world change 101 Original

I'm Chad. I'm so glad to be here and if you are a first time guest with us, I am too. And so we'll fit right in. But before I get started, before I tell you a little bit about ourselves, I wonder, is anybody in the house excited to be a child of God in this place? Are you excited about that? Yeah. Hey, I love to see, I love to see all of our students. You guys are getting ready to go for a whirlwind trip and we're excited about what God is doing in your life and, and we are praying for you guys as you guys go hop on buses in a little bit because you guys are going to interact with Jesus that is going to rock your world and change your world. So thanks Mike and his entire team. Who leads those guys. Glad to have you here. Let's give him a hand, guys. Hey. So I am Chad and I am privileged to be here. I have the privilege of working with churches literally all around the country and just, I just believe that the hope for the world is the local church. And churches like North Phoenix, we're the hope for Phoenix, right? I mean we talk about that. And so I'm privileged to work with churches and help them turn around and help them grow and help them be healthy in all different sorts of ways. I get to work with other nonprofit organizations and schools and all kinds of stuff. And so I'm privileged to do that. I am in Mesa right now working with the church over there and I love those guys. Trinity Church is just blowing up. A huge revival has taken place and in fact many of those guys are watching online. So we want to welcome everybody who is watching us online today. We are so glad you are here. Those of you in the coffee cafe, we are all jealous of you. So enjoy a latte on our behalf. So let me tell you a little bit about ourselves, about myself before I open up the word today. Here is my family. Let me show you a picture of my family. Teresa and I, we've been together about 11 years, so to speak. We have three kids. This is a couple years old. I had a little more hair back then. This is a couple years old but we have a 10 year old, a 5 year old and a 3 year old and two of my kids are over enjoying the kids ministry right this moment. So that's a little bit about my family. North Phoenix has actually been home for me and this was a place here about, I don't know, 13, 14, 15 years ago. I actually called North Phoenix home. I was going through A pretty difficult season of life. And a friend of mine invited me to come here, and I found a home here. And there was a guy by the name of Jim Hellman. He was a pastor on staff back in the day. We loved Jim. And when I was going through a difficult season in my life, he put his arm around me and walked me through those particular turbulent moments in my life. I had a chance to teach for a little bit. We had a single adult group called 242. You used to meet over in the. Anybody from 242 here? Yeah, there we go. We got one person. Okay, one person. Did you guys get married there? Okay, okay, okay. But we used to teach 242. I also used to play piano for this service, for the contemporary service. I used to play piano with Robert and Robert, and we had a good time. But we love North Phoenix. So when I got the phone call to ask and come help us and see if we can do something to reach our world for Christ, I was ecstatic. And I said, absolutely, yes. I fell in love with your staff. I mean, John Shillington is one of my favorite guys in the world. The new active lead pastor. He rocks. Yeah, we have a great staff. I was privileged to get to know Pastor Jason, What a blessing that guy is. Now, he told me that he was going to tune in and watch the service live today. And so I was here a couple weeks ago. I snuck in and saw you, and. And he did something that was really interesting. You ready to do it with me? What did he do? He went, right. And then he gave you a blessing. Ok. And then you tucked it away in your heart. So since Pastor Jason is watching live today, I thought we would return the favor. So here's what we're going to do. In a minute, I'm going to invite us all to stand. And there's a camera right there. You see the red light on it? We're going to all look to him, and we're going to give him a blessing today. So we're going to stand up, we're going to do our hands, and I'm going to repeat. You're going to repeat something after me, and we're going to give him a blessing. Are you good with that? Let's stand up. Let's stand up and sit up. Okay, you ready? Okay, you ready? Here, take your hands. Take your hands. You ready? And. Okay, repeat after me. Pastor Jason, we're pressing on. We're moving forward. We're advancing his kingdom, and you are, too, for the glory Of God. We love you, Pastor Jason. Alright, so remain standing. Remain standing. Remain. Remain standing. Stay up. Stand up. Stay up. Stand up. Stand up. Remain standing. Remain standing. While you're standing, I want to ask you a question. I'm going to dive into the word of God. But while you're standing, I want to ask you this question. Why is it when you said yes to Jesus, you gave your heart to Jesus Christ? Why is it at that particular moment he didn't come and hit you with a proverbial Greyhound bus and just whisk you off to heaven? I mean, wouldn't it be better? I mean, guys, come on. No more balding. That would be great, right? No more backaches. That would be. Ladies, no more bunions. Okay, some of you, no more dentures. Okay. No more 110 degree weather. Wouldn't have that been awesome. Yeah. I mean, why is it that when you said yes to Jesus, he just didn't kill you and take you to heaven? The reason is, it's because we have