1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,700 Anyhow, thank you very much Andy for praying for our neighborhood. If I haven't said it yet, my name is Greg. 2 00:00:05,700 --> 00:00:10,560 I don't always remember. My name is Greg. I'm one of the lead pastors here at the church. 3 00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:14,480 And today we're going to be starting a nine-week series that we call 4 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:21,460 The Blueprints. The Blueprint. This is a series that we actually do about every four years. 5 00:00:21,880 --> 00:00:25,340 And part of the reason we do that is because it is kind of an essential 6 00:00:25,340 --> 00:00:31,540 discipleship plan that we developed and wrote so that we would have ways to offer people, 7 00:00:31,540 --> 00:00:36,560 okay, this is how you can continue to grow. Nine years ago when we were laying the groundwork for planting this church, 8 00:00:36,820 --> 00:00:43,540 like most people that would be planting in church, we asked a lot of questions. And one of the questions was, what plan do we have for 9 00:00:44,700 --> 00:00:49,420 discipling people? In other words, how will we help people 10 00:00:50,140 --> 00:00:51,620 be like 11 00:00:51,620 --> 00:00:58,580 Jesus? Now some could say, well, just tell them to read their Bibles and come to church. Yeah, that sounds like a simple plan. 12 00:00:58,580 --> 00:01:02,140 And that's part of it. Reading the scriptures is actually the fourth part of the 13 00:01:02,980 --> 00:01:08,300 blueprint and coming to a church community is the second part of that blueprint. But there is 14 00:01:08,740 --> 00:01:12,780 far more to it. And so over the next nine weeks and eight spiritual themes, 15 00:01:12,780 --> 00:01:16,540 I think that you'll see that discipleship is far, far more than just 16 00:01:16,540 --> 00:01:23,500 going to a church. Just walking through the door and showing up, that's part of it. But it's not the whole 17 00:01:24,020 --> 00:01:31,620 thing. We think that it's helpful to have a plan that you can actually go back to more than one time because 18 00:01:32,580 --> 00:01:34,980 we want a plan that is more than one dimension. 19 00:01:35,580 --> 00:01:44,180 Because life is more than one dimension. Life is not just one thing all the time. Life is many things happening all at 20 00:01:44,180 --> 00:01:51,740 once. And then I think that it's important to have this kind of plan that you can kind of go back to multiple times. It has multi dimensions. 21 00:01:52,580 --> 00:01:57,340 Because some of us just need basic instructions that we can go back to and remind ourselves 22 00:01:57,660 --> 00:02:01,860 how we are being shaped and how we're being put together. So show of hands, 23 00:02:01,940 --> 00:02:06,500 how many of you have moved and you had to take things apart to get those things through the door? 24 00:02:07,420 --> 00:02:11,780 Okay. Now, how many of you ended up putting some of those things into storage? 25 00:02:11,780 --> 00:02:15,740 Okay, a handful of us ended up taking something apart 26 00:02:16,620 --> 00:02:18,620 and putting it into storage. 27 00:02:19,500 --> 00:02:25,780 When you were finally able to get that thing out of storage, did you remember how to put it back together again? 28 00:02:27,620 --> 00:02:32,100 No, no show of hands. But how many of you were just like, I'm just gonna buy a new one. 29 00:02:35,060 --> 00:02:40,740 Yeah, there's value in having the kind of discipleship plan that you could go back in a different season of life 30 00:02:40,740 --> 00:02:45,860 and have just enough instruction to help you put things back together when you need to. 31 00:02:46,500 --> 00:02:50,780 And I actually think that this is particularly relevant these days in 32 00:02:51,340 --> 00:02:56,500 2022 because while some of you have probably never heard the phrase spiritual deconstruction, 33 00:02:56,740 --> 00:03:03,220 we're living in an era of spiritual deconstruction where people are taking apart what they believe. 34 00:03:04,020 --> 00:03:09,740 And many of them either don't know how to put it back together or because of how they're being put together, 35 00:03:09,740 --> 00:03:12,580 or because of how it was built in the first place, 36 00:03:12,580 --> 00:03:16,580 it feels like rebuilding it would be an exercise in futility or trauma. 37 00:03:17,500 --> 00:03:19,500 Right? 38 00:03:19,700 --> 00:03:25,500 Because they had hurtful dogma or painful doctrine built into their spirituality. 