MOVE | Week 6 | Bill Bush

And I thought about this, like I've tried over the years that to be more intentional, like text someone when I'm thinking about them or if the Lord lays or and then when I'm thinking something nice to say it, because a lot of times we think things but we don't actually express it.

And and learned this with with my father growing up, because you know, I've told you stories. He was a hero of mine, great man, all these things. But he was a man of his times in many ways. He would be 95 years old if he was still alive. And he he he expressed love by just doing the loving thing, doing the caring thing. He wasn't as often very touchy feely in the way he would talk about things. Matter of fact, a lot of stuff I tell you that sounded so wise, I kinda churched it up a bit for him, okay?

I'm his ghost writer. He's like, he didn't say it exactly like that, but this is what he meant. And I learned that because when I was a freshman in high school, he almost died. And then he had to he retired early because of this. And

it made me think about that. And so I decided, you know what? Every time I leave the house or I go on a trip or something, I thought, what if this is the last time I see him? So I decided I was gonna express how much I loved him every time. So what I did is I just started on my own, I'd walk up to him, I'd give him a big hug, say I love you pop and I'd kiss him on the forehead.

And I mean, you should have seen the look on his face the first time I did that. It looked like an abused puppy that had just been rescued. It didn't know what to do with it. It's almost like, are we at war? You know, like his look on his face was and he was so stiff, like, what are you doing?

And and I love you, puppy. And then he would start to go, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love you. And give me like the the the the the three tap hug that every guy knows. Three taps, you're out. Tap, tap, tap. Alright. We're good. We're good. Break. There we go. But

then over the years, over time, it started to soften and mellow and he started to hug back, say I love you. And I knew that he had totally transitioned

with me and understood this and was willing to be expressive. When a couple years later I was running late for work, I went to run out of the house, I ran right by everybody, see guys? And then he followed me out and he goes, hey. And I was like, what? And I'm like, what did I do? What did did I offend mom some way? Because if he gets mad, I offend mom. If I disrespect mom, man, him and I are at war at that point. And I thought what did I do? And he's like get over here. And I'm like what? And I walked back I go I'm late. And he goes bring it in.

Where's my hug? Where's my kiss on the forehead? Where's my love you pop? Boom. And then he kissed me back on the forehead. Said love you son. And sent me about my way. And I ended every time I was with him that's how it ended. I learned that I had finally trained my father. It was awesome. Little sociological

experiment too. And yeah. So but what was powerful is like learning to be more expressive. Learning to actually do that in a loving way. Learning to care about people around you in a in a way. And the reason I share that is because this

last chapter of Romans we're gonna look at today. The end of this series, this move we've been going through in several series if you've paid attention, we've been in like four different series, but we've been going through the book of Romans for months now. And this last chapter is a chapter where I think the Apostle Paul

in many ways was probably a lot like my dad. And because you know theologians kind of theory, but theologians and people that understand personality when you read how Paul writes, when you understand what his career was before

Christ you know knocked him off his donkey and he met Jesus, He was a guy that was so into the deep thoughts and having accurate theology and doing those right things that when he thought Christians had the wrong idea of God, he was seeking them out to arrest them to have them killed.

He was a very hard drive. Matter of fact, in the middle of these, he'll say the tough things. He writes tough things with deep thoughts and most people when they try to analyze the personality based on what this man did, what he was like is he probably wasn't naturally a real people person. He probably wasn't naturally a real loving and expressive person.

And yet we have Romans 16 where he mentions 35 people. 27 of them are in the church in Rome which he'd never been to. But somehow he had a relationship with them.

And he talks about them and he says some things about them. And the reality is when I was studying for this week, I was gonna maybe look at the last half of chapter 15 which we hadn't looked at, which Paul really opens up about his call to reach the Gentiles and what does that mean for us today. But that's like, I can summarize that. And then I was just gonna summarize chapter 16 because most of us if you've read the Bible much, you get to chapter 16, oh this is the end credits. This is the credits at the end of the movie. I'm gonna leave.

But this is more like a Marvel movie. There's actually important things hidden in the credits. There's after credit scenes. There's things going on in here that I started to look at and I go, I wanna look at this because we know something about a lot of these people that he mentions. And there is a story in there.

And the fact that Paul took so much time to talk about these individuals within this church, What he says in chapter 16 is of all the things that the Holy Spirit could inspire him to end this letter with, all the deep theology, all this great teaching, all this stuff, but how he chooses to end his last parting thoughts,

I believe is actually the most critical thing to catch. Because if you don't catch what is happening in chapter 16,

then the other previous chapters, I don't care how much you know them, how much you love them, it'll mean nothing if you don't catch on to this. Because here's kind of the big idea. The conclusion of this book is simply this, people are the plan. People are the plan.

People has always been the plan God had. People is the reason the person of Jesus Christ came as God the Son and became a person. He took on humanity, the nature of a man and the body of a man, and it melded with him. He wasn't just wearing a costume, he really became one of us, he became a person.

