Well, you may have noticed some things are different.
I told Cindy, I talked to Jen, I said, you know, I never wanted to get to a place where
we get 10 years down the road and everything seems the same.
And we were even talking that we are now the age of the church leaders that we wanted to
change things.
We were early in our 20s.
We looked at these people in their middle 40s approaching 50 and go, why won't they
change things?
And we want to make sure that we as a church are a church that is willing and ready to
change, to adjust to what our city needs, to what our congregation needs, to what the
younger generation that's coming up behind us needs, because God is always ready to meet
people in the way that they need to be met.
And so it may seem like a small change to some, may seem like, well, this is an old
idea to others.
It may seem like, I hate this, but we're going to do tables for a while and see how it goes.
One, because we want to try to, Cindy and I like way back in Jen, we bristled against
the idea that church was, let's come and sit in rows and listen to the teacher.
And instead, like, why don't we express ourselves through art?
So there's notebooks on every table and there's colored pencils and you can draw and you can
express yourself.
And you don't have to stand to saying you can sit and write or journal or draw, regardless
of your level of ability to draw, just draw whatever.
And I think like, if you leave those behind, I want to take a bunch of those and take pages
out of it and turn them into other things.
Maybe put some artwork up on the wall that is some kind of collage of the artwork that
you've created.
So I want to encourage you that we're open to see what God has for us, but we also want
to make sure that community happens in a lot of different ways.
But sometimes community happens when we go like this, when we turn towards each other,
when we face each other.
And sometimes there's going to be someone talking up front and so you're going to turn
your chair.
But this is just one of those little designs that more than just saying it with our mouths,
we're saying it with the way things are set up, that we want you to be toward each other,
for each other, in this with each other.
Because that's what church is.
It's not listening to songs and sermons.
The church is the people turning towards each other as they have turned towards God and
living life together.
I know that's redundant to live life together, but it is what we're meant to do.
And some of that happens around tables.
Some of that happens in community tables.
And some of that happens while singing songs.
And some of it happens while drinking coffee in the lobby.
And some of it happens by meeting up with the people that you found here outside of
a place like this and developing family beyond the walls of a building.
So welcome to the beginning of the next 10 years.
Right?
My name is Greg Hampton.
If we've never met, I would love to meet you.
I'll buy you a cup of coffee.
We'll sit around a table.
Maybe not here.
We'll go somewhere.
I'll buy you a cup of coffee, buy you lunch, something like that.
I would love to get to know you.
I would love to hear your story, hear what God has been doing in your life and what you're
hoping that God will do in your life.
And like some of you, I grew up here in the Quad Cities.
Yeah?
Round of applause for if you grew up in the Quad Cities.
All right?
But like some of you, I never planned on living here as an adult.
Round of applause for people who never planned on living here as an adult.
Yeah?
I grew up here, but it wasn't my plan.
And I'm not sure why just as a kid.
Grade school, middle school, high school.
I just never thought I would end up here.
And especially in high school, I started thinking like, oh, I want to live in Colorado.
Like if that's not heaven on earth, I don't know what is.
Like it's gorgeous there.
It's beautiful.
It's all the best of all the different seasons.
And there's mountains.
I don't know.
I just never pictured myself being here when I was grown.
So I was surprised as anybody back in 2013 when I started literally crying for Rock Island,
feeling like we needed to move back here and plan to church.
So let me back up a little bit.
In 2010, we moved back to Colorado.
We'd been in Colorado for a year for school worship.
We went to Georgia for three years to help plan to church.
We went back to Colorado in 2010.
And I was hired on at the North Campus of New Life Church.
At that time, it was just called New Life because they didn't have a bunch of other
campuses that you had to call it the North Campus.
But it was the North Campus, and it was all the way up pretty much as far as you could
go in Colorado Springs and still be in the Springs.
And in 2012, I helped them start their downtown campus.
There's about 20, 20-ish minutes downtown.
And even once you got to downtown, you weren't to the end of Colorado Springs on the bottom.
If the Quad Cities is like this, Colorado Springs was like this.
It was very long because it was landlocked on one side by the mountains.
And so it just kept growing this direction.
And I would drive 20 minutes down the highway from the North Campus, and I would get off
to go downtown on an exit called Bijou Street.
Once you exit on to Bijou Street, that road was this hard S-curve that would drop you
into the downtown area of Colorado Springs.
And it would always remind me of Rock Island.
Why?
Because of this road right here.
Because when I was a teenager back in the 1900s, I worked at a place called the Ford
Armstrong.
I worked in the cafeteria.
I was a dishwasher at first, and then I was a glorified waiter, which basically meant
you just carried pre-planned meals to the certain tables they belonged at.