39 00:03:25,500 --> 00:03:30,740 So when they start to feel like parts of this thing built around them just doesn't 40 00:03:31,060 --> 00:03:36,460 fit or feel right or reflect the person of Jesus, they take it apart and they should. 41 00:03:36,940 --> 00:03:38,940 They should. 42 00:03:38,940 --> 00:03:43,220 I think there is value in making space for that. 43 00:03:44,860 --> 00:03:52,100 Because the problem that seems to be so prevalent in Christianity is that along the way people's questions get treated like 44 00:03:52,580 --> 00:03:54,580 confrontation instead of curiosity. 45 00:03:55,580 --> 00:04:00,140 Last week I said that too often curiosity is confused for rebellion. 46 00:04:00,140 --> 00:04:08,620 So I'd only tweak that slightly for today and say that too often curiosity and questions are confused for confrontation. 47 00:04:10,700 --> 00:04:13,580 And that is a bad idea. 48 00:04:14,900 --> 00:04:22,020 It's foolish to turn away questions because questions don't actually go away. 49 00:04:24,300 --> 00:04:29,260 Questions are like tools of curiosity and like any tool they're meant to be used. 50 00:04:29,260 --> 00:04:35,500 Churches should be teaching people how to ask great questions 51 00:04:35,500 --> 00:04:42,300 instead of crushing them with answers that don't really answer the question they're asking. 52 00:04:44,300 --> 00:04:52,300 Because I imagine that for some of you or maybe even most of you that one time you had a big question about God and someone told you not to ask, 53 00:04:52,300 --> 00:04:54,300 that question didn't go away. 54 00:04:54,300 --> 00:05:02,300 That question didn't go away. It's still there. You didn't lose it. It's just a tool that got stored somewhere for later. 55 00:05:03,300 --> 00:05:12,300 And we, this church, at least myself, I would rather you use that curiosity and those questions to build something healthy now 56 00:05:12,300 --> 00:05:19,300 instead of needing to use those questions like tools that will be used later to tear something down. 57 00:05:19,300 --> 00:05:21,300 Build it to be as healthy as it can be now. 58 00:05:23,300 --> 00:05:27,300 Because later you will have to take parts apart still. You probably will. 59 00:05:28,300 --> 00:05:34,300 If we build it healthy now, it'll be easier to fix the things that need to be fixed later. 60 00:05:35,300 --> 00:05:41,300 Because you will, at least I think, you will inevitably need to take something apart. 61 00:05:41,300 --> 00:05:51,300 I don't know if any of this makes sense. But I think the truth is as a pastor, as quote unquote the lead pastor of this church, 62 00:05:52,300 --> 00:05:59,300 I want to make sure that we just understand that this church, not just the walls are sitting in, but the people, this congregation, 63 00:06:00,300 --> 00:06:02,300 we need to be able to build something healthy. 64 00:06:02,300 --> 00:06:10,300 I want to make sure that we just understand that this church, this church, not just the walls are sitting in, but the people, this congregation, 65 00:06:11,300 --> 00:06:20,300 we should not be foolish enough to think that people that spend years here will never feel like they need to rework something that they were taught. 66 00:06:23,300 --> 00:06:29,300 Because they will. Because we don't have everything right. We're trying, but we do not have everything right. 67 00:06:29,300 --> 00:06:33,300 We will overemphasize certain things and underemphasize other things. 68 00:06:34,300 --> 00:06:44,300 So what we hope is for you to have the kind of discipleship plan that is helpful now and in the future, if you decide to take anything apart, 69 00:06:45,300 --> 00:06:49,300 without it being legalistic and getting in the way of a healthy faith. 70 00:06:49,300 --> 00:06:58,300 So the kind of plan we're going to talk about, it has shape. It even has a suggested first time format, first time through format. 71 00:06:58,300 --> 00:07:03,300 This is how it might make most sense the first time, a kind of one, two, three, ABC kind of thing. 72 00:07:03,300 --> 00:07:12,300 But we do understand that discipleship does not stick to ABC one, two, three, because that's not how life works. 73 00:07:12,300 --> 00:07:19,300 Life sometimes skip steps and suddenly you're like, well, I wasn't taught how to skip steps. 74 00:07:20,300 --> 00:07:29,300 So keep that in mind as we as we get more specific over the next two months, as we talk about specific ideas in a specific order. 