More Than Sunday School

about the Apostles' Creed. I want to talk to you about the church. What do you believe about the church? A couple of weeks ago, I was on an airplane, and I was flying to Montana. And I go with a group of guys here from the church just about every year. I was a day late, I actually had an infection in my eye, and so they went out the day before I was a day late. And so I was by myself traveling, flying to Montana, and so I was reading some different news stories. And I came across the story of a 10-year-old boy, and this 10-year-old boy was arrested for taking a knife into a Dollar Tree store. How many of you have been to Dollar Tree? Yeah, he went into a Dollar Tree store with a knife, Parabat. And as he was there with the knife saying, "Give me the money," I mean, just picture that in your mind. A 10-year-old, one of the employees tackled him. He actually stabbed the employee, and some others came and detained him, and he was arrested. And as I read the story, it had some of his family situation. He was being raised by a single mom. He was a latch-key kid. If you don't know what that means, that means he would come home from school, and he would be at home alone until his mom got home from work, and he just got this idea that he wanted to buy some things, and he didn't know how to get the money. He knew his mom didn't have the money, and so he got a knife, and he went to the Dollar Tree to rob it. And I read that story, and then I went to move on to another story, and I just felt impressed by the Holy Spirit to just stop and think about that for a minute. Like think about that kid's life, and what hope does he have? I mean, is there some law that's going to be passed that's going to change the trajectory of that boy's life?

Is there some government program that's going to come along? And then I thought about another ten-year-old boy, and I have a picture of him. Look at this kid, this ten-year-old. That's a good-looking kid. You know who that is? That's me. And I played for the Falcons, thank you very much, in Mesquite, Texas. And I was raised by a single mom, and I was a latchkey kid. And I too would come home by myself, and I would be there for a while. My brother was in a daycare, and my mom would work and get off of work and pick up my brother and then come home to me, but I had a lot of hours just by myself. And I thought about the ten-year-old that robbed the Dollar Tree, and I thought about my story, and I just had to ask myself, "What's the difference?" And to be very straight with you, the difference in my life was the local church. And when I talk about church, I'm not talking about the building. When the Bible talks about church, it's not talking about a building. It's talking about a people. The thing that changed the trajectory of my life for the good, even up to this moment, were people in the church who loved me. It was men who invested in me just because they were followers of Jesus. There was a guy named Mike, and I was part of a small group for a while, and there was camping and fishing and things like that, and he didn't just do the group thing with us, he would spend time with us outside of that moment. He was a healthy, strong, decent man who loved Jesus, and he invested into my life. So a man named David, who did the same thing, as I got older and I got to junior high and early high school years, there was a young man named Dennis. Same thing. I mean, we would do the church thing and we would do the group thing, but he would call He would take us to lunch, those kinds of things. And I just have thought about where my life could have gone

versus the way that it's gone. And you know, there's so many decisions. You know what I'm talking about? Would it couldn't have gone this way or this way? But somebody stepped in. And for me, it was the men of the local church. The Bible teaches that the local church is the hope of the world. And I hate to tell you this, there is no plan B. The church, the Bible teaches that were to be his hands and his feet, his ambassadors, were to represent him. And I hate to tell you this, there is no plan B. The church, the Bible teaches that were to be his hands would represent him in a world that desperately needs him. What do you believe about the church? Every week we've read the Apostles' Creed. This is the big rocks of the Christian faith. It was written about 1,800 years ago. And it's Christian doctrine for both Catholics and Protestants alike. I want to invite you to stand with me as it comes here on the screen. And let's read the Creed together. Every week I've said this. I'll say it again, pay attention to the commas. That way you'll understand what we're reading. Let's read it out loud together, read it with me. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Universal Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. And all God's people said, amen. Please be seated. Thank you. Today we're going to talk about the Holy Universal Church. And when it comes to the church, what do you believe? Most of us have cultural ideas about church more than we have biblical ideas about church. What do you believe? Remember when we talk about the creed, those first two words, I believe, means more than mental ascent. It means I believe to the extent that I'm resting my life on these things. In fact, I will give my life in service of these things. The I believe is I'm all in. When it comes to the church, what do you believe? So here's the line that we're at in the creed. You can follow along with me in the notes on the Sun Valley app or you can follow along with me here on the screen. Here's where we are in the creed. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Universal Church. How many of you grew up in church? You read the creed regularly and it was the Holy Catholic Church.

