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Alright, so if you don't know, my name is Greg Hampton. I'm one of the pastors here.

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If it is your first-ish time, I would love to meet you. I'll buy you coffee.

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I love coffee. Name the coffee place. I will buy it for you. If you don't like coffee,

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I'll buy the soda, whatever your drink of choice is. Today we are beginning a new series

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that is called The Church Called Tov. And it's about being good, not just as an individual, but as

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a church. What does it look like? What does it mean? How is a church good? I've mentioned it

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before, but Scott McKnight is the professor of New Testament and Northern Seminary that's just

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three hours from here in Lombard, Illinois. He has authored 30 books. His name is often mentioned in

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the same sentences. People like N.T. Wright. N.T. Wright is a beloved theologian and scholar,

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and Scott McKnight is right there with him leading the way with the way that we think

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about the scriptures. One of the books that he wrote, he actually co-wrote with his daughter,

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Laura Beringer, and it is called The Church Called Tov, forming a goodness culture that resists

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abuses of power and promotes healing. Ta-da! They wrote this book because, unfortunately, churches

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or the way churches handle certain things aren't always good. Brennan Manning wrote,

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the temptation of the age is to look good without being good.

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And churches aren't immune from trying to look good while straying away from what is actually

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good. Now, don't raise your hand, okay? Don't. Promise? Ian? Don't raise your hand. But do you

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guys know what a trap house is? Trap house is a modern phrase for something that has always

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existed. It's a drug house. Drugs will always be sold in a million different ways, but one of the

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ways is a trap house. It is an actual house where you can go and buy your drug of choice,

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and some of them, if you want, you can even stay for a while. Next question. Has anyone in your

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family ever lost their phone? Okay. Next question. Did you track the GPS on that phone? And did it

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lead you to a trap house? Anyone? Last question. Did you go get it? Because I did. A few years ago,

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one of my kids was at Taco Bell, phone in pocket, and they had like, you know, plasticky boots,

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and it just fell out kind of nice and easy, and they didn't see it when they left, but because we

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have iPhones, we have Find My Phone. We use the Apple account to lock it and track it. Of course,

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you can't track a phone that's been turned off, and usually people that steal your phone are only

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going to turn it on a couple times a day to see if it has been unlocked or if they can access it.

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And so, but finally, after a couple days, I got an alert with the location, and so I went. Why wouldn't

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I? I parked. I got out of my car. I walked right up to the house, and I said to the guy standing

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outside, hey, my kid lost his phone. The GPS says that it's here for some reason. Like, have you seen

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it? And then he reached into his pocket, and he pulled out the phone and said, yeah, yeah, yeah,

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I was just holding on to it for you, man. He handed it to me. I got in my, I said thank you. I got in

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my car. I drove home. I gave the phone back to my son. The next day, when I told a couple of my

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friends what I had done and where I had gone, they were like, bro, did you know that was a trap house?

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Now, some of you are wondering what in the world does this have to do with the church

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and being good? And some of you already know,

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because goodness is essential to churches, but it can be faked in dime bag doses, divvied up like

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rocks and hits, spooned out, lined up for artificial fits of euphoric belonging, hooking people until

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they feel it's too late to escape. That might sound dark, but some of you are actually breathing

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a sigh of relief that someone finally said it out loud. Some of us might be on the edge of actually

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being triggered about talking about the difficulties that can happen in a church. You're

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not triggered because of my reference to a trap house, because of your past church experiences,

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because some of you were strung out by something that looked real just long enough to hook you

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and then hurt you. I hope that you hear me say that you are not alone,

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because everyone is hungry for goodness. Everyone, your neighbors, your co-workers,

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your family, they all just want something that is really, truly, actually good. And the world

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knows this. Hollywood knows it just turned on TV, turned on a streaming platform, and it feels like

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every other show has the word good in the title now. Good behavior, good bones, good eats, good

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girl, good grief, good work, good omens, good luck, Charlie, good trouble, the good cop, the good

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doctor, the good fight, the good guys, the good life, the good place, the good wife.

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Everyone is selling good like it's a drug. In churches, some churches are no different. This

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church, this house, if we are not intentional on purpose, we can just as easily

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turn into a trap. And how easy would it be for that to be the meme? We're already called the house.

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I can see it now. The little thing, trap, house. New merch dropping.

