Its Time To Grow |The Mission Of Our Church | Nate Dumlao

0:00 Hey, welcome to the Zoe Church podcast, and we're excited that you're here. Today, we're starting part one of a two-part mini-series on the mission of our church. Hey, we want to say thank you so much to everyone who gives so faithfully, their tithes and their offerings. If you'd like to give or even start your journey in giving, head over to zoechurch.org slash give. And with that being said, let's jump in to today's message. I'm excited today. I get to preach about the mission of our church. Yeah. Never heard an applause for the mission of a church, but we got a mission here at Zoe Church. And maybe you didn't know that. Maybe you just thought like, hey, we're just showing up here in Highland Park. And the mission is to gather and then go get good coffee after service. But we have a mission here. And we feel called by God. We didn't just show up and open up our doors. But we believe that we're here for a reason. And we're here for a purpose. And we don't just think it's a mission for us corporately as a church. I believe this is a mission for each one of us personally.

0:55 that God has a purpose and a mission and a calling and a design for your life. Like God wasn't, it wasn't an accident. He wasn't like, I got a few extra arms and a few extra legs. Let's make a new person. And then we just had to know he had a design and a mission for each one of us. Here at Zoe, our mission is pretty simple. It's to know God, find freedom, to discover our purpose, and to make a difference. In other words, it's to lead people along a journey in faith. And all of us are on a journey, aren't we? Some of us, we're just getting started. Others, we're far down the path in our journey with Jesus. But I want to encourage you today that God has a mission for your life. He wants to know you. In other words, he wants to have a relationship with you. He wants you to have freedom, not just freedom from sin, but freedom to live the life that you were actually designed to live. God has a purpose for you. God wants you to discover your gifts. How cool is this? God gives you gifts. You didn't earn those gifts.

1:59 You didn't deserve your way into those gifts. God has gifts that he designed you with and he wants you to learn what they are and to live that life. And ultimately God has created you to make a purpose or make a difference. Amen. And you know, all of us, the differences that we make are different for each one of us. Some God's called us to make a difference in our workplace. Others make a difference in our home, others with our families, others in a certain industry or a certain place. Some of us make a difference in just the circle that we're living in, but God has called us to live outside of ourselves. Amen. I love our mission, and I think every Christian mission is twofold. Number one, it's deeply personal, and number two, it's greatly relational. God has a personal mission for your life, an intimate mission for you that's just yours, that it's different than everyone else's. In other words, God wants to develop you the way he's designed you.

3:03 There's no one else like you in all the world. There never was before. There never will be in the future. God has designed you and God has created you exactly as you are. And his mission is to develop you into who that person is. From the beginning of time, God designed you. It's deeply personal, but it's also greatly relational. And the person that God's called you to be will never be discovered in a vacuum. In other words, in isolation, you can only be as great as you can be by yourself. But as soon as you enter into community, as soon as you get around some fellowship, all of a sudden the Bible calls it iron sharpening iron. You know, I thought I was mature until I got married. Just by the way, you're never ready to get married. You learn that as soon as you get married. You can read all the books, go through the marriage counseling, and then you're like, oh, okay. I'm still a child.

3:56 I thought I was mature, and then I had kids, and my three-year-old was throwing a tantrum, and then I started throwing a tantrum, and I realized really quick, I got a long way to go in my journey with Jesus. Amen? Paul says it like this, and we're going to read in Ephesians chapter 4. Can we give it up for the band? You guys are amazing. Great job.

4:18 Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11 through 16 says this. So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature. Everyone say mature. And become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. In other words, God has created the church so we could do good works for the reason of two things, unity and maturity. God wants to develop you and grow you. He wants to stretch you so you can have unity and maturity. Isn't this so cool? Maybe you hear like, well, why do we got to have pastors at this church? Why do we got to have worship leaders?

5:10 Can't we all just kind of like, you know, gather in a room? Well, we have people who are pastors and evangelists and teachers. We have people who are volunteers who create a place so that we can be built up together. Can we put our hands together for all of our volunteers, all of our Zoe Serve team, who go out of their way to create a place where we can be built up in unity and maturity. I'm just going to give a special shout out to the coffee team today. This is my favorite team. I don't know if I can, like, survive without them. But how cool is this? I saw they were writing little notes on all the sleeves. God bless you and God loves you and all. So cool. It's the environment that people create together that allows us to grow and mature in our faith. Verse 14, it says this. Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves. Okay, first of all, I don't think infants should be in waves at all.