Can I see a show of hands? I'm going to explain that here in a minute. Thank you. The Holy Universal Church, the communion of saints. At the end of service today, I will lead us through a time of communion. The communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, amen. By the way, do you know what the word amen means? It means so be it. So when you pray and you say amen, it means so be it. Here in the creed, the word universal there in Greek is this word. Catholicos. Catholicos. Here's what it means. According to the whole or universal. The reason I changed it to universal is because if we kept the word Catholic 'Cause you would be like, Sun Valley's not a Catholic church, why are we talking about that? 'Cause the word means universal, make sense? The word means according to the whole. In other words, Catholicos in Greek, here's what it means. All true Christians everywhere. All true Christians everywhere throughout all time who belong to Jesus Christ. So when we're talking about the universal church, we're talking about all believers for all time, specifically the big sea church. The word church in Greek is this word, ecclesia, ecclesia.

It does not mean building. It does not mean stone or mortar or sticks and stones. Ecclesia means a called out assembly or a gathering. Ecclesia is about a group of people joining together for a common purpose. So here's how the church began in the New Testament. And I've talked about this before, it'll be a review for some of you, but I need you to really think about it. Even if you've heard what I'm about to say before, like ask yourself, is this the way I really think about church? Here's how the Bible talks about church. There was no church. Prior to Jesus, people would worship at the temple and then they might have meetings in a synagogue, but churches we know it did not exist. Jesus comes along and he calls out followers. The word for that in the Bible is disciple. A disciple is a student of a master. In other words, Jesus was the master and he had students. And so these people were learning from him. He died on the cross, he rose again, he appeared the next 40 days, the resurrected Jesus to many of his followers, like a few hundred, and then he ascended into heaven. 50 days after the resurrection, the day of Pentecost happened. Think Pent of five, 50 days after the resurrection. The Holy Spirit comes, the apostle Peter stands and preaches and 3000 people say yes to Jesus.

And the New Testament church is born. By the way, anytime somebody says, I don't like big church, I always think you're not gonna like heaven very much. (congregation laughing) 'Cause that's a big church. And just so you know, when the church started, it launched with 3000 people. In modern time, in church culture, they call a mega church 2000 people or more. So the first church was a big one. And they met in people's homes and they would gather together in the temple courts, but nothing like this had ever happened before. And so what they called this group of people was a chlesia, a group of people called together for a common purpose, what was the purpose? To represent and follow Jesus. To do what Jesus says, to be his disciples. And so they were ambassadors of Jesus in the world. And so they were extremely generous and they were extremely faithful. And they taught that Jesus was the son of God who died and rose again. And the church in Jerusalem exploded. Most scholars believe that it grew to about 175,000 people. And even though Jesus told this group of people go into all the world and make disciples, they stayed in Jerusalem. And so you know what God allowed? Persecution.

And when persecution came, they were like, "Oh, we gotta get out of here." And suddenly the gospel started to move, makes sense? And then there were missionaries like the Apostle Paul and others that took the gospel to other places. But the church was not a building. Biblically speaking, the church is not a building that you come to. Biblically speaking, if you are a follower of Jesus, you don't come to church, you are the church. Anytime somebody asks me, how many locations do Sun Valley have? If I'm biblically speaking, I would say thousands. How many locations do we have? Well, wherever you are, that's where we're located. Are you guys with me? You are the church. I gotta tell you, there's so many times when people come to me and they're like, Chad, the church ought to be doing this. I'm like, go ahead. I'm not stopping you. Are you telling me you need a budget and a line item? I'm in Sun Valley, the organization. If Jesus is telling you to do it, go! Stop telling me what I need to do. I'm doing my part. If he's speaking to you, you go do your part. Stop trying to put on me what he's telling you to do. Does this make sense?