He then lived this perfect life for us, and he came for the purpose of dying for each of us as individuals,

but it didn't stop there. These last four chapters of Romans, Paul was talking about what does that mean for us as the people of God? So this person in Christ came to die for individual persons in order to gather us to be the people of God. And we're called to go declare to magnify him, to glorify him in our lives, and to chase after and run not not just run to him, but run with him in our lives. And we're supposed to be about people. Our mission is to point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. And if you don't if you come to church and your top goal isn't about the person of Christ to be magnified in your life, in the life of having an effect in other people,

then you're missing the whole point. You're missing the whole point. That there is a very personal aspect to our faith. We have a personal relationship with God, But that personal relationship was supposed to connect us to the communal relationship of being the church, the people of God.

And that's kind of emphasized here in this last chapter where he's kept talking about unity over uniformity. And that the church is gonna be a group of people that are vastly different and we might have some different ideas about a lot of things but when it comes to the faith where you have unity.

But we're not gonna be really uniform. And I think we seek uniformity most of the time when when we need to find unity. And what it's saying is people are the plan. Always has been. So what I'm gonna do here is a little bit different as we look at this. I'm just gonna read through this whole chapter.

And I'm gonna pull out and comment on some of these names. And some of things. The part that everyone skips over,

and we're gonna see that there's in some incredible story. And the fact that Paul knew these people and knew their names, he learned to be very relational. He knew that it was about people. He understood what the plan was.

It wasn't just having the right ideas and having the deep theology and and all that. It was about this idea of in relationship with others to be the people with God. And there's some great stories in here. And then I'm gonna then at the end, I'm gonna pull out couple observations that I think this is really saying to us. And then we're gonna maybe cry together and then we're gonna sing, take communion and sing a song and go home. Sound like a good day? Alright. There we go.

So here we go. Romans 16.

I commend you to our sister Phoebe who is the deacon in the church of Centuria. Welcome her in the Lord as one who is worthy of honor among God's people. Help her in whatever she needs. For she has been helpful to many and especially to me. So this woman, he starts right off the gate mentioning a woman,

which was counter cultural.

And she's a deacon. That means a servant. But it also denotes some leadership. So in this culture, lot of people say, well, the bible's so chauvinistic and all that. Like the first person he mentions was a woman who was a leader. There's obviously roles in scripture that God says I want this to be male.

There are some some of that, but it doesn't mean women can't lead or have a voice. Matter of fact, the first person he commends is Phoebe. And the reason he commends her first is she's the one he handed the letter to. That's why he's saying commend her. She's the one that brought the letter of Romans

to the Roman people. And the way they worked, back then they didn't have a big building. They couldn't gather everybody all at once very often. Especially in Rome where they were persecuted and stuff. So what they would do is they basically were a bunch of small groups

that would occasionally gather. So to bring this letter was a big responsibility because she went to all the little home churches and would have read this to them.

And he's commending her right off the bat and he says, hey, not only is she gonna be helpful to you, now she's been worked hard for the kingdom, she's been very important to me personally. So he knew this wasn't just about getting the mission done, there's a relationship

there. And he continues on, he says, give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila, my coworkers in the ministry of Jesus Christ. Right there, Priscilla and Aquila, they're mentioned six times in the New Testament. Four times, every time Paul talks about them, they're mentioned it says Priscilla and Aquila. Continuing that theme, Priscilla's the wife, Aquila's the husband.

And he mentions the wife first. That was like not the way you did it in this culture. And yet he mentioned it because we know historically she was the more prominent one. She was the more go getter. She was the more that just got it done. So it's like a classic marriage.

She was the one doing the heavy lifting so she got named first. But look what it says about them, in fact they once risked their lives for me. We don't know that story, we don't know what they did. People would just hear this name two thousand years later but they remembered it as they risked their lives for Paul.

He goes I am thankful to them and so are all the Gentile churches.

They were key players that we never heard of that helped all of these churches that were non Jewish outside of Jerusalem, outside, they were partners with Paul. Matter of fact, he met them because they were tent makers, that was what their business was. Paul was a tent maker.

Means he made fixed tents and made tents. That's how he made some money when he was traveling. So he met them. They were tent makers. So this couple was very intent people.

Sorry. That joke is very intentional. You're like man it's too early for bad jokes, just stop. I can handle bad preaching but bad jokes I cross the He says also give my greetings to the church that meets in their home. Kind of like how we think of it as a small group, a home group.

Wherever Priscilla and Aquila are mentioned, wherever they were living, they started a home group. Get the theme? Everything he's talking about is yeah, we're about the gospel, but the gospel is about doing it in community. Every person he's mentioning, it's talking about being in a circle, not in a row.

He says greet my dear friend Epenetus. He was the first person from the province of Asia to become a follower of Christ. That's kinda cool. See Paul had always prayed about going, he felt led to go into the places where you know Jews always thought God was just for them. They missed the mission.