And I would drive my little brown Toyota through this curve as fast as I possibly could.
It was not a sports car, but I treated it like it was.
And then in Colorado, when I would drive that S-curve, I would be reminded of this, and
I would find myself praying for Rock Island that, God, I pray that Rock Island has healthy
churches.
God, I pray that people in Rock Island would feel a sense that you love them.
God, I pray that they would have everything that we're trying to accomplish here.
God, I pray that people in Rock Island, that you would have people plant churches that
are meaningful to them, that they would find a sense of family, a sense of belonging.
What I didn't know was that God was setting me up.
Because that next January in 2013, when Cindy and I were praying, she said, what do you
think about moving back home?
And God, we'll do it right now, took all those prayers from the last year and dumped them
out of my eyes like rivers.
Seven months later, we moved back here to Rock Island.
Five months after that, almost a year to the day within five days of when we had first
prayed about it, this church launched.
Since the beginning, we have said that we want to be a church that would exist to invite
people in, call prodigals home, and adopt the spiritually homeless.
If I say nuns, do you know what I'm talking about?
Some of you might think I'm talking about nuns.
They go to the Catholic Church?
No, no, N-O-N-E-S.
It is now a religious category.
The number of nuns as in they have no affiliation to any religion at all is growing exponentially,
year by year.
It is a sense of spiritual homelessness.
We said we want to create a place for those people to belong.
We said we wanted to rest, live, work in a great house and that that rest needed to come
first because we didn't want to burn people out.
We didn't want people to feel like they were being used.
We said that we wanted to be a church that believed no one should be left out.
We said we hoped to see a massive shift in our lifetimes from spiritual homelessness
to a strong, undeniable sense of spiritual family here in the Quad Cities.
Maybe you've come here and you've found a lot of that.
Maybe you found rest.
Maybe you've started feeling a sense of spiritual family.
Maybe you are someone that didn't know you could still belong in a church.
Ten years and we have seen so much of what we set out to see, but ten years in, I'm also
a realist that knows that that massive shift we hoped for hasn't happened.
That massive shift from spiritual homelessness to a strong, undeniable sense of spiritual
family in Rock Island and the Quad Cities, that's still to come because people don't
know that they can belong.
There was probably a day where a lot of you didn't know you could belong.
I was at the pancake house yesterday.
Pastor Ross was in town and so anytime I can introduce someone to the pancake house and
cinnamon roll pancakes and everything, I took them there and we were sitting and there was
a table behind us and at one point someone kind of accidentally elbowed Pastor Ross and
so we turned around and kind of had a little joke about it.
I was like, oh hit him harder, you know, like that and they laughed and there was like eight
young ladies all easily under 25 sitting at this table and so the young lady immediately
behind me, she says, what are you all having a business meeting?
And I was like, no, no, no, we're having like a church meeting.
We're talking about Jesus and the girl across the table goes, oh, you need to go there and
she was like, well, maybe I do and so we start talking and we turn back around but then she
asks me another question and she goes, she keeps giving me a hard time and she goes,
well, it's because you're a lesbian, you don't think you can go to a church and she goes,
you're giving me such a hard time, you have a baby by a drug dealer, what are you talking
about?
And I go, and I said to both of them, I said, well, you belong at our church, 100% you belong
at our church and I said, you come with her and bring the drug dealer, I don't need anything
he's got but bring him with too.
Because this is a church that defies the physics of the size of a building, everyone belongs
here.
We can't fit 400,000 people in this building but everyone belongs here.
All of that because someone accidentally elbowed my friend.
These are the moments where people are testing you to find out if they will belong.
Where the friend is going, you can't go there, did you tell them this?
Do they know that?
What if they found out about this and the other?
I'm telling you right now, from A to Z belongs.
In the English alphabet, in the French alphabet, in the urban alphabet, in the every group
category that you can come up with alphabet, you belong.
The thing is that the same barriers to belonging that existed 10 years ago still exists for
people today.
Life is hard, life is messy, so there's plenty that gets in the way of people connecting
and belonging in a spiritual family.
So I want to say some things today that I said 10 years ago on that first Sunday.
Is that alright?
Let's open up our Bibles to John 16, 31.
If you do not have your own Bible, we have blue Bibles that are out on the bookshelf
in the lobby, please take one.
It's yours, it's free.
Otherwise download a Bible from any of the digital app stores.
I use the U version or the Bible Project app pretty often.
We're going to be in John 16.
That's in what's called the New Testament, the Second Testament.
It goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans.
See any of those, you know that you're in the right neighborhood.
We have a tradition here at the house of just giving the Scriptures our full attention when
we read them during the message.
You can do that any number of ways.
One of the ways is if you'd like, you can join me in standing while I read it.