6:07 I'm just saying this is a hard stance. No babies in the ocean, okay? Babies at a beach, one thing. Let's just get them out of the waves. Does that sound good? There will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves, everyone said, amen. And blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. We see this a lot today, don't we? We see a lot of people who developed their faith in their relationship with God based on teachings they watch on social media. you're you're subscribed more to the next preacher or sermon on youtube than you are to the word of god and when that happens you begin to grow physically but you shrink spiritually so your appetite gets bigger but the sustenance that you're taking in remains the same and you're wondering how come i don't feel fulfilled how come i'm not satisfied how come i'm I'm listening to like 14 messages.

7:08 The traffic in LA is so bad. I've got an audio book, and I've listened to podcasts, and I'm tuned in. It's because we were never meant to live on milk for our entire lives. Eventually, we've got to get to like some mushed peas and some carrots. Eventually, some avocados and some sweet potatoes. We've got to change what we take in as we develop and grow. It goes on in verse 15. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is Christ. Everyone say mature. From him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love. As each part does its work. See, our mission isn't just to reach people for Jesus. It's to grow together in Jesus.

8:04 It's to know him deeper and know him better and to know him more. Our mission, I'm preaching on the first two, know God and find freedom. Next week, we're going to finish the mini-series. How many of you guys love a good mini-series? I'll binge watch, I'm not going to lie, like seven series of a good show, but a mini-series, we can just get it through. Today, I'm preaching on knowing God and finding freedom, and I believe that. God wants you to know him more. He doesn't want you to know him a little bit. He doesn't just want you to know a part of him or a piece of him or a perspective of him. God wants you to continue to grow in a relationship with him. Amen? If you're taking down notes today, you can write down the title of today's talk. It's time to grow up. I hated when my mom told me I got to grow up. Nate, you got to grow up. And, you know, praise God that our God isn't my mom. Mom, I love you, and I know you're tuning in.

8:58 You're amazing, and I love you. But I think God's called us to grow up, to mature, to develop. The Bible says it like this, to go from strength to strength and glory to glory, being formed more into the likeness of Jesus every single day. it's time to grow up. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you're here with us, that you're good, that you've always been good. Lord, I thank you that you're developing us, you're growing us, you're maturing us. Lord, I just pray, God, would you highlight to us today the areas in our life that need growth, that need stretching. Lord, today would you give us every tool by the power of your Holy Spirit to honor you with a life of unity and maturity in Jesus' name. And everyone said together, amen and amen. Does anyone remember when they were little, like, you know, when they were five, six years old, anyone remember what they wanted to be when they grew up?

9:57 Short memories here today. That's great. I love it. I remember what exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. I have an eight-year-old, his name is River, and my eight-year-old, I asked him the the other day, hey, what do you want to be when you grow up? He said, well, I want to win the World Series. I want to be a professional baseball player, and I also want to win a championship in the NBA, and then I want to be an NFL player, and I want to win the Super Bowl. I want to be a professional athlete, and I was like, yeah, great. You know, in my mind, I'm like, he's going into the arts for sure. This guy, he's going to be a worship leader. That's what's going to go down, and then, you know, I had my five-year-old, and I asked my five-year-old, I said, hey, what do you want to be when you grow up? And his answer was even more ambitious. He just went straight to, I want to be Godzilla, dad. I'm like, you want to be Godzilla? Say, I just want to swim around in the ocean and then stomp out some cities and find some monsters. That sound good? I'm like, what? Like, how do you sit down with a five-year-old and you're like, hey, you know, you can be anything you want to be if you set your mind to it, except for Godzilla. Like, you can't, I'm sorry, your brother, you can't be Godzilla.