75 00:07:29,300 --> 00:07:37,300 Remember, there is freedom. There is room for creativity. You are not being told you have to do it a certain way. 76 00:07:37,300 --> 00:07:44,300 You're just being handed tools that you can use to build your relationship with God. 77 00:07:45,300 --> 00:07:55,300 OK, so in lieu of reading one passage today, what I'm actually going to do is I'm going to pray and then I'm going to be reading a few passages over the course of this, the rest of the sermon. 78 00:07:55,300 --> 00:08:00,300 And so I'm going to go ahead and pray now if you'll if you'll join me in giving your attention to God. 79 00:08:01,300 --> 00:08:05,300 God of every tribe, every tongue, every color, every nation. 80 00:08:05,300 --> 00:08:10,300 We thank you for the scriptures that we're going to read, but we thank you for your presence here in this place. 81 00:08:11,300 --> 00:08:16,300 I pray that your spirit would be working in our hearts and assuring us that you are kind. 82 00:08:17,300 --> 00:08:26,300 And that you know how to create a way for us to know you, for us to be close to you, to know that we are loved by you. 83 00:08:26,300 --> 00:08:40,300 To love you in return, whatever you have for us to learn today, 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. 84 00:08:41,300 --> 00:08:43,300 Amen. Amen. 85 00:08:44,300 --> 00:08:52,300 So there's probably one big question that I want to answer today, because the next eight weeks we're going to talk about different themes of discipleship. 86 00:08:52,300 --> 00:08:57,300 But today is kind of like a one big question. Why do I need a plan? 87 00:08:58,300 --> 00:09:01,300 Why do I need a plan? Why do I need something like this at all? 88 00:09:02,300 --> 00:09:07,300 And this is an important question, not just in general, but for me personally. 89 00:09:08,300 --> 00:09:14,300 Because I am the definition of the kind of person that does not want you to give me your plan. 90 00:09:15,300 --> 00:09:17,300 I don't. I'm sorry. 91 00:09:17,300 --> 00:09:23,300 If you invite me to come help with something, by the time I've gotten there I've already decided the best way to do it. 92 00:09:24,300 --> 00:09:28,300 I will still, I'll still follow you because it's your thing. 93 00:09:29,300 --> 00:09:32,300 But just know, I've already decided there's a better way. 94 00:09:33,300 --> 00:09:37,300 It is not something I can turn off, it is only something I've learned to control. 95 00:09:38,300 --> 00:09:39,300 Okay? 96 00:09:39,300 --> 00:09:48,300 I can actually define for you the reason that I'm this way, at least the way I think I'm this way, in one sentence. 97 00:09:49,300 --> 00:09:51,300 And it is this. I am a Gen Xer. 98 00:09:52,300 --> 00:09:56,300 Can anyone relate? Any Gen Xers in the room that can relate a bit? 99 00:09:57,300 --> 00:10:03,300 For those of a different generation, let me explain exactly what that means by reading from the wisdom of a Facebook meme. 100 00:10:03,300 --> 00:10:11,300 The premise of this meme is that it was posted by a millennial describing a Gen Xer. 101 00:10:12,300 --> 00:10:17,300 But in my view it was probably actually written by a Gen Xer that was just wanting millennials to leave them alone. 102 00:10:18,300 --> 00:10:20,300 Okay? So here we go. It says this. 103 00:10:21,300 --> 00:10:22,300 I saw this on a millennial's post. 104 00:10:23,300 --> 00:10:25,300 That's a sure sign that it wasn't written by a millennial. 105 00:10:26,300 --> 00:10:29,300 But here we go. I don't mess around with anyone over 42. 106 00:10:29,300 --> 00:10:33,300 Okay? That's basically saying anyone that's in Gen X, they built different. 107 00:10:34,300 --> 00:10:37,300 Their families had them formally trained in something by the time they were two. 108 00:10:38,300 --> 00:10:44,300 They had keys to the house by age five, could cook full meals at seven, and pretty much were self-sufficient at age nine. 109 00:10:45,300 --> 00:10:52,300 They left their house at dawn every summer morning and didn't come back till nightfall and survived all day long on water from garden hoses. 110 00:10:52,300 --> 00:10:58,300 They might get a sandwich on the off chance that someone else's parents had been, went shopping. 111 00:10:59,300 --> 00:11:04,300 They spent three quarters of their lives by themselves with the parent maybe checking in on them twice a month. 112 00:11:05,300 --> 00:11:11,300 Most of them have evaded at least one kidnapping attempt and they know 15 different ways to remove blood stains from clothing. 113 00:11:12,300 --> 00:11:15,300 Now this doesn't describe me perfectly or to a T, but it is close enough. 