And he realized now the mission was God opened the doors and he ended up all the way over in Asia and he's remembering. And this guy is now in Rome, this guy Epinetis, and he was the first person to become a Christian in Asia.

And Paul remembers him because he's like, wow that was the first guy that listened to the message when I went and preached it. That's cool. He goes, give my greetings to Mary who has worked so hard for your benefit. Right there Mary, we know nothing about her. Except for what he said right here. Worked so hard.

It's interesting. 35 names are mentioned here. 27 of them are in the church room. Seven of them are women. And all seven women, it uses the same phrase, worked so hard. That word for worked so hard, worked hard means striving and it means to the point of exhaustion, meaning went all in. Went all in.

Now think about it, we don't know anything else about this woman, but here we are several thousand years later reading her name and one thing to describe her life.

And it says, she worked so hard for the Lord but also for your benefit. A relational term. She worked so hard for the Lord and it was for people. If there's only gonna be one sentence remembered about you two thousand years from now, what would you want it to be?

They consistently voted this way. They didn't do that. They had a lot of money.

They were ridiculously good looking.

Or would you want it to say that wow, they worked hard for the Lord and it changed the lives of people?

People are the plan. It says greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews. So now a lot these names have been gentile names, they've been Greek names, now you got a couple Jewish names, but look who they were. Who were in prison with me? So now he's talking about how he's an ex con and he has some of his old ex con friends

who are now in the church and he says, look, they are highly respected among the apostles. The apostles were all the disciples that were still alive and around like Peter and them that actually walked with Jesus. They were highly respected. And it goes, and they even became followers of Christ before I did.

So now he's mentioned how we did time together. Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord. Ampliatus, that's an interesting one. We know that name, that's a slave name. That's a name that wouldn't be, that would be a name of a slave.

And he says he's been, greet him, my dear friend. He was close to him. And we don't know what Ampliatus did, but in Rome where the Christians would often meet is in the catacombs where they had the tombs basically. They bare these big vast open. They would often meet because they're persecuted so they can meet down there in secret and do church and all that.

And so they were so much wanting to get together, they'd meet in a graveyard. Know, most churches wanna meet in a big building, but we are a graveyard. And while we're down there, they found this guy's tomb where he was buried down there.

He's buried right next to a well known princess of the time. Like a high up, very known princess who became a Christian so she ended up getting thrown to the lions and dying. He's buried his tomb is right next to hers.

You would think he's the one that was the prince or a king. His is ornately decorated. Has lots of honor. Has detail. It has all this stuff. It's like the most fancy, most honored tomb in there. A slave had such an impact serving God that the people of God buried him with greater honor than a princess. That's a good lesson.

A lot of us go, I really can't get involved. I don't have the time, I'm a nobody. I'm stuck, I'm enslaved to what's going on in my life. I can't be about what God wants me to be about. I don't think you can get more anymore enslaved by your circumstances than to literally be enslaved.

And he still finished his life about people and the plan of God in such a way that the people of God honored him so greatly.

He's saying greet my dear friend.

He says greet Urbanus, our coworker in Christ, my dear friend Stackys. Verse 10, greet Appellas, a good man who Christ approves. And then he says, and give my greetings to the believers from the household of Aristobulus.

This is interesting, there's two people it mentions to greet, he says greet the household up. He doesn't say to greet them directly. Which what that tells us is Aristobulus, his household was all full of believers, but he wasn't. So the household would go to church and he wouldn't. He's missing out.

And it's interesting because Aristobulus is someone that's very well known. You see he was the grandson of Herod the Great. The king of Israel basically, Herod the Great. And he was one of the best friends of Claudius the Caesar of Rome. He was very wealthy, he was very famous, he was very well known.

So he's all about his life, but he missed who Christ was. But his household didn't. He was surrounded by the gospel and the people of God and he missed it. He missed it. And in fact about half the people that are listed are also listed within the imperial court in Rome in history.

So then it goes on and says, greet Herodian, fellow Jew. Greet the Lord's people from the household of narcissists. There's another one, narcissist is another one that it's his household that's believers but not him. And apparently he wouldn't go to church because he was a narcissist.

Actually that's where they get the name narcissist, it's from narcissists. And you know who he was, is he was actually the appointment secretary for the emperor Claudius. What the appointment secretary meant is he read all the mail and determined what Caesar needed to read, and he decided who got to meet with Caesar.

That was a position of incredible influence and power. It's also a position that the salary might have been low but you ended up rich. Especially if you didn't have character. What it was was oh, you wanna meet Caesar?

How much is it worth to you? So we know in history, narcissist was a multi multi millionaire with a huge household. His household came to Christ. And household meant your servants, your family, slaves, and if you were an average Roman it would mean like maybe 15 to 25 people. If you were wealthy like him it could be hundreds.

