205 00:56:17,333 --> 00:56:23,792 We want to always be a church that has our heart and our hands 1206 00:56:23,833 --> 00:56:27,708 open, welcoming anyone and everyone that Jesus 1207 00:56:27,792 --> 00:56:33,208 would bring us. 1208 00:56:33,292 --> 00:56:38,125 Last year at Mars Hill Church, as an average, 1209 00:56:38,167 --> 00:56:43,583 we were up 2,300 people. 1210 00:56:43,667 --> 00:56:45,792 As an average. 1211 00:56:45,833 --> 00:56:49,917 Jesus brought us 2,300 more people. 1212 00:56:50,000 --> 00:56:52,000 These are people he loves. 1213 00:56:52,083 --> 00:56:54,500 These are people he died for. 1214 00:56:54,542 --> 00:56:56,208 These are people that he rose for. 1215 00:56:56,292 --> 00:56:57,917 These are people that he cares for. 1216 00:56:58,000 --> 00:56:59,333 And you know what? 1217 00:56:59,375 --> 00:57:02,208 He's entrusted them to our family. 1218 00:57:02,292 --> 00:57:03,917 He lets us love them. 1219 00:57:04,000 --> 00:57:05,708 He lets us serve them. 1220 00:57:05,792 --> 00:57:10,667 He lets us welcome them. 1221 00:57:10,750 --> 00:57:13,833 We had certain Sundays in this last year where we were up 1222 00:57:13,875 --> 00:57:19,083 almost 5,000 people from the year prior. 1223 00:57:19,167 --> 00:57:21,333 Jesus is building his church. 1224 00:57:21,375 --> 00:57:24,708 I'm so glad that I don't have to get up and cast a vision 1225 00:57:24,792 --> 00:57:27,000 for what could happen. 1226 00:57:27,083 --> 00:57:31,958 I get to give a report of what is happening. 1227 00:57:34,500 --> 00:57:36,583 So we want to plant more churches. 1228 00:57:36,667 --> 00:57:40,708 We're one church in 14 places. 1229 00:57:40,792 --> 00:57:43,833 Right now we have three pastors who are feeling called out 1230 00:57:43,875 --> 00:57:48,417 to plant, one to Orange County, one to Denver, one to Florida. 1231 00:57:48,500 --> 00:57:51,333 So pray for them as they're making that transition, 1232 00:57:51,375 --> 00:57:53,125 they're wanting to plant independent churches. 1233 00:57:53,167 --> 00:57:54,917 They love us, we're in good relationship, 1234 00:57:55,000 --> 00:57:57,125 there's no problem at all, 1235 00:57:57,167 --> 00:57:59,333 they just feel called to go start a church. 1236 00:57:59,417 --> 00:58:02,000 And we believe in church planting. 1237 00:58:02,042 --> 00:58:06,000 In addition, we have residents coming in to be with us 1238 00:58:06,083 --> 00:58:09,125 for a year, and you'll hear in the next year 1239 00:58:09,167 --> 00:58:12,083 that we want to start Mars Hill Tacoma, 1240 00:58:12,167 --> 00:58:14,292 we want to start Mars Hill Renton, 1241 00:58:14,333 --> 00:58:17,292 and up around Bothell/Kirkland. 1242 00:58:17,333 --> 00:58:19,167 We believe there are other opportunities, 1243 00:58:19,250 --> 00:58:21,000 and we're waiting for Jesus to clarify 1244 00:58:21,083 --> 00:58:25,333 exactly where he wants us to go next. 1245 00:58:25,375 --> 00:58:28,708 In addition, I want to tell you some things that are going on 1246 00:58:28,792 --> 00:58:30,917 with Mars Hill Global. 1247 00:58:31,000 --> 00:58:33,333 We've been working in a partnership to help plant 1248 00:58:33,375 --> 00:58:37,292 churches in India since 1996 with a dear friend of mine. 1249 00:58:37,333 --> 00:58:42,625 Right now we're supporting 23 church planters in India. 1250 00:58:42,667 --> 00:58:47,000 They have planted a collective 43 churches. 