Alright, so if you don't know, my name is Greg Hampton. I'm one of the pastors here.
If it is your first-ish time, I would love to meet you. I'll buy you coffee.
I love coffee. Name the coffee place. I will buy it for you. If you don't like coffee,
I'll buy the soda, whatever your drink of choice is. Today we are beginning a new series
that is called The Church Called Tov. And it's about being good, not just as an individual, but as
a church. What does it look like? What does it mean? How is a church good? I've mentioned it
before, but Scott McKnight is the professor of New Testament and Northern Seminary that's just
three hours from here in Lombard, Illinois. He has authored 30 books. His name is often mentioned in
the same sentences. People like N.T. Wright. N.T. Wright is a beloved theologian and scholar,
and Scott McKnight is right there with him leading the way with the way that we think
about the scriptures. One of the books that he wrote, he actually co-wrote with his daughter,
Laura Beringer, and it is called The Church Called Tov, forming a goodness culture that resists
abuses of power and promotes healing. Ta-da! They wrote this book because, unfortunately, churches
or the way churches handle certain things aren't always good. Brennan Manning wrote,
the temptation of the age is to look good without being good.
And churches aren't immune from trying to look good while straying away from what is actually
good. Now, don't raise your hand, okay? Don't. Promise? Ian? Don't raise your hand. But do you
guys know what a trap house is? Trap house is a modern phrase for something that has always
existed. It's a drug house. Drugs will always be sold in a million different ways, but one of the
ways is a trap house. It is an actual house where you can go and buy your drug of choice,
and some of them, if you want, you can even stay for a while. Next question. Has anyone in your
family ever lost their phone? Okay. Next question. Did you track the GPS on that phone? And did it
lead you to a trap house? Anyone? Last question. Did you go get it? Because I did. A few years ago,
one of my kids was at Taco Bell, phone in pocket, and they had like, you know, plasticky boots,
and it just fell out kind of nice and easy, and they didn't see it when they left, but because we
have iPhones, we have Find My Phone. We use the Apple account to lock it and track it. Of course,
you can't track a phone that's been turned off, and usually people that steal your phone are only
going to turn it on a couple times a day to see if it has been unlocked or if they can access it.
And so, but finally, after a couple days, I got an alert with the location, and so I went. Why wouldn't
I? I parked. I got out of my car. I walked right up to the house, and I said to the guy standing
outside, hey, my kid lost his phone. The GPS says that it's here for some reason. Like, have you seen
it? And then he reached into his pocket, and he pulled out the phone and said, yeah, yeah, yeah,
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
my car. I drove home. I gave the phone back to my son. The next day, when I told a couple of my
friends what I had done and where I had gone, they were like, bro, did you know that was a trap house?
Now, some of you are wondering what in the world does this have to do with the church
and being good? And some of you already know,
because goodness is essential to churches, but it can be faked in dime bag doses, divvied up like
rocks and hits, spooned out, lined up for artificial fits of euphoric belonging, hooking people until
they feel it's too late to escape. That might sound dark, but some of you are actually breathing
a sigh of relief that someone finally said it out loud. Some of us might be on the edge of actually
being triggered about talking about the difficulties that can happen in a church. You're
not triggered because of my reference to a trap house, because of your past church experiences,
because some of you were strung out by something that looked real just long enough to hook you
and then hurt you. I hope that you hear me say that you are not alone,
because everyone is hungry for goodness. Everyone, your neighbors, your co-workers,
your family, they all just want something that is really, truly, actually good. And the world
knows this. Hollywood knows it just turned on TV, turned on a streaming platform, and it feels like
every other show has the word good in the title now. Good behavior, good bones, good eats, good
girl, good grief, good work, good omens, good luck, Charlie, good trouble, the good cop, the good
doctor, the good fight, the good guys, the good life, the good place, the good wife.
Everyone is selling good like it's a drug. In churches, some churches are no different. This
church, this house, if we are not intentional on purpose, we can just as easily
turn into a trap. And how easy would it be for that to be the meme? We're already called the house.
I can see it now. The little thing, trap, house. New merch dropping.