Let's give the Scriptures our attentions now.
John 16, starting in 31, says this.
Jesus replied, verse 32, a time is coming when you will be scattered and go to your
own homes.
In fact, that time is already here.
You will leave me all alone, but I am not really alone.
My Father is with me.
I have told you these things so that you can have peace because of me.
In this world, you will have trouble, but be encouraged.
I have won the battle over the world.
Let's pray.
God of every tribe, every tongue, every color, every nation, every people, we thank you that
we have the Scriptures.
They persisted throughout the millennia, and I pray that whatever we need to learn today,
whatever you have to stir up in our hearts and our minds, I pray that it would stick,
that it would become a part of the framework of our faith, that our faith, that our very
selves would become stronger as we become more like your son, Jesus.
Amen?
Amen.
Y'all can have a seat.
Thanks so much.
All right, so if you've heard it, finish this phrase with me, yeah?
So, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.
Right, Jesus is teaching that when the tough gets going, you're all gonna start running.
That's what he says.
He says it to his disciples.
He says, hey, it's gonna get tough, you guys, you're all gonna run.
None of you are tough.
You're all just gonna run.
I think verses like this are so important because they illustrate that Jesus knows that
we will run.
He already knows.
Believing in Jesus does not guarantee a problem-free life, and he knows that we are not all so tough
that we'll never run from any of our problems or that we'll never run from him.
And it's not an accusation, and it is not unkind to say, guys, Jesus knows that you're
probably gonna run at some point.
Something's gonna happen, and Jesus is gonna be there, and you're gonna be like, ah.
He knows.
He already knows.
He knew his disciples would abandon him when times got tough, and so he told them, even
when you run, even when you run, what did he say?
He said, do not worry, for I have overcome everything you're running from.
I think one of the most important things we need to learn about belonging is that even
when life gets hard and we run away from God, run away from the church, run away from our
spiritual family, hear me, that we still belong.
Everything that will ever make you want to run, he says, I've already overcome that with
who I am, with my life, with my love.
So when you run, your spot is reserved.
I'll say that again.
When you run, your spot is reserved.
Quick question.
Did anyone else have the police called on them this last week, or is that just me?
Just me?
All right.
Last week, as you know, we got somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 inches in the span
of five days, 24 inches of snow, maybe more in your neighborhood.
Everything was getting canceled.
So my oldest son, he didn't have to go anywhere for a few days, and so his car, it just sat
out front of the house, and it was covered and surrounded with snow, not just from the
snow that fell, of course, because then the plow comes by, and it gets your car even more
stuck, and then people drive, and it gets it even more stuck.
So Monday morning, I wanted to be a good dad.
I wanted to help him out.
He had something he was supposed to be at around 10, so I was like, oh, I'm going to
be a good dad.
I'm going to go out.
I'm going to start, I'm going to dig him out, and I spent about an hour digging him out
of all of the snow and trying to make sure it was level enough to get up onto the four
or five inches of packed snow that was there.
I got in.
I started it.
I drove it around the block a couple times, made sure that the battery was all charged
up, that the engine was just at least maybe a little warm by the time he came out, and
I took a couple of orange cones, and I put them there so that when he leaves, that there
would be a spot for him, because regularly no one parks in front of our house except
for us, but I was like, no one else has dug themselves out either, and maybe if they leave,
maybe they'll end up parking here, because I've actually dug it all out, and so I was
like, I'm going to put a little cone here so he knows it's still here when he gets back,
and he won't have to park a block away, right?
The cops got involved.
Tuesday 1030 a.m., I get a call.
Someone anonymously had complained that I had saved a public parking spot outside of
my own house with the orange cones, because that is apparently not legal, so I'm talking
to the officer.
It was very nice, cordial.
I explained to him, basically, I told him the whole story I just told you, and he was
like, yeah, under the circumstances, it's fine.
I get it.
He said, you know, if they call and complain again and a different officer calls you, I
can't guarantee that they'll say the same thing.
He's like, but, you know, for a few days, don't worry about it.
It's fine.
All is well.
But listen, when life gets hard and someone either leaves their spiritual family or runs
from the relationship of God or thinks they can't darken the doorway of a church, some
people have a theology that says that that spot is gone.
You can't save that spot with cones.
I'm calling the police.
And I say, fine.
I can't save their spot with cones because Jesus already saved that spot with His blood.
It's there.
It is there.
It is here.
It does not matter if you've been gone since the first day 10 years ago or if you went
to another church.
You belong in the body of Jesus Christ.
Your spot will not be taken by somebody else, will just make more room.
Life is hard.
We're gonna run.
But God is loving.
And no one should be left out.
You cannot belong to God for even a second and lose your spot.