So you have like hundreds of people that know Christ around him, but he didn't know Christ. He thought he had it all great until all of a sudden his friend Claudius

and the guy he worked for ended up murdered, poisoned, and a guy named Nero took over. And when he took over, alright, this guy's had a lot of power. How do I know he wasn't responsible for any of this? And Nero wanted more money because he needed more, well he wanted to do some things, so he forced narcissists to commit suicide,

and then he got all of his wealth and all of his household, all of his servants. So then here's Nero who actually really started to terrorize the Christian community, blame them for everything, yet he's getting served food by people that knew Christ.

Which by the way, the way Roman Empire kinda fell was through people who knew Christ being close to the people in power. They didn't overthrow him, they didn't become the people in power, but the gospel ended up doing. Emperor Constantine,

same thing. He became a Christian through his Praetorian Guard. He's the first emperor that became a Christian, that's when it became the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire when they converted and said alright, it's all about Christ now.

And how did his Praetorian guard even know Christ? How did they all become followers of Christ? You read back through the letters of Paul. Paul spent some time in prison,

but not in a prison prison, he was like house arrest, but he was chained to, it says the emperor's guard these days. So they rotated through, the praetorian guard was chained to the guy. What do you think he did all day if he's stuck? He's captive audience. I can't leave, you can't leave. Let's talk about Jesus.

And apparently he led a bunch of the Lord, it became known as a movement. You go so many years later, all these years, you have this Christian movement and that's kinda what led to Constantine hearing the gospel becoming a Christian. The gospel is what changed things, not the politics, because Constantine then becomes

Christians have power. But he acted just like the typical politician. He goes alright, we're no longer persecuting Christians. We're all gonna be Christians. And if you fight against Christ I'm gonna kill you.

Which means the church actually did not grow in a good way after that. It actually excelled when it was just about the gospel.

But here's narcissist that's missing the point. And the question there is if you come into church, are you a narcissist? Do you make it all about you? Because if you make it all about you, you're gonna miss the point. You're gonna miss the point. Where we at? Verse 12. Give my greetings to Tryphina and Tryphosa,

the Lord's workers and dear Persis who worked so hard for the Lord. There's three women all said they worked so hard for the Lord and they were Lord's workers. The word for workers is just like that, it's like the grunt work, like almost construction workers. They just get in there and get things done.

And that's kind of funny because Tryphina and Tryphosa, they were twin sisters and it's interesting because Tryphina and Tryphosa means dainty and delicate.

It's interesting that he goes give my greetings to Dainty and Delicate who did some heavy lifting and they got the work done. They weren't afraid along with Persis also. Man they just got down and they built things And they were strong despite their names.

Think about that for you and me. Some of us feel like, well this is who I am. And especially back then, names usually were a declaration to me or sometimes they'd name you and it's like it's trying to say something about you. They were named dainty and delicate. They did not live a life of being dainty and delicate.

Maybe you're living a life that you think this is just who I am. And you're missing the opportunity to let the gospel of the person of Christ who loved you enough to die for you can then empower you to do what he's asked you to do. To be a part of what's going on.

Because that word that work hard meant to toil to the point of exhaustion, to give it all you got. And then verse 14 no, verse 13. Greet Rufus whom Bill and Ted met once and it changed the universe. Bill and Ted reference, you're old if you laughed at that. Now greet Rufus whom the Lord picked out to be his very own

and also his dear mother who has been a mother to me. You know we know a little bit they mention his grandma but his mom's never talked about Paul's mom, we know nothing about his home life mother.

And so when he says this woman is, I don't think it's just being nice. Oh you've been like a mother to me. I think he means it very literal. That this woman stepped in and was like mom to him because she knew the Lord. And what's interesting is who is her husband? Who is Rufus' father?

Because in Mark it explains that there's a guy who had a son named Rufus and his name was Simon of Cyrene. And if you know anything, but we're about to go into this, it's like this Palm Sunday today and everyone's cheering for Jesus on this day, by the next week he's getting hung on a cross.

And as he was dragging this cross, they beat him so senseless, it was taking forever. Roman guards grabbed some guy out of the crowd and made him carry Jesus' cross. That was Simon of Cyrene. His son is mentioned as an active part of this church and his mom. So this guy's son, his wife, as devout believers,

there's a story there. Simon's probably already dead by this point. So when he got forced to drag that cross I think he met Jesus and left a legacy. And here it is, and his wife ended up being a mother to Paul. That's all we know. But there's a great story in there and that story's about people. It's about people.

He says, give my greetings to Asynchronous, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobus, Hermes, and the brothers and sisters who meet with them. Give my greetings to Philagos, Julia, Narius, and his sister, and to Olympus and all the believers who meet with them. Both of those he's describing small groups.

He's describing these people that he's had he's never been to Rome. These people are now there. That means he had a relationship with people before they ever ended up there and he knows who they are. And he's talking about these different people that sit in circles together and they love Jesus. And he's saying greet them. And then he even says greet each other with a sacred kiss. All the churches of Christ send you their greetings. So he's talking about, hey, when you greet each other, I mean I don't think we're gonna reinstitute the sacred kiss thing because we might end up in HR problems.