Churches should really, truly, actually be good. Amen? Now, in the last 10 years, I have spent zero
time standing behind this table or otherwise bad-mouthing local churches. I've had individual
conversations with some of you where churches have come up and I've said, oh yeah, I knew that, or
da-da-da-da-da-da. I've had conversations with some of you where churches have come up and I've
said, oh yeah, I knew that, or da-da-da-da-da-da, or we've had conversations, but this pulpit,
this table is not a place for us to bad-mouth other local churches. And so I'm not going to
start now because that's not good. I'm sure that we will tell stories. The different people that
stand here and tell the sermons, preach sermons throughout this series will tell stories, but I'm
telling you right now that we are not going to use local churches as examples. Because some of you
have friends that go to those churches and you all are smart enough to figure out who we're talking
about if we did. That's just not good. At the same time, from the beginning of this church, we have
acknowledged that church hurt is real. We say that the house exists to what? To invite people in,
to call prodigals home, to adopt the spiritually homeless, because we all know someone that has
never gone to a church because they didn't think it was actually safe. It wasn't, they weren't like,
oh I just don't believe or want to believe or don't want to hear about it. They just didn't think
it was safe. We all know prodigals that left because they didn't think they could live up to
they could live up to the standards of the legalistic older brother. We all know someone
that is spiritually homeless because their pastor or church board was abusive and addicted to power.
It's hard to hear and it's hard to say, but it's the truth that churches can often protect the
wrong people. They protect people like me, people that are on the payroll, people with words like
pastor in front of their name. So while for some it makes no sense why someone would leave a church,
let alone leave the church or Christianity all together, for some it makes no sense why anyone
would stay. So if we are going to stay, if we are going to invite others in, if we are going to
call prodigals home and adopt the spiritually homeless, what kind of culture we have that we
are inviting them into matters. Matters a lot because the church is meant to be the embodiment
of Jesus Christ our Lord in the earth. Jesus our Lord is good. We won't be perfect, but we should
want to be good like Jesus. Amen. Now I debated just like maybe ending right there and just giving
it an easy, okay this was hard enough to say, just kicking the subject right in the teeth and being
like all right we'll see you next week, but I do think that the scriptures have something to tell
us and so we're going to open up our bibles today to the book of Genesis 1 and Galatians 6. You can
do one or both if you'd like. If you don't have your own Bible, we have physical Bibles on the
bookshelf in the lobby. They're blue. You can take one of those. It is yours or you can download
a Bible from any of the digital app stores. Genesis is the very beginning and Galatians,
it goes first Corinthians, second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and so
if you see any of those you're in the right neighborhood, okay. All right so we have a
tradition of giving the scriptures our full attention when we read them during the sermon.
One of the ways we can do that is to stand together as we are able, but if you prefer to sit,
I just appreciate it if you will pay attention to the scriptures. Here we go Genesis 1 verse 27 and
then I'm going to jump to 31. It says, so God created mankind in his own image in the image of
God. He created them. Verse 31, God saw all that he had made and it was very good. Galatians 6,
9 through 10. Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest
if we do not give up. Therefore as we have opportunity let us do good to all people,
especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Let us pray. God of every tribe,
every tongue, every color and every nation we thank you for the scriptures that they have
persisted throughout the millennia. We have them to read, to consider and to learn from and I pray
that today whatever you have for us to learn, I pray that it would stick, that it would become a
part of the framework of our faith, that our faith would become stronger, that we would become more
like your son Jesus. Amen. Amen. Have a seat. Thanks guys. I'm not going to take too much more
time. There's just two things that I want to point out. The first thing is that God's intention for
you, God's intention for us from the beginning of the story has been goodness. From the very
beginning his intention for us has been goodness. In the book of Genesis when God looks at creation,
in particular when he looks at humanity, God says that we are very good. The word for good in Hebrew
is tov. It is found hundreds of times throughout the Old Testament. In the New Testament its
equivalent is only used four times, but when Paul is writing about the spiritual, the fruit of the
spirit, he for some reasons, even though kindness and goodness are very similar, he separates them
out and stands goodness on its own as something that should be coming out of us if we are believers.
Tov doesn't mean just good. Tov means a goodness that is capable of, engaged in and destined
for the fulfillment of God's purpose. That is what God said that we are from the beginning.
He said it before we had done anything. In other words, God built goodness in. We don't get it
after we do something good. You do not do good things to become good. You do good things because
you were created good. Does sin want to cover up our goodness? Yeah, of course it does. Let me tell
you what Jesus does. He doesn't cover our badness with his forgiveness. Hear me? Some people think,
oh okay Jesus died on the cross, he bled, the blood represents his forgiveness for us, it covers us,
it washes. Okay, it does not just cover up something bad. It washes away everything that is not good.