a job to do. You have a job and I have a job. And I want to read some scripture today and I want to show you as the apostle Paul frames your job and my job. So let's remain standing for the reading of God's word. And it's in the book of second Corinthians, chapter five. It says this. For Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. Now if you are a believer, this is the core of what we believe. This is the foundation of our truth. And he died for all that, those who live. So in other words, as long as you have breath, you should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. So he is going to change our paradigm. He is saying your paradigm is changing from temporal, temporary to eternal. Though we once regarded Christ in this way. So in other words, we used to look at Jesus as temporary, but now we know he raised from the dead and he is eternal. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone, the new is here. All of this is from God. Who is this from? It's from God. So Paul is telling us this isn't his words. This is God's words. This is from God who reconciled us to himself. That word reconciled means to bring two warring parties and bring them together. Two enemies that come together and join the same team. He reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us. Who did he give? Everybody, say, me. He gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to Himself. And he divines that for us, not counting people sin against him. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though. As. As if. As though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you, on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. May God add His blessings through the reading of His Word. You may be seated. All right. So for 2,000 years, that's a long time. The church has existed for one reason and one reason only, and that is to change the world. Don't you want to change the world? I mean, wouldn't that be awesome if you and I could gather together and literally change the world, how much significance would that bring in our life? And if we could change the world, to me, that would be pretty awesome. And the only reason why God didn't kill you and take you to heaven after you said yes to Jesus was because he gave you a ministry. He gave you an assignment, and that was the ministry of reconciliation. And if you think about it, everything that we do as a church, everything would be better somewhere else. For instance, I mean, I thought the worship today was rocking. Wasn't that great? I mean, Robert and his team, they do an awesome job. But do you know when. Do you know when worship is going to be even better than that? I mean, one second after you croak, right? You die. You are off to heaven, man. Worship is going to be awesome, right? What about you say, well, yeah, maybe teaching. You know, I love Pastor Scott. Pastor Scott is one of our teaching pastors here. He does an incredible job. I love the podcast him and watch him. But as good as Pastor Scott is at teaching, you know when we are going to have the best teaching in the world? One second after we croak, right? We are going to get to hear from Peter and from Paul. It is going to be incredible in heaven. Well, you say fellowship has got to be the reason, right? We even have a fellowship hall here. But do you know when fellowship is going to be better than it ever is going to be? When we get to see each other. Come on, when is it? One second after we. After we croak. It is going to be awesome. We get together on the banquet table of heaven. It is going to be pretty amazing. In fact, there are only two things that we can do in heaven. Excuse me? There's only two things that we can do on earth. That we can't do in heaven. You know what they are. We can't sin and we can't bring people to heaven with us. So one of those two things frames the purpose of the church. Either sinning or taking people with us. And Jesus said this. Jesus said this in the book of Matthew. He said, I will build my church. And the gates of Hades, the gates of hell, the gates of death will not prevail against it. Right? That's what he said. Is that right? It couldn't have been what he said. The reason is because the word church wasn't even invented until 300 A.D. and Jesus said this in the mid-30s. So if it wasn't, I will build my church. What was it that Jesus said? There is a pretty significant word there. What was it that Jesus said? And this is sort of the crux of where we are going today. So tune me in here now. I want to look at that word church just for a moment. Now, I don't know what you think about when you think about church, but I know in the first century they didn't think about pews. They didn't think about rows. They didn't think about robes or hymnals or bands or liturgy or Bibles or banners or really cool red T shirts or camps. They didn't think about any of that in the first century. None of that. Here's what they did think about when they thought about church. They thought about this Greek word. It was called ekklesia, and it means an assembly or a gather. So Jesus said, I'll build my ecclesia. I'll build my assembly. I'll build my gathering. And. And that's what the gates of hell will not overcome. Into the first century, the church was simply a gathering of people. It was a people who came together around one belief, that Jesus was the risen Christ. He was the son of the living God. He saved us, he reconciled us, and he gave you and I the ministry of reconciliation. That's what they thought about in the first century. So in other words, what they said was, something happened to me