You are the church. And church was never meant to be boring, and it was never meant to just be boring. a group of people called together for a common purpose to represent Jesus in a world that desperately, desperately needs Him. When the church is on mission and when the church is doing what it's supposed to do, there's nothing like it. When the church is off mission and when the church is distracted, there's nothing like it. One is extremely positive and one is extremely negative, and all of us have seen a little bit of both. Can I get a witness on that? God is called you and I to be part of the movement of Jesus. This is what it means to be the church, to be His hands and feet, to be His ambassadors, to represent Him in the world. So, let's talk about Sun Valley for a little bit and I want to show you a picture of our church. Are you ready? Here's our church. Here it is. Check it out. We got lots of locations. This is the church. I started thinking about it this week and I thought about some of my friends. Who don't just come in a 10 church like come and sit in a building, but they choose to be the church. They're representing Jesus in the world. I thought of my friend Ben. He and his family go to our South Gilbert location and Ben leads a small group of high school boys, but he doesn't just lead the group. He like goes to their games. He takes them to lunch. He'll speak at fellowship of Christian athletes and Ben has a very demanding job and a young family and yet he still loves those high school students. He doesn't just come to church. He is the church. I thought of my friend Ted. Ted had a pretty successful career in what he did for a living and he retired a few years ago and he still kind of dabbles in some different things. Ted is a very large man. He's like a man's man. He's a big guy. He used to box. He sparred with the vendor Holyfield and George Foreman and Mike Tyson like he's legit, but Ted in retirement is not sitting around on a beach somewhere. He has several things that he does, but one of my favorite things that he does is he works on Harley Davidson's and he gets bikers together and does Bible study with them. And these guys don't believe what Ted believes and Ted's just very patient and they ask questions and they kind of talk about different things and Ted just talks about what the Bible says. Ted doesn't just come to church. He is the church. Are you guys catching what I'm throwing here? I thought about my friends Eric and Mary. Eric and Mary had a very successful career

and they too and retirement could be sitting on an island somewhere drinking drinks with little umbrellas in them and that's it. I mean they could make the rest of their life about pleasure and enjoyment and play in golf and go in sailing and flying planes and those kinds of things, but they don't. You know what they do? They feed thousands of people in the Phoenix Metroplex every month. They serve. They don't just come to church. They are the church. By the way, I'll give you this little bonus. Anytime I talk to Eric, he's just happy. And this guy has done all kinds of things in his life. I mean he's got to do some things that I dream about doing, but in a conversation we had a few months ago, he was like I don't think we've ever been happier. We're just blessed. We can't believe he said that we're so blessed to get to do what we do and he serves people in need by providing food and leading a local nonprofit to do that. I thought about my friends Chris and Ghe who got involved in foster care and adoption and they adopted some children into their own family. They drive one of those really big vans. You know what I'm talking about? But they've also been advocates in our state for foster care and adoption. or this 10-year-old boy, or all kinds of kids and all kinds of situations, people who step in and love a kid like that, change the trajectory of their life. Kristen Gee-Hey, don't just come to church. They are the church. I thought about my friend, Nora, who has attended Sun Valley for a long time. And Nora now, I think, I think it's been, I didn't call and confirm it with her, but I think it's been over a decade, she's been serving junior high girls in our church. So let's say it's been 10 years. That means she's had 10 different groups of girls that most likely she still has relationship with a lot of them,

that for the rest of their lives, when they look back at seventh and eighth grade, you know who they're gonna remember? You know who they're gonna remember? In this very important time in their life, when they're being mold and shaped, they're gonna remember Nora. And I don't know if you know this, but junior high kids think their parents are dumb. Every junior high in high school kid needs a safe, loving adult besides their parent that will speak truth to them. 'Cause kids don't listen to their parents when they're that age. I know, I have one. Robert Watson and I were together one time, and my son, Jack, we were actually up north, we were in Payson, and it snowed, and so we were sliding down this driveway, you know, on an inner tube, and the kids were playing, and I kept telling Jack to do something, and I kept telling Jack to do something, and I kept telling Jack to do something, and he was just ignoring me, and Robert goes, "Hey, Chad." I'm like, "What?" He goes, "What's it like every weekend to speak to thousands of people?" And they're just listening to you, but your own kid just totally ignores you.