114 00:11:16,300 --> 00:11:20,300 My generation, when we were kids, our parents gave us an instruction manual for life. 115 00:11:20,300 --> 00:11:22,300 And on the first page it said, figure it out yourself. 116 00:11:23,300 --> 00:11:25,300 And the rest of the pages were blank. 117 00:11:26,300 --> 00:11:32,300 So when I open something that has to be put together, my instinct is to do it without the instructions. 118 00:11:33,300 --> 00:11:37,300 100%. I bristle at a multi-step plan. 119 00:11:38,300 --> 00:11:43,300 Because there is only one step for a Gen Xer. Do it. Just do it. 120 00:11:44,300 --> 00:11:47,300 The Nike phrase, just do it, was created in 1987. 121 00:11:47,300 --> 00:11:56,300 To market to kids that were nine years old, like me, that were at the tail end of the Gen Xers, to the 24 year olds at the front end. 122 00:11:57,300 --> 00:12:02,300 That was basically they said, what will motivate this generation to buy my stuff? Just do it? Yep, that's it. 123 00:12:03,300 --> 00:12:06,300 They've seen that enough already in their lives. I bet they'll buy our sneakers if we say that. 124 00:12:07,300 --> 00:12:15,300 I do not want a plan. I do not want green eggs and ham. I just don't, Sam, I am. 125 00:12:15,300 --> 00:12:18,300 I do not want a plan. I don't know what to do about that. 126 00:12:19,300 --> 00:12:22,300 But I know that deep down, I need a plan. 127 00:12:23,300 --> 00:12:26,300 There's a lot of things that I need a plan for. 128 00:12:27,300 --> 00:12:30,300 One of those things is spiritual development. 129 00:12:31,300 --> 00:12:36,300 Especially when I've forgotten or lost myself. 130 00:12:37,300 --> 00:12:43,300 Or my heart has been stored away in a storage unit and needs to be put back together again. 131 00:12:43,300 --> 00:12:46,300 Makes me think of the Israelites. 132 00:12:47,300 --> 00:12:57,300 When you go back to the Older Testament, to the Hebrew scriptures, in the years after God delivers the Israelites from Egypt, 133 00:12:58,300 --> 00:13:01,300 they're given just a slew of rules. 134 00:13:02,300 --> 00:13:05,300 Just an onslaught of guidelines. 135 00:13:06,300 --> 00:13:11,300 Just a rolodex of plans that they're supposed to follow. 136 00:13:11,300 --> 00:13:18,300 And this isn't because God wanted to be controlling. 137 00:13:19,300 --> 00:13:22,300 Hear this, okay? It isn't because God wanted to be controlling. 138 00:13:23,300 --> 00:13:28,300 But because for 400 years they had been controlled. 139 00:13:29,300 --> 00:13:38,300 In that time, they had been systematically convinced that they were not who they were, that their God was not who their God was. 140 00:13:38,300 --> 00:13:45,300 They'd been enslaved and in the process they'd forgotten much of who they were. 141 00:13:46,300 --> 00:13:55,300 And so he gives them very specific instructions on how to piece their lives and identity back together again. 142 00:13:56,300 --> 00:14:05,300 How to shed their slavery and pick up their identity in Yahweh, in Elohim, in Immanuel, the God that saves. 143 00:14:05,300 --> 00:14:13,300 It starts with the Ten Commandments, but it expands out to 613 laws for living. 144 00:14:14,300 --> 00:14:17,300 Say the God had some plans. 145 00:14:18,300 --> 00:14:32,300 The God can be pretty specific at specific times about specific things and that that should inform our openness to a plan. 146 00:14:32,300 --> 00:14:35,300 So just a practical example. Let me read something from Exodus. 147 00:14:36,300 --> 00:14:38,300 This passage is in Exodus 26. 148 00:14:39,300 --> 00:14:45,300 While the Israelites are living in the wilderness and God wants them to have a tabernacle. 149 00:14:46,300 --> 00:14:48,300 The tabernacle was basically like a portable church. 150 00:14:49,300 --> 00:14:55,300 So they could put it up and they could take it down as they moved around and this is what God asked for in that tabernacle. 151 00:14:55,300 --> 00:15:07,300 Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn with cherubim woven into them by a skilled worker. 152 00:15:08,300 --> 00:15:13,300 All the curtains are to be the same size, 28 cubits long and 4 cubits wide. 153 00:15:14,300 --> 00:15:18,300 Join five of the curtains together and do the same with the other five. 154 00:15:18,300 --> 00:15:27,300 Make loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in one set and do the same with the end curtain in the other set. 155 00:15:28,300 --> 00:15:34,300 Make 50 loops on one curtain and 50 loops on the end curtain of the other set with the loops opposite each other. 