1251 00:58:47,042 --> 00:58:49,417 One of the church planters is blind, 1252 00:58:49,500 --> 00:58:54,500 and he's planted four churches. 1253 00:58:54,542 --> 00:58:57,625 We also have one man who's a Hindu convert that we support, 1254 00:58:57,667 --> 00:59:02,583 he's planted 14 churches in India in the last 7 years. 1255 00:59:02,667 --> 00:59:06,333 In Ethiopia—Pastor Sutton our executive pastor, 1256 00:59:06,375 --> 00:59:08,875 he's adopted a beautiful little boy from Ethiopia. 1257 00:59:08,958 --> 00:59:10,833 He's got a big heart for that country. 1258 00:59:10,875 --> 00:59:12,625 So we've started supporting church planting, 1259 00:59:12,667 --> 00:59:17,125 missionary work in Ethiopia, and we are now funding over a dozen 1260 00:59:17,167 --> 00:59:20,375 church planters in--you are funding over a dozen 1261 00:59:20,458 --> 00:59:22,875 church planters in Ethiopia. 1262 00:59:22,958 --> 00:59:25,292 In South America we've started supporting church planters 1263 00:59:25,333 --> 00:59:30,583 in Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Morocco, Sierra Leone. 1264 00:59:30,667 --> 00:59:35,125 We're now looking at Mexico and the Dominican Republic as well. 1265 00:59:35,167 --> 00:59:38,500 As we want the news of Jesus to get out to the nations, 1266 00:59:38,583 --> 00:59:40,833 in addition to the Internet and the technology, 1267 00:59:40,875 --> 00:59:44,917 which I praise God for, we've started doing translation work, 1268 00:59:45,000 --> 00:59:48,708 so for a while all of my sermons have been translated 1269 00:59:48,792 --> 00:59:52,208 with subtitles into Spanish. 1270 00:59:52,292 --> 00:59:55,625 Fast growing, huge percentage of the American population 1271 00:59:55,667 --> 00:59:58,708 and the global population. 1272 00:59:58,792 --> 01:00:01,625 As well, we've gotten the rights to the Doctrine book 1273 01:00:01,667 --> 01:00:03,917 that I wrote, it's a theological text, 1274 01:00:04,000 --> 01:00:06,375 and we've translated it into Spanish, 1275 01:00:06,458 --> 01:00:09,500 and we're getting ready to give it away for free online 1276 01:00:09,542 --> 01:00:12,000 because there's a lot of missionaries and a lot of 1277 01:00:12,042 --> 01:00:15,667 Spanish-speaking ministers who have asked for it, 1278 01:00:15,750 --> 01:00:18,875 but it's hard to get it at a price point that makes sense 1279 01:00:18,958 --> 01:00:20,292 for certain countries. 1280 01:00:20,333 --> 01:00:23,292 So we're just going to forsake all the royalties and just give 1281 01:00:23,333 --> 01:00:25,000 the whole thing away online in Spanish. 1282 01:00:25,042 --> 01:00:27,125 That will be coming out very, very shortly. 1283 01:00:27,167 --> 01:00:29,000 Pray for that. 1284 01:00:29,042 --> 01:00:31,625 We've got 3,000 Bibles, as well, translated into Spanish 1285 01:00:31,667 --> 01:00:34,000 that we've sent down to Mars Hill Albuquerque. 1286 01:00:34,042 --> 01:00:36,917 One of our services there has the sermon in English with 1287 01:00:37,000 --> 01:00:38,708 the Spanish subtitles. 1288 01:00:38,792 --> 01:00:41,917 We're seeing a lot of Hispanics, especially Hispanic males, 1289 01:00:42,000 --> 01:00:45,000 meeting Jesus all the way down into Mexico. 1290 01:00:45,083 --> 01:00:47,792 We think there's a huge opportunity to do more. 1291 01:00:47,833 --> 01:00:50,208 We're also working on getting the Mars Hill resources out 1292 01:00:50,292 --> 01:00:53,708 in Portuguese, Korean, as well as Amharic, 1293 01:00:53,792 --> 01:00:56,292 which is Ethiopian language. 