But the idea is don't just go to church, be the church, be welcoming to one another. Express love to one another. And then he stops, and this is where I think I know that Paul's personality

is one that I can relate to. Because he's very relational, he's learned to be, but he also has these moments where he's very thorough. He stops and does one more little throw

It's his last reminder of all the things he could've reminded, he still makes it about people and about unity when he warns them of one last caution. Look what he says, he goes, and now I make one more appeal my dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions

and upset people's faith by teaching things contrary to what you've been taught. Basically watch out for people that take things that are not not actually scriptural. A lot of times it's what we talked about with the indisputable

matters. They take a disputable matter and and and make it an absolute for everybody when it's not even scriptural,

and they teach and they cause fights. And he says you try to deal with them, and he says earlier in Romans, as far as it's up to you, be at peace with all people. But he says there's gonna come a point that when you have these people, he says stay away from them. Basically talk to the hand. Don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you is what he's saying.

Such people are not serving Christ our Lord, they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talking, glowing words they deceive innocent people.

In other words, there's another passage of scripture that says there's gonna come a time where Paul's writing to Timothy where people are gonna surround themselves with people who say what they wanna hear. That sounds like social media to me. And media, we all have I watch this, I watch, we surround ourselves

with everyone who says what we wanna hear.

He goes, but everyone knows that you are obedient to the Lord, this makes me very happy. That's the only person we should be listening to, the word of God. And people who are gonna accurately and teach the word of God. And he even says stuff like this, he's saying how I love you guys and all this, but I gotta warn you again.

Don't wanna upset you but I gotta warn you because you wanna be obedient to the Lord but then he says what you need to do is he says, I want you, he's telling him to be wise in doing right and stay innocent of any wrong. It's one last time he's saying this.

Innocent of anything wrong. I think most of us have become a Christian. He's saying the same thing I've said multiple times. We think being a Christian is I learn how to make sure I do the to don't list.

I stop doing the bad things. And then we think now I've grown as a Christian, I'm good. I don't do all those wrong things. And we think the to do list, the being wise of what's doing right, a lot of that's optional. Why did he say wise of what's doing right first?

Because that's really the most important thing. Of course we wanna be innocent of the bad, innocent of the evil, but the reality is what we really want, so what he died for is so we can be wise in doing the right thing. And he's saying, hey,

don't just sit there. Be wise in the right thing. And the last thing he's saying is have unity. Don't let people destroy your unity. Don't just sit in a row. You gotta be in circles. Be about people. People are the plan. A person is who died for you and that's why we can be a part of the plan. And then he wants to use us to have a front row seat in what he's doing.

He's saying don't miss it. He says because the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Going back to the grace of Christ. We love because he loved us.

And then he starts mentioning the people that are with him that wanna say some things. He goes, Timothy, my fellow worker sends you his greetings as do Lucius, Jason, Sochi Peter, my fellow Jews. And then look at this, the guy that's writing this, I Tertius, the one writing this letter for Paul, send you greetings too as the one of the Lord's followers. He's like, go ahead, say hi Tertius.

Throw down a beat. I don't know why I said that. 23, Gaius says hello to you. He's my host and also serves as the host of the whole church. This guy's wealthy enough that he had a big enough piece of property and house that he didn't just have to have a home group there, he could hold a whole church there.

Erastus the city treasurer sends you his greetings and so does our brother Cortes. He's in the city there at one point he had to leave because they threw a riot over what he was teaching. Now he's got the city treasurer that knows Jesus.

Now all glory to God who is able to make you strong. Here's how it ends, just as my good news says, this message about Jesus Christ has revealed his plan for you for the Gentiles. The word there for revealed is has revealed the plan. In the Greek it's a word, where we get mystery.

He's basically like the mystery is now out in the open. We know what the mystery of the church is. And it says a plan kept secret from the beginning of time, but now as the prophets foretold, it says it's been kept secret, but now that he's come to know Christ, he went back and looked at the Old Testament and said oh,

oh, oh God had a way bigger plan than we Jews thought. We just read right over that, we didn't see that coming and we should have. It says, the prophets foretold and as the eternal God has commanded, this message is made known to all the Gentiles everywhere

so that they might too believe and obey him. All glory to the only wise God through Jesus Christ forever, amen. What he's saying is with this all tied together is what we realize about all these different people, Greeks, Jews, all this. He goes, he realized to the glory of God, we now know the great mysterion that's called the church, the body of Christ. And what he's saying, it's so to God's glory, is he goes, Gentiles, were supposed to come in Christ in vast numbers. Paul's the first one that realized there's gonna be more Gentiles that know Jesus than Jews. The whole world. God always intended

to save way more people than the Jews ever thought. See, they thought it was about we're the chosen ones. We're the special ones. Yeah. A couple of you guys can convert over, but for the most part it's all about us. And God's real plan was I wanted to use you to reach them.

And they didn't listen, and they missed the point, and they made it about themselves, and they rejected Jesus. And now Paul's saying, let's not do the same thing. This great mystery was God cared about people way more than we do.