and I just need to go tell the world about what happened to me. And the church wasn't political. In fact, what we know as the word church is actually the word. In fact, I got corrected this morning. It's the word kirsche. It's a Greek word. It's a German word. Excuse me. And you can see it on the screen, the word kirsche and what it means. It means an address or building. It's where we get the House of the Lord. Ok, we get the house of the Lord from that comment. How many of you have heard a pastor say, my dad was a Baptist preacher. And he said, well, welcome to the house of the Lord. You guys ever heard that? Don't bring coffee into the house of the Lord? You ever heard that? And what we've done is we've made this place the church. But this isn't the church. This is just a building. This is just an address. And what happened back in the three hundreds when they coined this term church? The church became a place rather than a movement. It became a place rather than a gathering. And it became tamed. It became localized. And what happened was whoever controls the building, whoever controlled that building at that particular moment, they controlled the people. And whoever controlled the people controlled the theology. And so the bishops of England back in that time, boy, they did some really weird things and they began controlling us because they made the commoners think that church was a place we go. But church is not a place we go. Church is people we know. That's good. You should write that down. Church is not a place we go. It's people that we know. See, the church has always been designed to be, you and I, a movement, a gathering of people who are on fire for God. Now, here's what happens when we become an institution as opposed to a movement. You know what happens? Power and control set in. And power and control have always haunted the church. Did you know we didn't have business meetings until the church became a cursia? And you know what? Business meetings, I don't know about you. I know we have one coming up in a few weeks. Be honest, they are no fun unless a fight breaks out. Right? That is when business meetings are fun. If somebody is going to fight, we want to go to them. Other than that, they are pretty boring. Well, what happens is when we become a Kirscha as opposed to an ecclesia, we get off mission. But there has always been a group of people. There has always been a remnant of people who saw to it that the church moved forward. There was always a group of people who fought through the politics. There's always been a remnant of people who said, you know what? We're going to stay on mission and we're going to stay focused and we're going to see the kingdom of God multiplied throughout the earth. And I'm wondering if there's a group of people here, here at North Phoenix Baptist Church who will say, I'm the remnant. I'm the group of people who are not going to let power or let politics haunt us or control us. I'm the group of people who's going to say North Phoenix Baptist is not a building, it's not a campus, it's not a place we go. I am North Phoenix Baptist. I am the church of God and I will represent God to the fullest in the community. I wonder if there is a group of people in here who could get excited about something like that and say, that is me. I am that person. Yeah, Paul said it this way. In chapter five, verse 20, he says, we are therefore Christ ambassadors, as though God himself were making his appeal through us. Now, what is an ambassador? An ambassador is one who represents the interest of the one who sent him or her. So in other words, what they do and what they say are those things that are done and said on behalf of the sender. For instance, anybody like Denny's in the house? Okay. Denny's is an interesting place, ok? For a few years I pastored in Southern California, just right outside of la. And we did a turnaround church there and we had tons of fun while we were there. But every Sunday morning I would get up and I would go to Denny's and I had a little routine. I'd go into Denny's about 5 o' clock in the morning and I would do the same thing. I'd order a cup of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal. Breakfast of champions, right? Cup of coffee, bowl of oatmeal, week after week after week. And it got to the point where I got to know everybody in the place because I was the only one in the place at 5 o' clock in the morning, okay? And so I'd go there and it was. Oftentimes I would show up and they'd have my coffee and my oatmeal for me on the table. And except for my last Sunday there, I went in and they had a new guy and the guy said, you know, and I had my table that I went to every week. And so I walked in and I went and sat down at my table and the waiter comes over and says, I'm sorry, sir, you can't sit there. I said, why? Because the place is like too full or what, you know? And so he moved me and I complied. And I went over there and he goes, what can I get, you know, to order? And I said, well, I want a cup of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal. So it took him a little while, but he finally got me a cup of coffee. And I took one drink out of it and. And it was lukewarm. Have you guys ever had lukewarm coffee? I mean, you know, Jesus, when he said that, you know, if you're neither hot nor cold, I'm going to spit you out of my mouth. He must have had a cup of lukewarm Denny's coffee when he said that. It's the most terrible stuff ever. So I went back to the waiter, I said, hey, you know, this stuff is pretty lukewarm. Can I get another cup? And it took him a while. He finally