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Churches should really, truly, actually be good. Amen? Now, in the last 10 years, I have spent zero

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time standing behind this table or otherwise bad-mouthing local churches. I've had individual

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conversations with some of you where churches have come up and I've said, oh yeah, I knew that, or

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da-da-da-da-da-da. I've had conversations with some of you where churches have come up and I've

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said, oh yeah, I knew that, or da-da-da-da-da-da, or we've had conversations, but this pulpit,

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this table is not a place for us to bad-mouth other local churches. And so I'm not going to

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start now because that's not good. I'm sure that we will tell stories. The different people that

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stand here and tell the sermons, preach sermons throughout this series will tell stories, but I'm

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telling you right now that we are not going to use local churches as examples. Because some of you

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have friends that go to those churches and you all are smart enough to figure out who we're talking

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about if we did. That's just not good. At the same time, from the beginning of this church, we have

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acknowledged that church hurt is real. We say that the house exists to what? To invite people in,

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to call prodigals home, to adopt the spiritually homeless, because we all know someone that has

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never gone to a church because they didn't think it was actually safe. It wasn't, they weren't like,

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oh I just don't believe or want to believe or don't want to hear about it. They just didn't think

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it was safe. We all know prodigals that left because they didn't think they could live up to

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they could live up to the standards of the legalistic older brother. We all know someone

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that is spiritually homeless because their pastor or church board was abusive and addicted to power.

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It's hard to hear and it's hard to say, but it's the truth that churches can often protect the

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wrong people. They protect people like me, people that are on the payroll, people with words like

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pastor in front of their name. So while for some it makes no sense why someone would leave a church,

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let alone leave the church or Christianity all together, for some it makes no sense why anyone

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would stay. So if we are going to stay, if we are going to invite others in, if we are going to

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call prodigals home and adopt the spiritually homeless, what kind of culture we have that we

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are inviting them into matters. Matters a lot because the church is meant to be the embodiment

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of Jesus Christ our Lord in the earth. Jesus our Lord is good. We won't be perfect, but we should

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want to be good like Jesus. Amen. Now I debated just like maybe ending right there and just giving

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it an easy, okay this was hard enough to say, just kicking the subject right in the teeth and being

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like all right we'll see you next week, but I do think that the scriptures have something to tell

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us and so we're going to open up our bibles today to the book of Genesis 1 and Galatians 6. You can

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do one or both if you'd like. If you don't have your own Bible, we have physical Bibles on the

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bookshelf in the lobby. They're blue. You can take one of those. It is yours or you can download

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a Bible from any of the digital app stores. Genesis is the very beginning and Galatians,

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it goes first Corinthians, second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and so

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if you see any of those you're in the right neighborhood, okay. All right so we have a

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tradition of giving the scriptures our full attention when we read them during the sermon.

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One of the ways we can do that is to stand together as we are able, but if you prefer to sit,

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I just appreciate it if you will pay attention to the scriptures. Here we go Genesis 1 verse 27 and

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then I'm going to jump to 31. It says, so God created mankind in his own image in the image of

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God. He created them. Verse 31, God saw all that he had made and it was very good. Galatians 6,

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9 through 10. Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest

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if we do not give up. Therefore as we have opportunity let us do good to all people,

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especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Let us pray. God of every tribe,

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every tongue, every color and every nation we thank you for the scriptures that they have

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persisted throughout the millennia. We have them to read, to consider and to learn from and I pray

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that today whatever you have for us to learn, I pray that it would stick, that it would become a

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part of the framework of our faith, that our faith would become stronger, that we would become more

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like your son Jesus. Amen. Amen. Have a seat. Thanks guys. I'm not going to take too much more

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time. There's just two things that I want to point out. The first thing is that God's intention for

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you, God's intention for us from the beginning of the story has been goodness. From the very

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beginning his intention for us has been goodness. In the book of Genesis when God looks at creation,

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in particular when he looks at humanity, God says that we are very good. The word for good in Hebrew

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is tov. It is found hundreds of times throughout the Old Testament. In the New Testament its

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equivalent is only used four times, but when Paul is writing about the spiritual, the fruit of the

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spirit, he for some reasons, even though kindness and goodness are very similar, he separates them

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out and stands goodness on its own as something that should be coming out of us if we are believers.

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Tov doesn't mean just good. Tov means a goodness that is capable of, engaged in and destined

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for the fulfillment of God's purpose. That is what God said that we are from the beginning.

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He said it before we had done anything. In other words, God built goodness in. We don't get it

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after we do something good. You do not do good things to become good. You do good things because

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you were created good. Does sin want to cover up our goodness? Yeah, of course it does. Let me tell

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you what Jesus does. He doesn't cover our badness with his forgiveness. Hear me? Some people think,

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oh okay Jesus died on the cross, he bled, the blood represents his forgiveness for us, it covers us,

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it washes. Okay, it does not just cover up something bad. It washes away everything that is not good.