Thank you, because that's where we're going. Listen, God's forgiveness does not cover up
your badness. It washes everything away that is not good. Because you are good underneath it all.
You are good. We were created from the beginning to be good. We are Tov. We are very Tov. We are
capable of, engaged in, destined for the fulfillment of his purposes. If that doesn't describe
what the church is meant to be, what the church can be, then I don't know what does.
The church full of people that were created good is capable of, engaged in, destined for the
fulfillment of God's purpose. But while we are by God's very design good, and while his forgiveness
clears the way for goodness, the goodness that he created us to be, to have, to shine through,
the second thing I'll say is that we need to be reminded sometimes to be good.
So much of what Jesus taught was a reminder of what is good. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The first will be last. The last will be first.
If you enter a banquet, do not take the spot at the head of the table, but seat yourself
at the foot. That way when the host comes in and says, I'm going to be the host,
that way when the host comes in and sees where you are seated, he will say, no, you must come
and sit up here. Don't lower your power over others. Don't be like the Pharisees. You have
heard it said, do not murder, but I tell you, do not even hold on to anger. Jesus is reminding us
over and over and over again of what is good, of what good looks like, of what is tov.
This is why someone like Paul was so important for the early church. Writing letters,
making visits, checking in. Most of what Paul wrote was reminders. Hey, maybe don't do this to
each other. Hey, maybe don't act like this towards each other. Hey, stop getting drunk on the communion,
guys. Hey, save some people for the people that got there late. He's constantly reminding the
early church of how to be the good that God created them to be. And he says that we should never stop
being that good for everyone. No one should be left out. But then he says something that I think
that can be misunderstood or misconstrued. I think that people go, oh, well, we're only supposed to
care about people that enter the church. No, he said everyone. In the scriptures, the gospels are
very clear that this is for everyone, but he does tag that and he says, make sure you don't stop
doing good, especially for those in the community. Well, why? Well, maybe because this place should
be safe. And if someone decided to walk through the doors, they should expect goodness. They should
expect something good. They should expect for those of us who that are still flawed to be trying to
just be good to them. To not go, hey, why are you sitting in my seat? Not go, whoa, what happened
to you? I haven't seen you in a while. Hey, why are you always late? Hey, I saw that post where you
were angry about such and such. Don't you know that you're being a bad example? Et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera, et cetera. How about, hey, I haven't seen you in a while. I need a hug. Hey, what are
you doing? We should get coffee. We need to catch up. Hey, do you want to go in and sing with me?
Hey, can I sit next to you? Hey, what's your name? Oh, I've met you three times already. I'm sorry, Jim.
Goodness. Goodness. He's saying be good, do good to everyone. But if someone, if someone risks it
and says, you know what, I'm going to believe in this thing that I can't even see,
that they'll receive something good. Scott McKnight says, goodness is an executive virtue,
one that governs all behavior and cannot be narrowed to one specific command or prohibition.
A good person is one who has discerned what is good and does good repeatedly over time.
It is the small goodnesses that add up to greatness. So I will never ask any of you to be great.
I would only ask us, look at myself in the mirror and say this to myself, just do a little good today.
Just do a little good today. Because according to McKnight and Berenger, this kind of church,
the kind of church that is good, nurtures empathy while resisting a narcissist's culture.
It nurtures grace while resisting a fear-based culture. It nurtures a people-first culture
while resisting institutional creep where things are just all already predetermined because that's
what the institution says. It nurtures truth while resisting false narratives, especially about people
that aren't about the truth. It nurtures the truth. It nurtures the truth. It nurtures the truth.
It's all about people that aren't a part of your community anymore. It nurtures justice while resisting a loyalty culture.
It nurtures service while resisting the celebrity culture. It nurtures Christ likeness while resisting
a leader culture. So over the next two months, we're going to spend time diving into each one of those
dichotomies. And I hope that you will join us as often as you are able because if we, if we all
do these little good things, if we are all in this together, and if we are healthy,
if our church is healthy, then when you invite others to this house, they won't send you this.
Let us pray.
Father, I thank you for the work of your Son Jesus Christ and the way that your Holy Spirit
still moves. I pray that today that your Holy Spirit that is comfort would comfort every heart
in this room, especially those that have arrived here in this place with a past of church hurt.
I'm sorry.
I pray that they would please forgive us.
And Father, I pray that we would as a church, good by good, work to be more and more like your Son
in this place.
Amen.