brought me another cup and I drank it. It was nasty. It was lukewarm. And I said, man, this stuff is really cold. Oh, and by the way, I don't have my oatmeal yet. And he says something really funny. He goes, well, you know what? We're out of coffee. I'm like, it's Denny's, for crying out loud. It's five o' clock in the morning. My guess is there's going to be a lot of people coming in for breakfast and they're going to want coffee. A few minutes later, you know, he came back and I still hadn't got my oatmeal, and I was getting on him a little bit, and he said, well, you know what? Our chef is actually out back on a smoke break, and you're just going to have to wait until he gets back from the smoke break, then I'll get you the oatmeal. Listen, did the waiter or the chef owned Denny's? No. But I made my decision about Denny's based upon the actions of the chef and the waiter, because the chef and the waiter are ambassadors of Denny's. And because of that, I left there and I've never gone back again. Right. Now, here's the thing. I ragged on the Denny's food earlier in the first service, okay? And a lady and a husband came up to me and they shook my hand and said, oh, Chad, you know, we love almost everything about your sermon, but we own six Denny's in North Phoenix. So I won't say what I said about the food. You'll have to watch it online. Okay? But I did have open heart surgery. That's all I'm saying. Okay, here's the thing, guys. People are making decisions about the local church based on your actions and mine. You and I are the ambassadors of Jesus Christ. And people are making decisions about church and about God and about Jesus based on what you and I do and based on what you and I say. So what we say, and what we do, obviously is important, but you know what happens? You know what happens? A lot of times, guys, Paul said that he gave us the ministry of reconciliation, and we are not to hold the sins of others against them. That's what he said Jesus did for us. But you know what happens is a lot of times people will look at our church, they'll look at the organized church, and instead of us, you know, not holding the sins of people against them, we become a little judgmental. I'm going to talk to us a little bit about that. But listen, what we do matters because people make their decision about whether they want to be with God or not based on what you do. And I do. Young people, listen to me. You're down at your school, and you just think you're at your school trying to get an education, hopefully graduating so they can call your name when they sing. Dun, dun, dun dun dun dun. Do you know that it's not an accident that you're at that school? It's not an accident. You know what you are? You are God's ambassador at your school. You're the ambassador of God where you are located. And he has supernaturally and strategically placed you there because he wants to use you in a significant and magnificent way. So what you say and what you do matters. It's important because you're an ambassador of God. And Paul says that we are an ambassador who God is making his appeal to the world through us. Now, what are ambassadors supposed to do? Look at the book of Luke. I want to show you this. Luke, chapter 14. Jesus said, Go out quickly into the streets and the alleys in the town and bring in. Everybody say, bring in. Bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. Sir, the servant said, what you ordered has been done, but there is still room. Then the Master told his servant, go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in. Why? So that my house may be full. He's saying that as ambassadors of Christ, as we go out there, we have to compel people to come in. Now, that word compel is awesome. It's actually a Greek word. I'm probably mispronouncing it, but it's the word anacatso. And here's what it means. It's a very strong word. It means to persuade strongly. It means to urge. It means to constrain. And that verb, anacatso was used multiple times throughout the New Testament. Jesus used it in the Book of Matthew, chapter 14, where he was talking about making the disciples get into the boat. He anacazoed them. It was used by Paul when he was referring to himself as Saul in the book of Acts 26, where he said that he tried to force people. He anacazoed them to blaspheme. In Acts 28, Paul says that he was forced, he was compelled, he was urged. He had no other course than to appeal to Caesar during a period of conflict. It was used regarding Titus in the book of Galatians, chapter two, where they were trying to force. Anacatso tied us to be circumcised. Anacato is a strong word. What are we to do as ambassadors? We're to compel people. We're to force people. We're to woo people into knowing who Jesus Christ is. Now let me see if I can illustrate this. I love food. Can you guys tell? Yeah. I don't know if you're like me, but do you have weight problems? Do you struggle with that? Do you, like, go up and down in your weight? I do, but in every time I'm on a diet, I'll go to the mall, and there's a place in the mall called Cinnabon. You guys ever had Cinnabon? Oh, my gosh. And I'll be walking and I'll be about a hundred yards away from Cinnabon, and all of a sudden, that aroma begins, Anacatso in me. It just begins wooing me. It begins drawing me, it begins compelling me. It's just taking me in. And all of a sudden, man, I'm like, Toucan Sam. I'm like, follow my nose. It always knows, right? And I'm going there. And that smell, that aroma, the cinnamon, that glazed. Let's just take a moment. Hallelujah. You know, it just woos me onto them. And here's what