156 00:15:35,300 --> 00:15:42,300 Then make 50 gold clasps and use them to fasten the curtains together so that the tabernacle is a unit. 157 00:15:43,300 --> 00:15:44,300 That was six verses. 158 00:15:44,300 --> 00:15:48,300 This description goes on for 92 more verses. 159 00:15:49,300 --> 00:15:51,300 I'm not exaggerating. 160 00:15:52,300 --> 00:15:57,300 98 verses on what he wanted this part of the tabernacle to look like. 161 00:15:58,300 --> 00:16:03,300 God could be really specific but it was not without purpose. 162 00:16:04,300 --> 00:16:08,300 It was so that he could give them something that would reflect him. 163 00:16:08,300 --> 00:16:20,300 When God builds things, when God gives instruction, it has a purpose to give us rest, to give us life, to show us how to work in a way that is ultimately meaningful. 164 00:16:21,300 --> 00:16:28,300 So think about when many of us first believed in Jesus. 165 00:16:29,300 --> 00:16:32,300 Like some of us were kids so we can't really think back that far. 166 00:16:32,300 --> 00:16:39,300 We have a men's Bible study on Tuesday night and half the people around the table didn't believe in Jesus until they were adults. 167 00:16:40,300 --> 00:16:52,300 Think about, for some of us, we had been living radically different lives before we met Jesus than what we are living right now. 168 00:16:53,300 --> 00:16:58,300 And we had no idea how to be different. 169 00:16:59,300 --> 00:17:00,300 None whatsoever. 170 00:17:00,300 --> 00:17:08,300 And so for some of us in that position, having a list of things that we could change or to do differently was probably comforting. 171 00:17:09,300 --> 00:17:14,300 For someone like me, you hand me a list of things of exactly how I'm supposed to do, I'm not crazy about that. 172 00:17:15,300 --> 00:17:22,300 But for some of us, it was comfort to be told, here, do A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. 173 00:17:22,300 --> 00:17:31,300 For some of us being handed a step-by-step plan for how to grow was a bastion of protection from our old self. 174 00:17:32,300 --> 00:17:39,300 A lot of the laws that God is giving his people in the Old Testament are exactly that. 175 00:17:40,300 --> 00:17:45,300 I need you to do this because it will guard you from becoming what they told you that you were. 176 00:17:45,300 --> 00:17:57,300 This is part of the context of God's specificity and why we believe today that a specific and purposeful plan can be life-giving. 177 00:17:58,300 --> 00:18:00,300 So that's the Older Scriptures, that's the Old Testament. 178 00:18:01,300 --> 00:18:03,300 But what did Jesus say about a plan, right? 179 00:18:04,300 --> 00:18:12,300 So if you were to open the Bible to the book of Matthew chapter 5, you will find Jesus is the only one who is alive. 180 00:18:12,300 --> 00:18:19,300 In Matthew chapter 5, you will find Jesus' longest sermon, it's called the Sermon on the Mount. 181 00:18:20,300 --> 00:18:21,300 Many people have heard of it even if they haven't read it. 182 00:18:22,300 --> 00:18:36,300 And in it, Jesus talks about prayer, justice, lust, murder, divorce, judging others, loving your enemies, not worrying, fasting, caring for the poor, avoiding earthly wealth, his views on different religious laws, and more. 183 00:18:36,300 --> 00:18:41,300 And then at the end of all of that, Jesus says this, 184 00:18:42,300 --> 00:18:50,300 Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who builds his house on the rock. 185 00:18:51,300 --> 00:19:01,300 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall, because it had its foundations on the rock. 186 00:19:01,300 --> 00:19:08,300 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 187 00:19:09,300 --> 00:19:16,300 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. 188 00:19:17,300 --> 00:19:27,300 This is Jesus giving this sermon where he's taking many of the concepts, many of the large subjects, 189 00:19:27,300 --> 00:19:36,300 many of the things that are found in those 613 laws of the Torah, and he's stripping the varnish down to the grain of the original wood. 190 00:19:37,300 --> 00:19:48,300 He's deconstructing how they understood the rules so that they can see how God actually wants them to live these things now. 191 00:19:49,300 --> 00:19:53,300 He doesn't, listen, he doesn't tell them not to have a plan. 192 00:19:53,300 --> 00:19:58,300 He doesn't throw out all of the rules, he doesn't eliminate them. 193 00:19:59,300 --> 00:20:03,300 He wants them to know the rules but see the life instead of the legalism. 