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Thank you, because that's where we're going. Listen, God's forgiveness does not cover up

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your badness. It washes everything away that is not good. Because you are good underneath it all.

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You are good. We were created from the beginning to be good. We are Tov. We are very Tov. We are

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capable of, engaged in, destined for the fulfillment of his purposes. If that doesn't describe

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what the church is meant to be, what the church can be, then I don't know what does.

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The church full of people that were created good is capable of, engaged in, destined for the

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fulfillment of God's purpose. But while we are by God's very design good, and while his forgiveness

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clears the way for goodness, the goodness that he created us to be, to have, to shine through,

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the second thing I'll say is that we need to be reminded sometimes to be good.

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So much of what Jesus taught was a reminder of what is good. Love your neighbor as yourself.

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Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The first will be last. The last will be first.

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If you enter a banquet, do not take the spot at the head of the table, but seat yourself

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at the foot. That way when the host comes in and says, I'm going to be the host,

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that way when the host comes in and sees where you are seated, he will say, no, you must come

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and sit up here. Don't lower your power over others. Don't be like the Pharisees. You have

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heard it said, do not murder, but I tell you, do not even hold on to anger. Jesus is reminding us

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over and over and over again of what is good, of what good looks like, of what is tov.

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This is why someone like Paul was so important for the early church. Writing letters,

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making visits, checking in. Most of what Paul wrote was reminders. Hey, maybe don't do this to

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each other. Hey, maybe don't act like this towards each other. Hey, stop getting drunk on the communion,

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guys. Hey, save some people for the people that got there late. He's constantly reminding the

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early church of how to be the good that God created them to be. And he says that we should never stop

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being that good for everyone. No one should be left out. But then he says something that I think

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that can be misunderstood or misconstrued. I think that people go, oh, well, we're only supposed to

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care about people that enter the church. No, he said everyone. In the scriptures, the gospels are

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very clear that this is for everyone, but he does tag that and he says, make sure you don't stop

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doing good, especially for those in the community. Well, why? Well, maybe because this place should

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be safe. And if someone decided to walk through the doors, they should expect goodness. They should

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expect something good. They should expect for those of us who that are still flawed to be trying to

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just be good to them. To not go, hey, why are you sitting in my seat? Not go, whoa, what happened

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to you? I haven't seen you in a while. Hey, why are you always late? Hey, I saw that post where you

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were angry about such and such. Don't you know that you're being a bad example? Et cetera, et cetera,

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et cetera, et cetera. How about, hey, I haven't seen you in a while. I need a hug. Hey, what are

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you doing? We should get coffee. We need to catch up. Hey, do you want to go in and sing with me?

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Hey, can I sit next to you? Hey, what's your name? Oh, I've met you three times already. I'm sorry, Jim.

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Goodness. Goodness. He's saying be good, do good to everyone. But if someone, if someone risks it

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and says, you know what, I'm going to believe in this thing that I can't even see,

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that they'll receive something good. Scott McKnight says, goodness is an executive virtue,

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one that governs all behavior and cannot be narrowed to one specific command or prohibition.

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A good person is one who has discerned what is good and does good repeatedly over time.

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It is the small goodnesses that add up to greatness. So I will never ask any of you to be great.

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I would only ask us, look at myself in the mirror and say this to myself, just do a little good today.

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Just do a little good today. Because according to McKnight and Berenger, this kind of church,

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the kind of church that is good, nurtures empathy while resisting a narcissist's culture.

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It nurtures grace while resisting a fear-based culture. It nurtures a people-first culture

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while resisting institutional creep where things are just all already predetermined because that's

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what the institution says. It nurtures truth while resisting false narratives, especially about people

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that aren't about the truth. It nurtures the truth. It nurtures the truth. It nurtures the truth.

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It's all about people that aren't a part of your community anymore. It nurtures justice while resisting a loyalty culture.

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It nurtures service while resisting the celebrity culture. It nurtures Christ likeness while resisting

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a leader culture. So over the next two months, we're going to spend time diving into each one of those

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dichotomies. And I hope that you will join us as often as you are able because if we, if we all

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do these little good things, if we are all in this together, and if we are healthy,

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if our church is healthy, then when you invite others to this house, they won't send you this.

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Let us pray.

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Father, I thank you for the work of your Son Jesus Christ and the way that your Holy Spirit

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still moves. I pray that today that your Holy Spirit that is comfort would comfort every heart

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in this room, especially those that have arrived here in this place with a past of church hurt.

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I'm sorry.

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I pray that they would please forgive us.

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And Father, I pray that we would as a church, good by good, work to be more and more like your Son

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in this place.

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Amen.