11:03 And he's like, but dad, you're big. Well, son, if you set your mind to it, I guess you could be anything. I remember when I was growing up, like, you know, six, seven years old, I was obsessed. Like, all capital letters obsessed with the Power Rangers. Like, I wanted to be a Power Ranger really bad. Like, I wanted everything to do with the Power Rangers. I joined the Power Rangers fan club, okay? It's like a real thing. I sent letters. I hand wrote letters to the Power Rangers. They sent letters back, okay? They sent letters back to me. They were signed, not by the actors, like they were signed by the characters. I had the biggest crush on the Pink Ranger. Kimberly was her name. You better believe it. I was like, Mom, put that on the fridge. She sent me a letter. I think when we were young, like, the idea of what we want to be in the future when we grow up is so exciting, and so big, and it's enormous, and to be honest, the older I got, it's not that my ambitions got smaller, it's that my dreams became more realistic, and you know, when I was, I went from Power Rangers, then I wanted to be a fighter pilot, and I was like, that's the coolest thing in the world, and then I wanted to, like, write fantasy novels, because I got really into Lord of the Rings and stuff, and that was a season of my life that I'm still in now, and then I remember in high school, like, I want to become an English teacher, because my English teacher really impacted my life, now I want to make an impact like my English teacher, and then I remember giving my life to Jesus, and going like, God, whatever you have for me, that's the, that's what I want to do with my life, I have no idea what it is, I have no idea what you've called me to, where I'm going next, but I know I want to make an impact in the world.

12:50 And God, I know you are my greatest option to do it. I know that you have a plan for me and a purpose for me. You have a calling for me. But to be honest, I had no idea what it was. And I remember like being young in my faith and going like, when I grow up, I want to be like Pastor Chad. And when I grow up, I want to be like that worship leader. When I grow up, I want to be like my uncle who's a missionary. When I grow up, I want to be like Fabiola. Like when I grow up, I want to be like these amazing people in faith. And I realized really quickly when I got around those people is that they weren't special. They were just committed to growth and committed to faith and committed to Jesus and committed to getting back up when they fell and committed to growing with one another. I want to challenge you today in your faith.

13:42 Maybe you're coming to church and maybe you've been here for a while. Maybe you've been on this journey for a little bit. And you're like, man, I've come to church and I listen to the podcast. I go to a connect group and I even tithe sometimes. Like when I get a bonus, I tithe and I feel deeply unsatisfied in my life. My question today is like, are you maturing in your faith? Are you growing? Are you getting to know God more? Or are you content with how you know him now? So today I just want to talk a little bit about knowing God, finding freedom. Point number one today is everyone starts somewhere. Amen? Come on, everyone starts somewhere. No one started as a professional Christian. No one was like, yeah, Super Bowl of Christianity, then I won the World Series, just my son River. All of us, we started, we had a starting point where we realized I no longer want to live by my own ability. I want to lean into God because his ways are true and his ways are right.

14:46 And he's forgiven me of my past and of my sin. I want to live a life with Jesus. I want to live a life for God. But all of us, we started there. And I love what it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. It says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone and the new is here. When you say yes to Jesus and you make him the Lord of your life, you become a brand new person, a brand new creation. Other places in the Bible, it says that you're born again. Have you ever been around those weird born-again Christians?

15:22 I remember when I first got saved and I first said yes to Jesus, I was a weird born-again Christian. And look, it's okay. It's like when you're a baby, you're weird. You're awkward. You don't know how to do this thing. You don't know how to do life. you have no idea how to have a relationship with God when when our son River was born right he's eight years old now this is a long time ago uh you know when he was born our son wasn't birth going like I love you so much dad you're amazing I'm so thankful for everything you've done for me but he he popped out and he was like I'm a baby and I don't know how to do anything I don't know who you are like why are you holding me with your shirt off right It's like...

16:04 He tried to latch, it was a thing, you know? No, he had to get to know me. And I think a lot of us, like we think we have to go from like, I don't know anything about God or know anything about Jesus to like living this crazy, radical, I know everything about God. I know everything about Jesus. No, it's everyone started somewhere. You've got to start and then you've got to grow. don't be upset if you're still struggling with doubts you know how good our God is he'll struggle with you in your doubts don't worry if you if you're not sure how to do this whole thing called a relationship with God he'll lead you and he'll teach you and he'll show you how to have a relationship with him you know I remember struggling like when I first got saved and I said yes to Jesus to be honest the reason why I did it is because I didn't want to go to hell. Good reason. Hell, not fun, not a great place. We have AC in here for a reason, right? It's like...