I do, okay? It's so compelling, it's so forceful, it's so strong that what I do is I take out my credit card and I throw it on the table and I eat that. I devour it before she even rings me up, I devour that thing. And then I feel terrible about myself, right? And then I'm all regretful and aggravated. I'm like, oh, why did I do that? You know, I'm just all frustrated and aggravated. Why? Because it anacatso'd me. It compelled me. You know what? Your love for Jesus and your life should be so magnetic and so woo oriented that when we go out into the world, we anacatso people to Jesus, they're like, you know, I don't Know what it is about you, but there's something different. And your life is just attractive to me. You know, I don't know what it is, but you're Anacatso and me. And we build relationships with people. And when we are the ambassadors of Christ and we begin compelling them, Jesus Christ uses that in a significant and supernatural way. Young people, I hope when you go to camp this week that you learn the power of Anacatso. You know why? Because look at us. We are old, right? We are all old. And when this church gets on track and we begin taking Phoenix over for the glory of God, we are going to try. But you know who is going to do it? You are. Because you are a lot more Anacatso, a lot more compelling, a lot more wooing than we are. And God can use you in amazing ways. So we are praying that the anointing just falls off all over you and that he will draw people and compel people to Christ because of you. Anacatso. Now let me tell you a story about Anacatso. I want to tell you about a girl named Isabel. When I pastored, I told you about the church I pastored in Southern California. And this was an interesting church. When I went there, the church had gone on about a 35 consecutive year decline. They were about in the mid-3000s back in the 60s and 70s. And when I got them, there were 140 people. 70% of them were over the age of 70. OK? Our church was the third oldest church in the entire state of California and about half the charter members still belong to the church. It was one of those churches. And we began believing that God called us there to help these people see that if you're not dead, you're not done, ok? And that God could still use them to Anacatso to compel people to. To Jesus Christ. And so we said we wanted to do something interesting. And so we did a series called the New Rules for Love, Sex and Dating. Remember my crowd? Ok? So we were going to have to woo some people that that was even relevant to, ok? If it was even going to be beneficial. So my creative team got together and said, pastor Chad, if we are going to do this, then what if we go where the people that we want to come are? So we took advertisement in all the bars and in all the nightclubs. Okay? I know Baptists don't know anything about that. Okay? We took advertisements out at the bus stops outside of those places. And one night, there was a Saturday night before the series started and there was A girl named Isabel. Now, Isabelle did not look like the people in our church, okay? Isabel was. She had stock in every piece of piercing known to man, ok? I think her whole body was pierced, the whole thing. She would have given TSA people a nightmare. Every inch of her body was, like, tattooed. Her eyebrows, you couldn't even see them. They had no hair because they had piercings everywhere. And Isabel, she was at a nightclub and she had a little too much to drink, and a guy got a little frisky with her, and she wasn't appreciative of that. So she decided to leave. And on her way to her car, she realized that she had too much to drink and that if she was going to get behind the wheel of a car, chances are she was going to get pulled over and arrested. So she thought better of it and she took the bus. And when she was sitting at the bus stop waiting for the bus to come, what was there? It was a poster that Anna Katzoed her. It caught her attention, and so she took a picture of it with her phone. She gets on the bus, and while she's doing it, she's searching through it, and she realizes that the website we had on there was actually a sermon series for a church. And she says, well, my roles for love, sex and dating are obviously broken, so maybe they have something good to say. So the next morning, she got up and she drug herself to this church. Something incredible happened that day. Isabel didn't look anything like the people in the room. In fact, everybody looked at her when she walked in the room. God compelled her, wooed her, drew her under himself. And that day, Isabel bowed her knee and she gave her life to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now watch this. Watch this. Isabel was the manager at the local Jersey Mike's. She leaves church, she goes down to Jersey Mike's, tears, you know, all running down her face. She looks at everybody. She says, listen, next Sunday, we're opening an hour late and all of you are coming to church with me or you're fired. So Isabel brings all of these people down with her to church, and by the end of the series, six of them gave their life to Jesus Christ. And we baptized all of them in this amazing moment in the life of our church. What did she do? Well, after she threatened to fire them, she anacatso'd them. She compelled them, she wooed them. She said, jesus did something in my life, and I think he can do something in your life. And how are we going to reach Jesus? Or how are we going to reach Phoenix? For the glory of God. We're going to recognize what God did in our life and we're just going to get out there and we're going to not keep our mouths shut. And we're going to tell people, we're going to anacatso them and say he can do that for you as well. It's the ministry reconciliation and we are ambassadors of Christ. Now let's talk about this. What is God's objective through this whole process? Jesus said, I have come to seek and to save lost people. Right? If you are here in this place and you haven't given your life to Jesus Christ, the whole reason of our existence is for you. And you are not here by accident today. You are here intentional. You are divinely placed in this place to hear the word of God. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And we believe with all of our heart that you are here and, and God is going to forever wreck your life for his glory. We believe that because that is the objective. That is God's objective. Well, what's the strategy? The strategy is the local church. I will build my church. I will build my ecclesia, my people. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. But what is the tactic that he uses? The tactic that he uses is transformational relationships. Look at Isabel's life. God's objective was that Isabel came to know the Lord. The strategy he used the local church. But six other people came to know the Lord through a transformational relationship. We called those relationships oikos. Everybody say oikos in the time that I have left today, I want to talk with you about this particular topic because oikos is incredible. Oikos is a Greek word and it means house or household or circle of influence. In the first century Greek, those people would look at the word oikos and they wouldn't be talking about their bricks and mortar. I showed you a picture of my oikos earlier, my family, right? But in 1st century, oikos spread even more than just husband and wife and kids. Anyone that you interacted with would have been considered in your relational world, your oikos back in that particular day. And what we know it is these relational. It's these trans transformational relationships that God has always used as the primary instrument to multiply his kingdom. It's these relationships that God uses to change and to transform the world. It always has been, even from the beginning of time. And we believe, and I'll teach, that God has supernaturally and strategically placed a group of people in your life. Psychologists tell us that's somewhere between eight and 15 people that God wants to use the one thing that they all have in common to bring unto Himself. You know what that one thing is? It's you. And I'm not trying to be arrogant when I say this, but do you know what the best thing that ever happened to your 8 to 15? They met you because inside you resides the living God himself. And he gave you the ministry of reconciliation. And just as he freed you from all of your shame and he freed you from all of your guilt. And he says, now go home and free other people. Tell them about a God and a Jesus who can free them. Oikos. It's how God has always changed the world. In fact, almost every illustration in the New Testament where someone came to know the Lord, guess how they came to know the Lord? Through an Oikos. In fact, research tells us Campus Crusade for Christ did. The research tells us that 95% of everyone from the beginning of the church and 95% of people who call Jesus Christ Master, Lord and Savior called him that through a transformational relationship. And I'm going to prove it to you in just a moment. But let's look at the New Testament. Let's look at the oikos situations in the New Testament. In the Book of Mark, after healing the demon possessed man, Jesus told him specifically, he said, go home to your family. That's the Greek word, oikos. Go home to your oikos and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and and how he has had mercy on you. A little bit later, following Zacchaeus conversion, you know, the wee little man, Jesus reflected on what had just happened. And he said, today salvation is going to come to this house. He is not talking about the bricks and mortar. Last time I checked, houses don't need Satan. He was referring to a group of people. In John chapter 4, when Jesus healed the politician's son, John said that he and all his household believed his oikos. When Jesus called Matthew to be his disciple, Mark recalled that while Jesus was having dinner with Levi at his house, his oikos watch this. Many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him in his zoikos. In Acts chapter 10, we see the first example of a Greek of a Gentile coming to Christ through Cornelius and the angel. When Peter was talking about the angel, the angel reported this. He says he will bring you a message through which you and all your household will Be saved, referring to the Gentiles. So you and I have salvation today because salvation came to the household of Cornelius. The story goes on in the Book of Acts, chapter 16. You may remember the story of the Philippian jailer, right? The big earthquake came and people were escaping. He was getting ready to kill himself. Paul and Silas stop. And he called out and said, what must I do to be saved? And they told him the very next line. The very next line says he and his entire Oikos household were saved. And the understanding that we have in the New Testament was, it's not bad theology that says just because the dad got saved, everybody else got saved. The idea was, is that when Jesus wrecked their life for the glory of God, that they couldn't contain it. And they went and told everyone that they knew. And those people, too, just like Isabel, gave their