1294 01:00:56,333 --> 01:00:58,833 And our goal is to continue, through Mars Hill Global, 1295 01:00:58,917 --> 01:01:02,500 to take the resources and to get the news out of Jesus 1296 01:01:02,583 --> 01:01:04,125 to the nations. 1297 01:01:04,167 --> 01:01:07,500 Because he said we should be his witnesses to where? 1298 01:01:07,583 --> 01:01:09,500 The ends of the earth. 1299 01:01:09,542 --> 01:01:11,417 The ends of the earth. 1300 01:01:11,500 --> 01:01:13,792 As well, one thing I'm really excited about is 1301 01:01:13,833 --> 01:01:15,625 the military ministry. 1302 01:01:15,667 --> 01:01:18,125 We have a lot of soldiers at Mars Hill Church, 1303 01:01:18,167 --> 01:01:20,333 and a lot who tune in online. 1304 01:01:20,375 --> 01:01:23,333 So we've started giving away some years ago resources 1305 01:01:23,375 --> 01:01:25,500 to military personnel and their families. 1306 01:01:25,583 --> 01:01:28,333 In the last year you guys funded, 1307 01:01:28,375 --> 01:01:30,708 helped fund along with podcasters, 1308 01:01:30,792 --> 01:01:34,208 the giving away of 5,000 books to soldiers. 1309 01:01:34,292 --> 01:01:36,667 And what we've started doing is taking all the books, 1310 01:01:36,750 --> 01:01:38,583 and the sermons, and the resources, 1311 01:01:38,667 --> 01:01:40,333 and loading them onto hard drives, 1312 01:01:40,375 --> 01:01:43,000 so they can take them out in the field with them. 1313 01:01:43,083 --> 01:01:46,917 Obviously sometimes physical product is hard to pack. 1314 01:01:47,000 --> 01:01:51,292 So in the last year you gave away 127 hard drives of sermons, 1315 01:01:51,333 --> 01:01:53,167 music, and books. 1316 01:01:53,250 --> 01:01:58,042 I'm told it's 32 terabytes of data, to soldiers in the field. 1317 01:01:58,125 --> 01:02:01,375 And there are soldiers that are meeting, doing Mars Hill, 1318 01:02:01,458 --> 01:02:05,333 following our sermon series, in tents all over Afghanistan, 1319 01:02:05,375 --> 01:02:09,000 and Baghdad, and all over the world. 1320 01:02:09,083 --> 01:02:14,542 Mars Hill, I hope you're encouraged. 1321 01:02:17,167 --> 01:02:20,500 Jesus builds his church. 1322 01:02:20,583 --> 01:02:24,833 And when the Holy Spirit shows up, as we saw in Acts 2, 1323 01:02:24,875 --> 01:02:26,875 things happen. 1324 01:02:26,958 --> 01:02:31,375 Wonderful, amazing, God-glorifying things happen. 1325 01:02:31,458 --> 01:02:33,208 And things are still happening 1326 01:02:33,292 --> 01:02:36,833 2,000 years later because Jesus is still alive, 1327 01:02:36,875 --> 01:02:39,208 the Holy Spirit is still at work, 1328 01:02:39,292 --> 01:02:42,000 and Jesus still loves his church. 1329 01:02:42,042 --> 01:02:45,417 And Mars Hill, I am more excited, encouraged, 1330 01:02:45,500 --> 01:02:48,625 and hopeful than I have ever been for our ministry. 1331 01:02:48,667 --> 01:02:53,583 I've handed off some other responsibilities so that I 1332 01:02:53,667 --> 01:02:55,917 could focus on Mars Hill Church. 1333 01:02:56,000 --> 01:02:59,250 I don't want us to be like a lighthouse where light 1334 01:02:59,333 --> 01:03:01,583 goes out but it's dark at the base. 1335 01:03:01,667 --> 01:03:03,583 I want it to be Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, 1336 01:03:03,667 --> 01:03:05,125 ends of the earth. 