He's like, "What is that like?" I'm like, "That's like normal parenting, right?" Nora doesn't just come to church. She is the church, and she will never know the greatness of her impact, the side of heaven, but it's massive. Thought about my friend Grant, who's gotten involved with helping adults with special needs. A while back, we gave an offering to help that ministry take off, and Grant had partners, and that's happening now in our community, and it's starting to grow. He doesn't just come to church, Grant is the church. Then lastly, I thought about my friend Steve and my friend Travis, and you're like, "What ministry are they involved in?" Well, they serve, and they do things at Sun Valley, but here's how they were the church. You know how they were the church? They played golf. They're both really good golfers. In case you wonder if I played golf, no. And here's why, I'm a man. (audience laughing) I hunt, I fish, I ride motorcycles, which actually doesn't make me a man, it just makes me awesome. (audience laughing)

I don't play golf 'cause I'm terrible at it, but these guys were playing golf, and here's how they were the church. They chose to be intentional with one of their golfing buddies, meaning we're just gonna share our faith, we're gonna be patient, we're not gonna be overbearing, we're not trying to sell any body here, we're just gonna be good friends to this guy, and this guy that they were talking to, they had an intentional friendship with, came to church a couple of weeks ago, gave his life to Jesus. (audience applauding) And both of them separately sent me a picture. This is our friend who gave his life to Jesus, which means Stephen Travis aren't just coming to church, they are the church. Which begs the question, I believe, right? Do you actually realize how important you are? (audience applauding) Do you realize that right now, if you are sitting on the sideline, you don't give, you don't serve, you just sit and soak, if that's you, there is God-ordained ministry. And just to be really blunt, somebody's paying the price for that. And one of those, somebody's is you 'cause you're missing out.

And every week when you come, somebody else is paying for this to happen for you. And somebody else is serving for this to happen for you because you're sitting on the sideline in disobedience. And I love you, but let's go. This is not God's will for your life. And my guess is the less you do, the more critical you are. Here's what I've learned in ministry, armchair quarterbacks do nothing. And the people who tend to criticize the most do the least. I've never been criticized by anybody who is doing more than me, not ever. People who are doing more than me, they just encourage me and they help me and they speak life into me. And so if you're sitting on the sideline, again, I love you, we're all at different places in our faith journey, but it's time to do something. This is fascinating, in the Bible, so in the New Testament, you have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, I'm giving you the books in the New Testament in order. Matthew, Mark, and there's more books following, but Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and then Acts. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the biographies of Jesus. It's Jesus' life and ministry, death, burial, resurrection, what happened? The book of Acts is the launch of the church, what I was talking about earlier in the sermon. And it's fascinating to me that the book is called,

what? Acts. You wanna know why? 'Cause it's about action, brothers and sisters. It's not called pontifications. It's not called ponderings. It's not even called Bible studies, although some of that happened. What's it called? 'Cause it's about what people did. And a bunch of us do nothing. And if I can just be so bold and be your pastor, I love you, get off of your blessed assurance and get involved in the mission of Jesus in the world around you. What does that mean? Give, serve. Well, I don't know what to do something. There's a bunch of things you know to do. You're just not doing it. So let's go. And if you're like, I'm so bored in my life, it's 'cause you're wasting it. 'Cause Netflix is not helping you. I mean, for some of us, that's the most exciting thing in our life. What show's coming on next? You were created from meaning and for purpose and for life on mission with God. And that's why you're bored and dissatisfied

and critical and miserable. I love you, grow up, let's go. Do something. Let me show you this passage description. And most people misunderstand this passage. I'm in Matthew chapter 16. So Matthew's the first book of the New Testament. And beginning in verse 13, Jesus is quizzing his disciples about his identity. But then he's gonna make a turn and he's gonna talk about the church. Here's what it says. When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say the Son of Man is? If you've ever wondered, Son of Man is from the book of Daniel. It's a prophecy about the coming Messiah, the coming Christ. So he says, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" And they replied, "Some say it's John the Baptist. Others say Elijah." In other words, Jesus, you're John the Baptist. Come back, you're Elijah, come back from the dead. And others, Jeremiah are one of the prophets. Verse 15, Jesus asks, "But what about you? Who do you say I am?" And then Simon Peter answered. And I'll just tell you, usually when Peter talks, it's not good. But he gets this one right.