And now he's called us to care too. People are the plan. God had a plan for so many more people than we thought and he wants us to be a part of that plan. That's what the church is supposed to be. And if we just sit here and make it about ourselves,

we become the narcissist. We become like the Jews failure. We become a people that are missing the point even as we come here to try to praise God.

Don't do that is what he's saying. So what does that mean? Real quick, a few things it means. First, we need to understand the church is people not programs. Of course we have programs.

We run a program because that's an opportunity for us to gather to try to go after the purpose. The purpose of this room is to come worship God and to learn from his word together.

To be together. We're gonna take communion in a few moments. It's the chance because there's an idea of communion that wasn't just meant for our own little selves. It was always told to do together. Communion was supposed to be about community. And so we do have the programs.

I mean next week we're going have a pretty large program. And that's partially why this is really dumbed down. We changed this but we didn't want to give it away. It's going to be kind of cool. The lights will work better but you'll see that next week.

The program's not the problem, it's what do we point to with the program. The church isn't an organization, it's an organism. We have programs but that's not what is, and if you think of the church as just looking for the programs you want for you personally,

but you're not connecting to the people, you're missing the point. Because the second thing that this chapter really emphasizes is that every person is important. Every person is important. So if every person is important and it's about the people not the programs,

we shouldn't make it about just the programs. We shouldn't be a people that just worries only about our own little personal walk. Next week it's gonna be crowded. I've asked people to serve. Be wise in doing what's right.

What would it be like for next week if everyone who calls this their church home decided to at least serve during one service? What would that be like? It wouldn't be as chaotic. And I think what he's saying here to be wise and what's right and remember it's about people is sometimes you're the narcissist in the crowd,

you want to know Jesus but you just make it about you, if you're the one that comes and thinks of the church's programs and not meeting your needs and you come here week after week and then you're like man that was chaos getting the kids dropped or I couldn't find some, no one got back to me on this,

you get really frustrated and you complain about the programmatic elements, you are a Christian and this is your church and you don't serve?

You're complaining about yourself.

You're the problem. The reason it bottlenecks is there's too many people that wanna come and be served by a program, but not be about the people and be the people of God. And that's why there's these issues.

So let me put it this way, I'll admit my failure. One of the things I did poorly as a father when my kids were little is one of my kids I'd see them getting into something and I'd be sitting on the couch, I'd to my wife, look they're doing that. As if why aren't you doing something about it?

And she's in the kitchen and she goes, you're their father. And I realized by complaining about this thing that's happening, why aren't you doing something about it, I actually throat punched myself. That's kind of the same thing.

If you come here and complain about a program or not getting something that you wanted and you are a Christian and have been here for a while and you don't serve, the reason it's that way is because you need to serve. It's simple.

You're missing out and other people are missing out. And in the end you're missing out yourself too, it's a result because we need one another. Everyone's important. But we're about the people. But the next thing is people need encouragement.

Paul said here it encouraged so many people. And that's the thing I wanna say. I have to call out. I just had to do the little mini throat punch in the middle of it because that's what Paul did. It's hard, it's difficult. As a pastor I kinda have to say, I need to say what we need to hear not what we wanna hear.

And sometimes I say stuff that sounds kinda rough, and it is. I don't like to do it. My natural personality is I like to be liked.

I really do. And it's difficult. And then some people think, you're talking about we need to move, we need to do that. All we care about is numbers. All we care about No, all we care about is people. When you say numbers, we count people because people count. When you say all you care about these chairs, well every chair. You're sitting in a chair, you have a story, don't you? Every time we fill these chairs with people we fill it with more stories. Every time we grow it's not like we're adding problems, we're adding relationships.

And I don't want to grow this church for my own ego or my own success. This church has grown so far beyond me. It's more headaches. The staff and all these things, every time we grow it's a lot harder job. Because the truth is I really don't know what I'm doing.

All I know is twenty years ago I didn't wanna be a youth pastor anymore. And here we are. That's all I knew. I go I'm done being a youth pastor. Because when kids belch in my face, I used to belch back. Now I wanna punch them. I gotta get out of this gig.

And I started working with you guys and you're more childlike than they were.

But we need to be encouraged. Let me

Everyone of you that serves here and especially those of you that give financially, this is for you. You see what we do is we're about people and we have a lot going on that you're not even aware of. I got this, we got this letter and it's from a guy in prison

because we do a thing every Christmas time where we do this angel tree and you guys showed up big time. It was like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of families that what we do is there's a lot of guys in prison, some females, but their family is kind of impoverished cause they're in prison and

their Christmas is gonna be terrible and so we go and we buy presents for these kids. But we don't just stop there, we throw a big party. So they get a Christmas party. And this came from a man who's in prison and his family partook in this. And he just says, Dear Rock Point Church, my name is, skip his name,

and I'm writing to personally say thank you. This past Christmas season, your church and its parishioners went above and beyond on donating Christmas gifts and a party for my loved ones who enjoyed every second of it.