1337 01:03:05,167 --> 01:03:07,833 I don't want to miss anything that God has for us, 1338 01:03:07,875 --> 01:03:11,875 but I want it to start at home with us having real leaders, 1339 01:03:11,958 --> 01:03:17,292 real members, on a real mission, really loving one another, 1340 01:03:17,333 --> 01:03:20,208 really reaching their community for Christ. 1341 01:03:20,292 --> 01:03:22,625 And we have come through the most fruitful, 1342 01:03:22,667 --> 01:03:27,667 successful year we've ever had in the 15 years of our history. 1343 01:03:27,750 --> 01:03:31,333 And right now we are paring back our budget to live lean, 1344 01:03:31,375 --> 01:03:35,333 so that we can give generously, and we can continue to move 1345 01:03:35,375 --> 01:03:38,917 forward faithfully by the grace of God. 1346 01:03:39,000 --> 01:03:41,667 And so in closing we're going to give you an opportunity 1347 01:03:41,750 --> 01:03:44,917 to respond, but first I wanted to share with you just a little 1348 01:03:45,000 --> 01:03:48,417 year-end financial update, and where we are at. 1349 01:03:48,500 --> 01:03:51,833 April for us was a big month in part because of Easter, 1350 01:03:51,875 --> 01:03:54,000 which is our biggest day of the year. 1351 01:03:54,083 --> 01:03:56,417 Almost 20,000 people. 1352 01:03:56,500 --> 01:03:59,917 Adults who gave in April was 42%, 1353 01:04:00,042 --> 01:04:04,125 the average amount given per adult at Mars Hill 1354 01:04:04,167 --> 01:04:09,708 was just under $30 a week, about 5,500 households. 1355 01:04:09,792 --> 01:04:14,833 In May it was up to 47%, so more people were giving, 1356 01:04:14,875 --> 01:04:17,000 and thank you to all who give. 1357 01:04:17,083 --> 01:04:19,375 The dollar amount was up to $35, 1358 01:04:19,458 --> 01:04:21,417 which is exactly where we need to be. 1359 01:04:21,500 --> 01:04:24,125 If we get beyond that we'll have a surplus to use. 1360 01:04:24,167 --> 01:04:26,500 And the number of households was down a bit, 1361 01:04:26,542 --> 01:04:29,792 probably because of the Easter adjustment, 1362 01:04:29,833 --> 01:04:32,000 but our average weekly attendance, even in May, 1363 01:04:32,042 --> 01:04:35,208 was over 11,000 people. 1364 01:04:35,292 --> 01:04:37,500 Last slide. 1365 01:04:37,583 --> 01:04:39,083 How to give. 1366 01:04:39,167 --> 01:04:41,333 During the offering you can use the envelope, cash, 1367 01:04:41,375 --> 01:04:43,083 check, credit card. 1368 01:04:43,167 --> 01:04:49,000 You can go online to marshill.com/give and sign up 1369 01:04:49,083 --> 01:04:50,792 for recurring ACH. 1370 01:04:50,833 --> 01:04:54,000 You could send in a check as well. 1371 01:04:54,083 --> 01:04:58,167 And here's the big idea: Pray for your church. 1372 01:04:58,208 --> 01:05:01,208 Give to your church. 1373 01:05:01,292 --> 01:05:02,917 Serve your church. 1374 01:05:03,000 --> 01:05:05,333 Love your church. 1375 01:05:05,375 --> 01:05:10,167 Mars Hill, this is an amazing church. 1376 01:05:10,250 --> 01:05:13,208 And Jesus loves our church. 1377 01:05:13,292 --> 01:05:14,833 Amen? 1378 01:05:14,875 --> 01:05:16,625 Jesus loves our church. 1379 01:05:16,667 --> 01:05:18,625 So we're inviting you to love her too. 1380 01:05:18,667 --> 01:05:21,625 For those of you who have been giving, and you have been praying, 1381 01:05:21,667 --> 01:05:24,125 and you have been serving, and you have been caring, 1382 01:05:24,167 --> 01:05:27,125 and you hear all the numbers and you say, "I'm not surprised." 