17:10 And I struggled singing worship songs that were like, I love you, Jesus. I don't know. It's like part country, part puberty right there. But I struggled singing those songs because I couldn't relate like that yet. I was just getting to know him. And I think a lot of us were maybe in that journey that we're in that phase where we're just getting to know God. And just like a baby, it's like, I remember when our kids opened their eyes for the first time. We're like, they got eyes. Praise God. you know when they took their first step and when they began to develop and it's the same thing for us when we say yes to Jesus we have to open up our eyes for the first time to new perspectives it's just the same way in our faith we take our first steps in trusting in who God is and who he's called us to be it's just like when we're young we have to stop drinking milk and we have to take on the sustenance. We have to digest the truth of God's word. But in the same way that we develop towards God, we have to develop away from our old life, right? A lot of us are stuck in this phase because we're unwilling to stray away from our old life. So we want one foot in and one foot out. I've never seen a plant grow planted in two pots. You got to make a decision to move in the direction that God's called you to go.

18:35 So the same way you open up your eyes to the new things of God, you've got to close your eyes to the old things of your past. The same way that you take baby steps forward in faith, you're taking baby steps away from your old sin. The same way you digest the truth, you've got to deny the lies of the enemy for your life to walk in everything that God has for you. It's okay that you started somewhere, but if you stay here, you'll never have the freedom that God has ahead of you. Isn't that the problem?

19:09 God, like, unlocks the prison door for us to live a life of freedom, but we're like, but the prison's got free food. why do I feel bound? You got to get out of the prison. He unlocked the door. You got to get up, walk out. Point number two, write this down. It's a process, isn't it? Point two, to know God is to grow with God. To know him is to grow with him. It says this in Hebrews chapter six, therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity. You're like, wait a second. The doctrine, the teachings of Jesus, that's the elementary stuff. When you say yes to Jesus, that's the starting point. If you stay there, it's like never leaving the wedding venue after you get married.

20:01 Like the wedding venue, I'm sure it looks great. It's awesome. It's catered. But when all the caterers go away, when all the candles burn down, like you still want to stay there? You got a honeymoon to go to. That's the exciting part of the whole getting married part. Because you get to know each other better and discover all that stuff. but like we we think that we want to grow in our faith but we're unwilling to leave the starting point we got we got to grow it's not that we move on from jesus it's that we move on from our dead works it goes on to say in hebrews chapter six i'll maybe i should finish it therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of christ and go on to maturity not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God. In other words, we've got to receive his forgiveness and move forward in freedom. Can I just encourage you, God has way more for your life than forgiveness. Forgiveness is just the beginning of your relationship with Jesus. Come on, he's got more grace, he's got more mercy, he's got more kindness, he's got more opportunity, he's got better relationships. He has more strength. He has more for your life. And if you stay as Jesus, as only the Savior of your life, you'll always be the victim in life. But God has called you to make him your Savior and your Lord. That means thank you for saving me. Thank you for your forgiveness.

21:32 Every day I wake up thankful that you've forgiven me of my sin and my shame and my shortcoming and my mistakes so that I can actually walk forward in faith. Some of us, we worship salvation and not the Savior. But salvation was just the tool that God used to actually do what he came to do, was re-establish a relationship with God and us. Salvation was the tool. He said, I'm going to give you a free gift so we can have a relationship, so we can grow. I can develop you into the person that God's called you. Every day you wake up with gratitude for your salvation, then you walk out that gratitude, the Bible says, with fear and trembling. Thank you so much. This is what you saved me from. I'm never going back. And even when I fall, thank you so much. You pick me back up. God, I don't want to just live free from sin. I want to live free to live the life that you've designed me to live. I want to say no to my old life. And, you know, I think that the difficulty is we all want, like, all of our calling right now, right? Like, we want to scroll and go, oh, God, that reel hit me so much. That's what I'm called to do. Wow. I never, gosh.

22:52 That's the type of faith we want to have. But it doesn't work that way. God works more in agriculture that he does in technology. He plants seeds and he waters seeds and he grows seeds. And all of a sudden we're able to see the calling that God's called us to. But I got to encourage you, if God were to give you your full calling right now, it would crush you.