Because the work of Jesus is irrevocable.
Jesus said to His disciples, no one can snatch you from My hands.
You belong.
The skeptic will say, well, fine.
Life is hard.
But life is also messy.
What if that person is just too much of a mess?
Or someone might say that themselves.
What if I've just done too much?
What if I'm too much of a mess?
Let me read something.
Galatians 6-1.
Brothers and sisters, even when you meet someone who has a baby by a drug dealer, they can
come to your church.
That's not what it says.
Sorry.
Galatians 6-1 to 1 and 1 and verse 2.
Brothers and sisters, what if someone is caught in a sin?
And you who live by the Spirit should correct that person.
Do it in a gentle way.
Be careful.
You could be tempted to carry one another's heavy loads.
If you do, you will fulfill the law of Christ.
The writer of Galatians is saying, hey, people are going to be messy.
Things will never be perfect.
So be kind.
Be gentle.
And understand.
Being means you will probably always have someone else's mess on or near you.
You don't have to do what they did, but you do have to help them carry it.
I think that if we are Christians, that a willingness to deal with the mess that comes
with living in community with other people in the church is a part of the deal.
Because the church isn't a utopia.
It's not a sanitized center of perfection.
It's a house where people leave dishes in the sink and clothes on the floor and remnants
of lunch on the counter.
People are going to come in the back door muddy from the backyard.
They will sin and break promises.
You are going to step on a Lego and you're bare feet.
Addicts will relapse.
Judgy folks will judge.
And you and me, we will probably always feel a little bit messy.
That is okay.
Because when we follow Jesus, we are made right with God.
Internally, every bit of sin and mud that got on us is washed away down to the purity
of the imago Dei, the image of God, the presence of who is, was, and is to come.
It's clean.
Internally.
But externally, there might be no such thing as a clean Christian.
Because we will always be carrying each other's burdens.
We will always be helping each other with our mess.
You cannot clean up your kid from the mud in the backyard without getting some of it
on you.
And that is love.
It is love that you now have mud on you.
Not that you did the thing that you ought not to do, but that you helped clean it up.
Few things go so far to show someone they really do belong than an active willingness
to get dirty with the mess they've been covered in.
For you to embrace someone that thought they were not embraceable.
To call on someone that thought they had gone out of reach of your self-service.
Life is hard.
Life is messy.
And yet, you still belong.
There's one more barrier that I think that lives under the surface for most people.
Listen to this.
John 3.16.
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.
Someone who believes in him will not die but have eternal life.
It's beautiful, but I wish that when people shared 3.16, they'd keep going to verse 17.
Because it says, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but
to save the world through him.
I think a common thread that goes through the belief that I can't belong because my
life is hard or because my life is messy is the idea that I can't belong because I must
already be condemned anyway.
Why?
Because we think Jesus came for the people that believe in him.
It says whoever believes is saved.
But I didn't or don't believe in Jesus.
Not every minute.
I left or I never arrived or I question all of it all the time.
So I must be condemned anyway.
Listen, Jesus did not come to condemn us.
Life is hard.
Life is messy.
But God so loved the world.
Jesus has drawn a circle of grace.
So many of us think that we are outside that circle, but you cannot stand outside a circle
that is wrapped around the entire world.
Psalm 139.
Where can I go from your spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you're there.
If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your
hand will guide me.
Your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, even
the darkness will not be dark to you.
The night will shine like the day.
The darkness is as light to you.
Some of us, we run from God, we run from our spiritual family, and we cover ourselves with
every kind of darkness that we can possibly find, thinking surely this will be too much.
God won't love me now.
But even darkness is not dark to God.
God can make our darkness shine like the light of day.
The darkness that you have tried to bury yourself in, He has risen you from it.
In the name of Jesus.
Hear me.
You are raised in the name of Jesus.
There is no darkness or dirt that is too dark that He does not make it light and lit up.
Woo!
Wish someone could hear me.
Preach!
Say it again, preacher.
There's a prayer that we wrote back in the beginning.
We don't really buy into the idea that you have to have this moment where you said a
prayer and now everything is fixed.
But we do think that it's important to acknowledge moments with God.
So I wondered if maybe some of us for the first time, but all of us together, could
just pray this prayer together, ten years in, at the beginning of what's next.
Oh God, our heavenly Father, I am finding I want to be in your family.
I am finding I want to belong in you.
I know I have made mistakes, I have sinned, and I thought I couldn't belong.
But now I believe Jesus is your Son, that He died for my sins and has given me life
forever in your family.
Now I can see my mistakes and sin can't keep me away from, yeah, can't keep you away from
me.
You have found me, you have forgiven me, you have told me I belong in your family, and
I believe you.
Amen.
I love you.