194 00:20:04,300 --> 00:20:12,300 Hear the heart of the Father. Jesus is saying, look at all these plans, all these rules you've been building on. 195 00:20:13,300 --> 00:20:18,300 You think your rigid understanding of these things will be like a foundation of rock. 196 00:20:18,300 --> 00:20:25,300 He says, unless you follow me in my way, you're using these rules to build a house that's actually on sand. 197 00:20:26,300 --> 00:20:35,300 Will not stand. So he says, so listen to what I'm saying. Follow me. Sounds like a plan. 198 00:20:36,300 --> 00:20:45,300 He says, let me be your foundation, let me be your way, let me show you how to understand the rules so that what you build is solid. 199 00:20:45,300 --> 00:20:50,300 Not just so that it looks good but that it will actually stand up to the challenges of life. 200 00:20:51,300 --> 00:20:57,300 So your house, this spiritual life will have the strength that it needs to withstand whatever life throws at it. 201 00:20:58,300 --> 00:21:01,300 Because life will throw storms your way. 202 00:21:01,300 --> 00:21:18,300 It's true. Most of us could probably stand up and tell some story about how in the last two weeks something happened that feels like it's challenging our identity or challenging our finances or challenging our family or challenging what we believe. 203 00:21:19,300 --> 00:21:24,300 It matters how we build this house, guys. 204 00:21:24,300 --> 00:21:30,300 Jesus is good with having a plan. As long as that plan is built on him, on the way of Jesus. 205 00:21:31,300 --> 00:21:39,300 So what is that? Is it the blueprint? Have we cracked the code? I don't think I'd say that. 206 00:21:40,300 --> 00:21:48,300 I like to be as real as possible. Here's the reality. The blueprint is just one idea on how to do that. 207 00:21:48,300 --> 00:21:54,300 It's just one idea. It's just one discipleship plan in a sea of discipleship plans. 208 00:21:55,300 --> 00:22:02,300 But we think that there is value in it. It's something that we can follow humbly knowing there's always room for improvement. 209 00:22:03,300 --> 00:22:11,300 This will be the third time that we've been through this sermon series. We did it at the beginning. We did it at year four. We're doing it at, we're going to be nine in January. 210 00:22:11,300 --> 00:22:18,300 If you were to listen to the sermons from the first time around and then listen to the third time we're doing it, it's going to be different. 211 00:22:19,300 --> 00:22:25,300 Because along the way we've gone, you know, let's put a little emphasis on that. Actually, it used one of the steps used to be obey the word. 212 00:22:26,300 --> 00:22:32,300 And I've changed that to read the scriptures because of our understanding of some people look at the Bible and they go, that's the word. 213 00:22:33,300 --> 00:22:39,300 But the Bible actually teaches us that Jesus is the word. So we can read the scriptures. 214 00:22:39,300 --> 00:22:44,300 And this is the word. So we wanted to put an emphasis on the concept here is to read scripture. 215 00:22:45,300 --> 00:22:53,300 To read scripture and start to get it into your heart and get it into your mind without tripping over the word obey, without turning the Bible into the fourth part of the Trinity. 216 00:22:54,300 --> 00:22:59,300 So we've already, we're making changes along the way. 217 00:22:59,300 --> 00:23:11,300 And turn and let me just give you a little background of where it comes from. Because when you turn to John 13 through 17, whereas the Sermon on the Mount is his longest sermon, when you get here, this is his last sermon. 218 00:23:12,300 --> 00:23:21,300 He's talking to his disciples just hours, the day, the night before he's going to be crucified, before he's going to be arrested and handed over. 219 00:23:21,300 --> 00:23:28,300 Throughout these five chapters in this last time of lessons and teaching with his disciples, there's a number of themes that come up. 220 00:23:29,300 --> 00:23:39,300 Themes of trusting him, resting as he serves, themes of living life together, themes of prayer and obeying his teachings as we read them in the scriptures. 221 00:23:39,300 --> 00:23:51,300 Things, themes of listening to the Spirit and stepping out in faith, themes of forgiveness and working with God. And so for us, we take those themes and we've developed the blueprint. 222 00:23:52,300 --> 00:24:06,300 Next week, we start with rest as the first page of that blueprint. Rest is one of our deeply held values and it's the first page of that blueprint because rest is deeply important in the Bible. 