23:12 You don't have the character yet to carry the full calling that God has for your life. He's got to grow you into your calling. He's got to mature you into your calling. He's got to stretch your character. We got to deny some of the old stuff. We got to walk into the new stuff. Isn't it true? You feel growth more or before you see growth, right? If you've ever been to the gym before, I've been to the gym recently, and you know what they say the heaviest weight in the gym is? It's the front door. It's like, I need a spotter. I'm like, Quentin, help me.

23:52 But like you get into the gym, you get your workout on, your sweat on, you go to the sauna afterwards just to feel like you sweated even though you didn't during your workout. That's when you take the picture like, man, this is a tough one. Like all the guys in the room after one workout like, babe, babe, look at this. then the next day you wake up and what's that feeling you feel sore it's pain because you feel the growth before you see the growth some of us we stop trying to grow in our faith because we feel the pain of growth before we see the growth and so we give up before breakthrough ever happens before breakthrough ever shows up we just stop and go man it doesn't feel good Man, I feel uncomfortable. I'm not sure what to do next.

24:44 I just feel painful. You're going to feel painful because you're breaking out of who you used to be. You're breaking this trans and you're breaking the patterns. You're giving up your old life and your old ways. I don't know if you've ever had withdrawals before. I've had withdrawals from caffeine. You're like, yeah, okay, caffeine, you drink a lot of coffee. When I was young, I was sponsored by Monster Energy Drink. This is not a joke. They'd send like a pallet of energy drinks to my house, and I would just drink energy drinks all the time. And then like in high school, I would drink 24 shots of espresso a day, like three eight-shot Americanos, because like my adrenal gland is just, it doesn't exist anymore. I just need more caffeine. And I remember my senior year of high school feeling like, man, this is like a real addiction. and this summer I'm going to go 90 days no caffeine.

25:40 I'm not going to lie. This is like the worst decision I've ever made in my life. I'm not caffeine free today. I relapse. I'm back in this thing. Coffee team shout out. I remember for that 90 days, like the first week, I started to get shivers. It's summertime. I'm like getting shivers. And then at the same time, like I'm soaking my sheets with sweat. I'm getting migraines. And I'm withdrawing from the thing that I used to depend on.

26:09 As you grow in your faith, you're going to have a season. You're going to have a moment. You're going to have a week. You're going to have a month. You're going to have a season of development where it feels worse than it did before. Because you've got to withdraw from the thing that you used to depend on. Jesus will give you eternally what the world will only provide for you temporarily. And the difference is that when you get it from the world, it takes some interest from you as well. It takes a little bit of your faith. It takes a little bit of your relationships. It takes a little bit of your strength. It takes a little bit of your virtue, of your character. But when you get it from Jesus, he adds character. He adds strength. He adds virtue. He makes your relationship stronger. He shows you the way you're going to go.

26:57 But we got to grow through it. We got to grow through it. We got to grow up, don't we? Point number three is this. it's childlike faith, not childish faith. My wife is like, you're childish sometimes.

27:20 Because I got kids that keep me young, you know? It's childlike faith, not childish faith. I think if we can begin to distinguish what it means to be like, well, this is what Matthew says. Or this is what Jesus says in Matthew 18. at that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven he called a little child to him and placed a child among them and he said truly I tell you unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven therefore whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. I remember reading this and being like I got to be like a like a like a kid again. I got to be like a child again. You know I love being a parent and one of the joys of being a parent is when you got like a five-year-old or a three-year-old and you take them to Disneyland for the first time or Universal. I don't know whatever you're into.

28:29 Take them to Candy Cane Lane Christmas time and they see something and you watch their eyes. Go, oh my gosh. Is that really goofy? like for us of course we're so mature that's a guy in a costume but for them they want to meet goofy right for us oh man that's just it's just a roller coaster it's not that big of a deal but a child they walk into a place and anything is possible I wonder what your life would look like if you actually believed that God is who he says he is he'll do what he says he'll do and he'll always show up I wonder what your life what would your prayers look like if you prayed prayers that reflected the idea that anything is possible with God how cool is this her night uh this place was totally packed I mean literally we had to wheel in chairs to fit all the ladies uh shout out to all the guys can I get a woo from all the guys sounds about right that's why we got her nights and brotherhood breakfasts it's a different thing but all the ladies were in here and pastor julia was preaching this amazing word and we get this this this woman to come up her name is fabiola if you know fabiola it's to love fabiola Thank you.