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah. You're the Son of the living God." And Jesus replied, "Blessed are you Simon, Son of Jonah. When you're in trouble or when you did something good, did your parents ever say your first and middle name?" Jesus is like, good job, Simon Son of Jonah. Blessed are you, Simon Son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you're a Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church. The rock there is the statement that Jesus is the Son of God, that he's the cornerstone of the church. And Jesus says that he's gonna build the church. And on this rock, I will build my church. Here's what I want you to see. And the gates of a Hades will not overcome it. All right, so he's talking about the church. And then he says, the gates of Hades will not overcome it. Here's the question, it's not a trick question. Who has the gates? The gates of Hades, it's not a trick question. The gates of Hades will not overcome what? The church, all right, everybody listen. Think with me, Hades is hell. So hell has gates, and the gates that hell has will not overcome the church. Here's what most people think about the church because we don't think biblically.

Most people think the job of the church is just to protect. We're gonna protect each other. We're gonna protect the truth. We've gotta protect 'cause hell's attacking us. But that's not what Jesus said. What Jesus said is that hell has gates, which means the church is on the offense, not the defense. That the church storms the gates of hell to rescue people out of darkness and into the light in Jesus name. And hell can't stop the church. The gates of hell cannot stop us. The only thing that can stop us is apathy or disobedience. And if you're looking around going, somebody's gotta do something. Go. The world's broken. Yes, let's be the church. Because the gates of hell cannot prevail against us. The truth does not need to be defended, friends. It needs to be unleashed. Speak it. Love with it. Walk in it. Proclaim it. And let's change the world one life at a time. This is church. And if you're like, well, what little difference can I make? Remember that 10-year-old boy? You can make a difference in his life.

Who's the one? What's God asking you to do? Give, serve. Don't just come to church. Be the church. I believe. Do you? Let's be the church God has called us to be. Communion is the time where we choose to surrender ourselves to Jesus. We remember his sacrifice and in that, we choose to live lives of obedience for him. At all of our locations, when you came in today, you should have received the elements. They look like this. If you did not, you can raise your hand. Our ushers will bring you that right now. And I'm going to give us about 30 seconds just to pray. What's Jesus asking you to do? What do you need to make right? Choose to live for him. I'm going to give us about 30 seconds for you to do business with God. And then I'll lead us and we'll receive communion together. (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) The Bible says that on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he was with his disciples that suffer.

And he took bread and he broke it. And he said, "This is my body which is broken for you. Take and eat in remembrance of me." (Music) (Music) He said, "This cup is the new covenant established in my blood." By the way, that new covenant is the covenant of grace. It's the gospel. It's good news of great joy for all people. There's a Savior. He said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Make and drink it in remembrance of me." I want to encourage you to go all in on your faith and to follow Jesus with everything you've got and to live out the Apostles' Creed. Next week, we're going to begin a new series. It's called The Tale of Two Sons. It's from Luke 15, this is a great series to invite a friend who doesn't know Jesus. This is a great series to invite them to. We'll start that next weekend, and we'll also celebrate baptisms. Let me pray for us, would you pray with me? Father, thank you for your grace. Jesus, we remember you, and we thank you for your death, burial and resurrection. I pray, as we talked about being on mission with you today, that we would not waste our lives, but that we would be intentional. I pray we wouldn't over-complicate it, but we would just start living for you each day. We put skin in the game we'd give, that we'd put time in the game, that we'd serve, and we'd just start to live on mission, because this is your love for us. And so, Jesus, we pray, and may we be the church that you've called us to be. May it be for your glory, the glory of Jesus, and also for our good. It's in your name we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.

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