223 00:24:06,300 --> 00:24:16,300 I don't want to give too much away, but rest is all the way back at the beginning of the story. From beginning to end, it's there. 224 00:24:17,300 --> 00:24:25,300 And then we live at the table. Community and fellowship are critical pieces of what creates a culture of healthy discipleship. Then we abide in prayer. 225 00:24:25,300 --> 00:24:36,300 Jesus teaches us how to pray and specifically says that we're meant to abide in him. And prayer is a place for us to learn to do that, to be present to Jesus. 226 00:24:37,300 --> 00:24:47,300 Then we read the scriptures. Jesus reads the scriptures. We ought to read the scriptures. And he consistently points to the scriptures in his ministry. 227 00:24:47,300 --> 00:24:55,300 And so we learn to consistently point to the scriptures in our lives. Then we listen to the Spirit. We're a church, you heard it, in the midst of these songs. 228 00:24:56,300 --> 00:25:06,300 We are a church that believes that the Holy Spirit is still involved in the church today. The Holy Spirit is still involved in the world because Jesus told his disciples that he would send the Holy Spirit. 229 00:25:06,300 --> 00:25:20,300 I will not leave you as an orphan, but I will send one that will be a comfort to you. When we practice our faith, part of growing in our discipleship is taking risks and acting on what we've been leaning on and what we've been learning. 230 00:25:21,300 --> 00:25:33,300 What we believe. And the seventh step or page of the blueprint is to forgive as we've been forgiven. There is no way to be like Jesus without extending forgiveness to the people who have been forgiven. 231 00:25:33,300 --> 00:25:45,300 There is no way to be like Jesus without extending forgiveness the way Jesus forgives. That's difficult. There's a reason that in the pattern we've created that it's almost all the way at the end. 232 00:25:46,300 --> 00:25:55,300 Because all of these other things are beginning to shape us and prepare our hearts for how to forgive and how to understand forgiveness in its context. 233 00:25:55,300 --> 00:26:07,300 And finally, the eighth thing is that we work with the Father. We look around, we see what God is doing, and we join in and we do it too. That's the blueprint. Those eight things. 234 00:26:08,300 --> 00:26:19,300 So here's that wrap up. We often, when we get to this part of the sermon, we ask how do we participate with any of this? How do we practice anything that we just heard? 235 00:26:19,300 --> 00:26:30,300 Back in the day, some of us had spent some years coming up through Herod's Wesleyan. John Bray was one of my first spiritual overseers here. I got to see him the summer before last down in Florida. 236 00:26:31,300 --> 00:26:44,300 And at the end of his sermons, he always got to the point of, if you were there, you know what I'm about to say, he'd go, so what? He'd preach. He said that his father, when he asked him how to preach, his dad said, preach about God and preach about 20 minutes. 237 00:26:44,300 --> 00:26:52,300 And then he figured out for him in his context that he needed to get to the end and say, alright, I've preached about God and for about 20 minutes, but so what? 238 00:26:53,300 --> 00:27:04,300 For us, we say, how do we participate with this? I just have one thing. Aside from encouraging you to be here as many of those eight Sundays as possible so that you can kind of hear those messages. 239 00:27:04,300 --> 00:27:13,300 Jen is going to be preaching on forgiveness. Chris is preaching on living at the table. The only thing I can encourage you to do is to join one of the community tables. 240 00:27:14,300 --> 00:27:25,300 We have three community tables. One at Chris, the Britton's house and the Hodges. They're going to be shared. They live on the same block. One at the McConnell's on Wednesdays, over in Bettendorf, and one at our house on Sunday nights. 241 00:27:25,300 --> 00:27:39,300 It's not just because, oh, hey, Greg's trying to get people into the small groups. It's because starting next week for those eight weeks, our community tables will focus on the same theme that night as the Sunday sermon from that week. 242 00:27:40,300 --> 00:27:48,300 So sometimes you go to church on a Sunday morning and you listen a lot. You sit in a row and you listen. 243 00:27:48,300 --> 00:27:55,300 And a community table is a place if you didn't get to talk to someone about something on Sunday morning, you go to that on Sunday night or on Wednesday night. 