29:56 She comes up and she begins to share her testimony. And maybe a lot of you know her testimony. We showed videos about her testimony. That Fabiola, years ago, was diagnosed with cancer. And we prayed for her and she's gone through 16 rounds of chemo and radiation. And just about three months ago, she gets a diagnosis from the doctor that her cancer had spread. And it jumped to stage four. They would say things like, there's no cure for this. There's no way out of this. And on her night, Fabiola came up in front of everybody in the room, and she began to tell her story. I went and got my CT scan. And the doctors don't know how. They don't know what happened. But there's no more stage four cancer. There's no cancer at all. There's no cancer in my bones, no cancer in my liver.

30:50 There's no cancer. Because our God, with him, anything is possible. There's nothing our God can't do. There's no sickness that he cannot heal. There's no relationship that he cannot put back together. Our God, when he declares it, it is what it is because he said it. Our God shows up time and time and time and time again. Isn't that a cool story? Isn't that a cool story? I think the cooler part of that story is even if she wasn't healed, Fabiola would have said yes to Jesus. Even if she still had the cancer today, she would have been worshiping, she would have been serving, she would have been leaned in because she has childlike faith, not childish faith.

31:42 See, childlike faith is a lowly faith. It's a humble faith. It's to say, God, I don't know how you're going to do it. I can't do it. I've tried to do it. I've set up systems to do it. I've leaned in and I started on Monday 10 times. I tried my best to do it and I couldn't do it. But God, I know you can do it. And God, I know that if you don't do it, you're still good. See, childlike faith, it's humble. Watch this, childlike faith, it's dependent, isn't it?

32:23 It depends on God. I love my kids, and my wife and I, we're trying to grow them into independent kids, but right now they're very dependent, like on everything. This morning our kids woke up and they said, can you make us chicken nuggets? I said, it's 6.40 in the morning, you want chicken nuggets? at 6.40 in the morning? Dad, we're just trying to be like you. Mine's more like 1240 at night, okay? It's a different thing. It's a different thing. It's a different thing. But they're so dependent on us. And at some point, we have to cut off what we do for them so they can grow into the person.

33:08 And you know, childlike faith, it's dependent on, it's dependent on Jesus, isn't it? but the next thing that childlike faith is, it's irrationally trustful, see, I depend on Jesus, and I put my, my dependence on him, and because I depend on him, I know I can step out in trust, how do you prove your dependence on God, stepping trusting showing you know what faith is i used to think faith meant your belief how you believe in god isn't that cool all of us a lot of us we got faith we believe in god good for you good for us we believe he exists it's like kind of a 50 50 thing you think you know something created everything or maybe nothing created everything but if nothing created and everything, then nothing is a something, so something anyways.

34:05 faith isn't just existence belief in existence the Bible says that even demons believe yet they shudder they seem to know something a lot of us don't their response to God is I know who he is I know how powerful he is I know how benevolent he is I know how good he is you know what faith is faith is belief in his existence trust in who he is and confidence to step out and know that if you fall he'll catch you that's what faith is faith it's it's it's it's a verb it's it's an action it's it's it requires a step it requires you to to move and to function and grow and to develop and I think a lot of us we have a faith in God, but we don't live in faith. We just believe he exists. He's here, and he created stuff, and one day, hopefully I'll be in heaven, and I think that's where God is.

35:15 But when you live in faith, you realize God isn't somewhere else, sometime else. You realize that God is here and he's now. And every time I step in faith, God has a place for my foot to land. And when I stumble in mistake, God has a people to lift me up. You know, every time you fall, God will catch you. And the method he uses to catch you are people. It's a community. It's a church. It's a group. It's a family. It's a bunch of believers who come together and say, oh, lift up my shield of faith. It's not just for me. but those flaming arrows of the enemy, let me catch those for you.

35:56 Number four, freedom is found in fellowship. Look, if it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to raise a Christian. You can't do it on your own. You gotta have people. You know, if you live life by yourself, sinless, perfect. Imagine that, right? You do everything right. Everything's perfect. You've never made a mistake. You've never sinned. You're perfect.