And I just wanted to say thank you for all that you did, the time and effort, and then he says, and most of all, your love and kindness. May God bless you.

When I holler at us about if we're Christians, let's be obedient with our resources and spend our money on what God asked us to spend our money on. It's not about me wanting to buy a plane or something.

It's about this. And every one of you that has given in this church, he was saying thank you to you.

So thank you for your willingness because this is why he asked us to be faithful. God is allowing us to have a front row seat on him changing lives for all of eternity. And I think that's a little bit more important than what we tend to spend our money on and our time on. It makes a difference

and we need to be encouraged in that. So thank you. Last thing is, he always says to greet one another. I think greeting is a Christian duty. There was a book I read a few years ago, Crowded Pews and Lonely People. Tragedy is you get a big room like this but no one ever talks.

Hey, here's a good idea. What if all of us consider ourselves if this is your church, you're on the welcome team. Whether you officially do it or not, which means get here on time. Actually get here early because for some of you on time is the second song.

And then you're like, why does the coffee shop take so long? You can get here earlier. And look around. Be nice to people. Say hello. See how they're doing. And I ain't coming here like wow, you're like, I gotta get in, gotta get out, I gotta go about my life. I hang out out there.

People at bigger churches, oh wait till your church gets bigger. Wait your churches, I hang out there, I'm tired, I gotta preach, I don't care. I barely got back here in time. Because I think it's part of the job. And I like people. It's fun. What if we all consider ourselves welcomers? You're not a consumer.

You're Christian. This is a part, this is your church. Own it.

Be here. They say people, study after study. It says people make their decision whether they like a church or not within the first six minutes of showing up. So it starts at the point. You barely get into the building. You've already made your opinion. Most of you know that. When you first showed up, you're like, hey, kinda like this place. And what you're looking at, you haven't heard a song? You haven't even gotten to that second song yet.

Let that sink in. And they make a decision and you haven't even seen how your kids, you've basically been you've seen what the parking lot people are like, the greeting coming up, and maybe what the check-in process is with your kids. And you've already decided

either I hope I like the rest of it, because it's either gonna talk you out of it, or you've already made a decision. Unless everything else is the greatest thing ever, I'm never coming back. Well guess who we see most of in those first six minutes? Each other. What if we were all welcoming to people? Don't

assume that you're the one that's coming here like a consumer. Assume that we are here to be the church and just be nice. I'm not saying awkwardly follow them around and say, hey, I'll follow you home so I can see where you live. I'm not saying be really weird. Just say hi.

If you see someone looking, it's not hard. If you've done it for a while, it's not hard to spot a new person. See someone kind of looking around, hey how are you doing? Hey you need something? Well what if they ask where the children's stuff is and I don't know where it is?

If you've been here get yourself familiar with the campus. Would how would that change people's perception if they could walk in and all their tension was already relieved? Just by being nice, you might be reaching someone for Christ because you've calmed it down for them. You've already been on to do that.

Because like I said, people are the plan. And it's really about us being willing to do that. I thought about this as I read this letter, the last part, and really studied and looked at these names and I thought what would it be like if I wrote a letter, the first letter to the church of Rock Point.

If I was far away and I was writing my chapter 16.

And I know there'd be lots of names I could mention that are well known, people you know, people that have been involved in this church. But man he mentioned some slaves, some people that no one's ever heard of from what they say. And they were integral parts of this church because they were willing.

And I thought how would I do that? And I think I would write and say stuff like, hey, say hi to Joel Winfrey. A man you might not know. I'm gonna make you cry Joel.

When he first came to this church with his family he was like the narcissist guy. He wasn't sure he even wanted to be there. We were in a cafeteria, he would sit by this little stage we built up to put our sound stuff, he would just stand by it And

then when he would get comfortable, he'd sit on the corner of it. He didn't even wanna sit in the chairs. And then our guy, he saw how busy our youth pastor was trying to get all the stuff on the screen and all that. And as he sat there, he says, you want some help? I think he originally did that because it made time go by faster.

He started volunteering. Well then I'll just think, know, he came to know Christ, he got really involved, and guess what? He's been helping do that. He's the one that helps put the stuff on the screen. This happens to be his week off. He's the man behind the curtain that has been doing that for basically twenty years now faithfully.

He helps on Friday nights, he helps with car things, he's helped with so many ways, and I've talked to him so many times, he has personally encouraged me, he's even saved the day for me with car issues in the past when I was really broke, and he just came along and helped me fix things. He's been a great man of God and thank you for working hard under the Lord my friend.

In the same vein there's a guy back there, know there's a Oh he's actually back there on the camera right now. Named Stephen Hyer who came to Christ in 2011 as an older man, like later in life. And he went all in. And he has served and served and served and served. All he kinda behind the scenes doing stuff.