244 00:27:56,300 --> 00:28:05,300 And it's the same theme. And you go, you know, I remember Pastor Jen said this on Sunday morning and I didn't know what that meant or I had thought on it or I had a story about it or this. 245 00:28:06,300 --> 00:28:12,300 It's a great opportunity for community to be part of what shapes you in addition to just hearing things. 246 00:28:12,300 --> 00:28:19,300 It's the last thing that I think that I need to point out here is that discipleship is not a singular endeavor. 247 00:28:20,300 --> 00:28:23,300 Discipleship is not something that really we're meant to do alone. 248 00:28:24,300 --> 00:28:33,300 You can look at the life of Jesus. You look at the ministry in Jesus and see that he was always taking disciples with him to the places that he went to do the things that he was doing. 249 00:28:33,300 --> 00:28:41,300 That he actually, we looked at this in the men's Bible study this last week, he sends his disciples out two by two to go try this stuff. 250 00:28:43,300 --> 00:28:49,300 Paul reminds us over and over again how important it is that we live life together. 251 00:28:50,300 --> 00:28:55,300 So I just want to encourage you. Sign up for a community table. Give it a shot. They last 90 minutes every week. 252 00:28:56,300 --> 00:29:01,300 There's a different menu item that you're going to put together like the fish and the fish and the fish and the fish. 253 00:29:01,300 --> 00:29:06,300 There's a different menu item that you're going to put together like the first week I think is almost always breakfast. I love breakfast. 254 00:29:07,300 --> 00:29:12,300 So everyone brings their favorite breakfast item. The next week I think is appetizer. Everyone brings their favorite appetizer. 255 00:29:13,300 --> 00:29:18,300 Just come for the food. Alright? Come for the food for nothing else and God will do something with it. Alright? 256 00:29:19,300 --> 00:29:23,300 So you can sign up for those out there or we'll send out another email and you can sign up online. 257 00:29:23,300 --> 00:29:31,300 But they're eight weeks, small commitment, 90 minutes each week. You bring something to share, to eat, and you'll have great conversations. 258 00:29:32,300 --> 00:29:37,300 And you'll start relationships that will continue to help you develop your discipleship. 259 00:29:38,300 --> 00:29:41,300 And just to reinforce that, let me read one last passage. 260 00:29:42,300 --> 00:29:46,300 This is actually the passage that we've chosen that's on the banner out in the lobby. 261 00:29:46,300 --> 00:29:52,300 Many of us have probably seen it a bunch of times and we've walked past it, we've never stood there and just read the whole thing. 262 00:29:53,300 --> 00:29:58,300 But this is the message version of Ephesians 2, 19 through 22 says this. 263 00:29:59,300 --> 00:30:05,300 That's plain enough, isn't it? That you are no longer wandering exiles. 264 00:30:06,300 --> 00:30:10,300 The kingdom of faith is now your home country. 265 00:30:10,300 --> 00:30:19,300 You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. 266 00:30:20,300 --> 00:30:28,300 God is building a home. He's using us all irrespective of how we got here and what he is building. 267 00:30:28,300 --> 00:30:43,300 He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. 268 00:30:43,300 --> 00:30:58,300 And we see it taking shape day after day, a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home. 269 00:30:59,300 --> 00:31:09,300 God's building something. God has some plans. It's okay sometimes to take a plan and work it for all it's worth. 270 00:31:09,300 --> 00:31:18,300 And trust that God is in it because we are all being built into something. He has a place for every single one of us. 271 00:31:19,300 --> 00:31:22,300 Let's continue to grow. Amen? Alright, let's pray. 272 00:31:23,300 --> 00:31:33,300 Father God, I thank you for plans, for systems. I don't like them all the time. I know that they hold value. 273 00:31:33,300 --> 00:31:38,300 And I know, I believe that you are specific and that you care. 274 00:31:39,300 --> 00:31:50,300 And that often you will give us one, two, three steps to do to help us get to where it is you'd like us to be, even as you are present to where we are right now. 275 00:31:51,300 --> 00:31:55,300 So I pray that as we use this tool, we would get the most out of it. 276 00:31:55,300 --> 00:32:02,300 That over the years, if we ever have to go back to it, that we will. 277 00:32:03,300 --> 00:32:12,300 That you'll show us how to ask good questions, to build healthy houses, to have strong faith that is more like your son, Jesus. 278 00:32:12,300 --> 00:32:27,300 Amen.