1383 01:05:27,167 --> 01:05:28,500 Thank you. 1384 01:05:28,583 --> 01:05:30,500 For those of you who are new, welcome. 1385 01:05:30,583 --> 01:05:33,500 For those you who don't know Jesus, give your life to Christ, 1386 01:05:33,583 --> 01:05:36,417 repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Spirit. 1387 01:05:36,500 --> 01:05:39,417 For those of you who are Christians and you have gifts to 1388 01:05:39,500 --> 01:05:42,583 give, and you're vitally needed, today's the day that we want you 1389 01:05:42,667 --> 01:05:44,375 to take that step of faith. 1390 01:05:44,458 --> 01:05:45,917 So as we collect our offering, 1391 01:05:46,000 --> 01:05:48,583 and I'll call the offering stewards forward, 1392 01:05:48,667 --> 01:05:50,417 for those of you who are Christians, 1393 01:05:50,500 --> 01:05:51,917 give generously. 1394 01:05:52,000 --> 01:05:53,625 For those of you who are disconnected, 1395 01:05:53,667 --> 01:05:55,625 take that connect card and let us know. 1396 01:05:55,667 --> 01:05:57,833 "Plug me in, connect me, help me out. 1397 01:05:57,917 --> 01:05:59,250 "Here's who I am. 1398 01:05:59,333 --> 01:06:00,708 "I'm raising my hand. 1399 01:06:00,792 --> 01:06:02,125 Follow up with me." 1400 01:06:02,167 --> 01:06:03,833 We'd love to do that for you. 1401 01:06:03,875 --> 01:06:06,000 And for those of you who are not Christians, 1402 01:06:06,083 --> 01:06:08,792 we're not asking for your money, we're asking for your sin, 1403 01:06:08,833 --> 01:06:11,292 and we want you to give your sin to Jesus. 1404 01:06:11,333 --> 01:06:14,917 We want you to receive his salvation so that you 1405 01:06:15,000 --> 01:06:17,208 can share in our joy. 1406 01:06:17,292 --> 01:06:20,333 So, Father God, as we transition now 1407 01:06:20,375 --> 01:06:23,500 I just want to say thank you. 1408 01:06:23,583 --> 01:06:27,792 Lord God, I want to say thank you that Jesus loves the church, 1409 01:06:27,833 --> 01:06:30,333 and Jesus loves our church. 1410 01:06:30,375 --> 01:06:36,208 Holy Spirit, I want to thank you for being so generous, so good, 1411 01:06:36,292 --> 01:06:39,792 so gracious to us. 1412 01:06:39,833 --> 01:06:44,417 And God, I want to pray that we'd be good stewards of the people, 1413 01:06:44,500 --> 01:06:46,375 the opportunities, and the resources 1414 01:06:46,458 --> 01:06:48,125 that you've entrusted to us. 1415 01:06:48,167 --> 01:06:52,125 I want to pray that you would multiply what we have, 1416 01:06:52,167 --> 01:06:55,792 like the little boy's lunch that was given to the Lord Jesus. 1417 01:06:55,833 --> 01:06:58,125 Lord God, we pray for the new churches. 1418 01:06:58,167 --> 01:06:59,833 We pray for the new church plants. 1419 01:06:59,917 --> 01:07:01,708 We pray for the international missions. 1420 01:07:01,792 --> 01:07:04,625 We pray for those who have yet to be saved. 1421 01:07:04,667 --> 01:07:07,500 We pray for those that you're calling up into leadership. 1422 01:07:07,583 --> 01:07:10,833 We're praying for those whose lives are being changed. 1423 01:07:10,875 --> 01:07:14,208 And God, in light of the fact that this is the end of our 1424 01:07:14,292 --> 01:07:16,708 fiscal year, thank you for the greatest, 1425 01:07:16,792 --> 01:07:20,417 most fruitful year that we've ever had by any measurable, 1426 01:07:20,500 --> 01:07:22,667 statistical evidence. 1427 01:07:22,750 --> 01:07:24,500 And we pray for much, much more. 1428 01:07:24,583 --> 01:07:26,667 In Jesus' good name, amen.