36:29 It's still not good. We find Adam in the Garden of Eden before any sin enters the world, before any mistakes enter the world. The Bible says that God sees Adam alone, and he says it's not good that he's alone. And you might live an ideal life, but you can't live a life of freedom if it's by yourself. Freedom is found in fellowship. I used to think freedom was found in accountability. Like, you know, you go to a Starbucks, you order your Frappuccino, you confess all your deepest, darkest sins to a pastor or to a mentor for 54 minutes. And for six minutes, they tell you some Bible verses to think about until next week when you meet again. And there I am, I have freedom. The problem is like you finish your Frappuccino and you go along the way and you find yourself alone and isolated doing the same knuckleheaded business you've been doing before you got the Frappuccino. That's not what freedom looks like.

37:28 It looks like fellowship. It looks like living life together. It looks like iron sharpening iron. and it looks like being committed and connected in community and saying this is how God is working on me and this is my pain and this is my past and I know you're going through it to you and this is how God saved me and rescued me and he's going to do it for you too. You can never be who God's called you to be without people that God's called you to. Go ahead, stand to your feet today. Acts chapter 2, verse 42. it says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, that's church, and a fellowship that's living together to the breaking of bread and a prayer. I was like, wow, this is a carb church, the breaking of bread.

38:24 And you know what it's saying there is they came together in communion with one another. They came together not just as acquaintances, but they shared their lives together. You know what I'm concerned about? Is that people are having conversations on social media that should be had around dinner tables. And then judging people for it. But if I'm going to be honest, as Christians we're called to grow together, mature together, to find freedom together. And it can't be found on a screen. It'll be found around a dinner table. It'll be found around the breaking of bread. It'll be found in a connect group. It'll be found at a beach. It'll be found after a movie together with a bunch of friends. It'll be found living life together. Because freedom cannot be experienced outside of the context of each other. You know God's mission for your life.

39:20 Know God. Find freedom. Discover your purposes. Make a difference. They all are connected to one another. But knowing God, how is that connected? scripture says if you love God the only way to show that is your love for one another you want you love God it's like I hear this all the time I pray Nate I pray I pray all the time Nate I pray I love God I pray all the time I love him okay but what what's your life what's your relationships look like what does your connectivity look like you come to church 15 minutes late and leave as soon as the last song comes on? I heard someone go, oh. They're in the very back. They came 30 minutes late. We don't want you to come to church for a good spot in service. We want you to come to church to wait in line for coffee and turn to the person next to you and go, hey, I'm so-and-so. How was your week? We want you ladies to stand in line for the bathroom, like 40 long. So what are you doing here?

40:26 church this sundays it's just a vessel for connection these walls aren't the church we're the church and god wants to grow us in unity and god wants to grow us in maturity and god wants to stretch us god wants us to give up our old life so we can know him and know his kindness and know his goodness, to know his faithfulness, so we don't have to keep on drinking milk, but we can live on the full substance of his kindness and of his grace. Come on, God has invited you into a life that you can never walk in, in your wildest dreams. No lotto, no opportunity, no job interview, no breakthrough when the industry will ever achieve what God can provide for you eternally.

41:21 So with every head bowed and every eye closed, maybe you're here in this room and you feel stuck. You feel stagnant. You feel like you haven't grown for a while. You feel just... Now what happened? I feel stale. I feel unsatisfied. I feel unfulfilled. And today, you want to make that commitment to say, you know what? I'm going to move forward in my faith. I'm going to take that first baby stuff. Everyone starts somewhere. Don't be ashamed of where you are. Don't be ashamed. Don't be held back, but make the decision to take that next step. Maybe for you, it's a connect group. Maybe for you, it's finding a friend for you to confess what you're going through. Whatever it is, it's connected in community. That's you just a sober, somber decision. If you want to move forward, if you want to be committed to growing in your relationship with Jesus, I want you to raise your hand. One. Hey, we hope that message encouraged you and stirred up your faith. Again, that's part one of a two-part series. Next week, we're going to be jumping back in to the mission of our church.

42:27 Make sure to subscribe and share the podcast, and we'll see you.