Well as his wife got older, she has kinda declined in her health and it got really hard for him to leave. He even spent a short period of time, because he could only go really not very far from his house. He was helping at one of our sister churches just so he could help because it was only like right down the street from his house and he could get home really fast. He has figured out a way now that he can get here early on Sunday mornings. He could serve on Sunday mornings. And he has to take care of his ailing wife. He has a million reasons. I'm old. I've been doing this forever. My wife is declining.

What's your reason for not serving? Because he figures it out. And he's here faithfully every week. And he gets here so early.

I got here really early once. He was already sitting there playing the guitar and praying. I'm like, what are you doing? He goes, I don't know. He gets here. So I kept coming earlier and earlier. I finally gave up. I can't get here early. I think he gets here Saturday night. I'm not sure.

But we get a cup of coffee or tea every Sunday morning now. And we're just talking about like science and we have the greatest talks

and he has helped me out. He came to my house when I was trying to rent out something and I put something together and I didn't I said I could do this myself and I realized I can't do this myself. But Steve came over and helped me. Thank you Steve. And you know what, thank you Marsha, his wife, because she

before her health declined to the point that she can't be here, she was always out there greeting everybody. She loves it. She misses it. Thank you for that hard work. Speaking of greeters, on Saturday night in this door there's a woman, Virginia Ingram, that has been standing at one of those doors

greeting people. You probably noticed her, she's about a little bit taller than Mark Collins.

Always gotta pick on Mark. She gives me a hug, smiles. I knew her sons. Her husband just died recently. Of so many years, great man. They celebrated his life and she's right back at her door.

Instead of saying I can't serve because I have this problem, she's come to understand that God built us for that and she finds the purpose and meaning in that and a joy in that. So I thank her for her work unto the Lord.

One, yeah. I'll give you one more.

This guy named Ralph is on our safety and security team. And that guy has been so faithful, so faithful.

Back when I used to get here early and Steve wasn't able to be here for a little while was helping at the other church, I would get here and Ralph would be the first guy so he'd keep me company, we would have the greatest talks about faith And he was always, always faithful. A couple years ago at our Christmas Eve service,

it was actually cold and very rainy. I mean, like, we It's like we're in another state. I don't know. But And there was a veteran who came in and all the people, he started to have He was struggling with PTSD, couldn't handle it and he went outside.

Well Ralph is a veteran and he understood. He went out and sat with him for two hours in that cold and that rain. Prayed with him and talked to him and kept him company. Ralph ended up with pneumonia and in the hospital at that time. Because Ralph had lung issues and he did it anyways.

And he always came and served, always came and served, always came. As a matter of fact, several months ago he came here one day, he didn't look good, but he says he's coughing, his lungs were bothering him because I can do it, I can do it. He got through later that night he went to the hospital and he never got out of the hospital. He died.

Here's a guy that served to the point where he couldn't even go home. But he went to his ultimate home. That is what it means to be on the front row. I am thankful that I get to serve with people like that and you. The question is, what's your one line gonna be that people would read two thousand years from now?

What's it gonna be? Do you want it to mean something? Because the people are the plan and you were one of the people that was the plan. Jesus died for you. He wants you to accept his love and then accept the mission he has given us to be his people. And if you fight that, you are missing out. You're missing out

on what these people I just mentioned discovered.

There is something greater on the other side of that what looks like sacrifice. There's something better on the other side of hard.

That's what we were really designed to run after. That all the things that your reasons for not going all in, everything you're chasing after will never provide what you think it's gonna give you. You only find that on the other side of trusting Jesus. And I don't want you to miss it.

So I want us to take communion together to close this down. And as we take communion, the reason is, TS Eliot once said the communion cup cup has been replaced with a cocktail glass. And what he meant by that is communion was supposed to be done in the context of not some private little ceremony, but us together

because communion meant community. Jesus said the night before he died, he took the bread, broke it, he took the blood, and he said drink the the the wine and said drink it. This is my body broken for you. This is my blood spilled for you. Do this in remembrance of me as you gather.

Why did he want us to come together as a community and remember his sacrifice? Because he's trying to say is, in this moment, if I'm willing to die for you, if I became a person for simply to give my life for you, don't you think you can trust me with your life? The one I died to give you?

So we're supposed to do this, to make a moment to reflect personally, like, hey, as I look around at my church body, am I really a part of this body? Am I willing to take the sacrifice of Christ's love and actually accept the gift he gave me with that? Not just get out of hell free, but to get to be a part of the body.

He gave his body so we can be the body. So just ask yourself as we take communion, sing this song. Simple thought to think about. Can you pray as we take communion this prayer? God, first of all, thank you for your love. Make sure you've accepted his love. Admit your sin.

But then maybe be able to say this, God, whatever, whenever, however, I am yours. Whatever, whenever, however, I am yours. Because the cross shows that whatever, whenever, however, he was ours.

So he took that bread, broke it, said take and eat. He then took the cup. This is my blood spilled for forgiveness sins. Drink.

In other words, I died because people are the plan.

That is our prayer, that Christ would be magnified and glorified in us and through us. Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on rockpointe.io for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.