life to Jesus christ. It's how 95% of us have come to know the Lord. It's powerful. It's Oikos. Now, Jesus says this. Jesus said, go ye therefore, into all the world and make disciples, right? That's known as the Great Commission. A little bit later, he gives us the Great Commandment. What's the first word of the Great Commandment? Love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, etc. So the first word of the Great Commission is go. The first word of the Great Commandment is love. As ambassadors, how are we going to reach our 8:15 for Christ? Pretty simple. We are going to go love. Chad, it's got to be a lot more complicated than that. I mean, don't I have to go to all of these discipleship classes and learn something? No, no, no. I don't think the Philippian jailer spent two and a half years in, in a discipleship class before his people came to Christ. Discipleship for him was, I can't wait to go love these people and tell them what God did in my life, and he can do it in theirs as well. How are we going to reach our school for the glory of God? What are you going to do? Say it with me. You are going to go love. It is as simple as that. How are we going to bring the love of Jesus Christ to the heart of our city? We are just going to do that. We are going to go love. How do we reach our 8 to 15? We go love, love them. That has always been, always been, the story of Christianity is we go love people. Now, I don't know if you are anything like me, but I went through a period of my life that I'm a little ashamed of. Don't like to tell the story a lot. And there for a while, I wore a scarlet letter. Ok? And what I found when I wore a scarlet letter, when I went through some difficult things, I had some churches do just the opposite of go love. You know what they did? They went and judged. And some of you are in this place this morning, and you're here and you're wearing that scarlet letter. You made some really dumb mistakes, bad decisions. I want you to know, what Paul said and what I teach and what I think this church stands for is that when you give your life to Christ and he covers you by the grace of God, just as in our passage of scripture, he does not hold your sins against you, we do not hold your sins against you either. And instead of forcing shame upon you, and instead of judging you, we love you, we accept you just. Just as you are. See, people are going to come through these doors, hundreds of them, thousands of them. They're going to come here and they're going to check us out. And do you know, when they come here to check us out, they're really not looking for a cool worship band. They're really not looking for relevant, practical teaching. They're really not looking for a great atmosphere. They're not looking for the best kids program or the best student program. You know what they're looking for? They're looking for a pardon. They're looking for somebody just to tell them, I love you, you're accepted, you're welcome, just as you are. And that is so compelling. That's what brought me back to church. A guy named Jim Hellman, North Phoenix Baptist Church, loved me just as I was. He's given you the ministry of reconciliation. Now I'm behind time, so I got to wrap this up, but I want to show you why Oikos is so compelling. Because Jesus built the relational universe and he knew where permission would be granted the most. OK? And you have relationships already with your 8 to 15, and no meaningful conversation has ever taken place without at least two people's permission. If you are married, you already know that, right? If you have teenagers, you definitely know that. And so you, you know, we were down. They had the super bowl festivities a few months ago, right? And we went down there and. And there was these guys with these 12 signs, turn and burn, baby, you're going to hell. And I just. I don't know. That just doesn't for me. But even worse, one time I was a basketball referee and I was down at Mason Community College. We were reffing a tournament. I had four games that day. And in between a couple games, I, you know, I drank some water and I had to use the restroom. So here I am, I run to the restroom in between games and I'm standing there at the urinal and there's a divider and another guy comes and he stands at the urinal right beside me. And while he's standing there, he looks over the little divider and he says, excuse me, sir, if you died today, would you go to heaven or hell? I said, I don't know. But if you don't get your head back over there, I'm going to send you to one of those two places. Okay? It was just weird. It's just creepy, right? Because no meaningful conversation ever happens without at least two people's permission. And this is why the way that God is going to expand his kingdom and grow his local church is, is through Oikos. Because we already have permission. That is why you came to Christ. In fact, show of hands, don't raise it yet. How many of you would say, chad, it probably was Oikos that brought me to Christ. Hold on. It was my mom or my dad or my grandma or my grandpa who brought me to church, who did devotions with me or who prayed with me. Or perhaps they brought me and they introduced me to a pastor. Or perhaps somebody in my Oikos paid for me to go to kids camp or go to student camp. Or perhaps somebody just knew that there was a guy speaking in town and they just had to get me there. How many of you would say, yeah, Chad, it was someone that I already knew that was influential in me coming to Christ. Let me see your hand. It was one of my oikas. Yeah, 95% of the time. And it's always been that way. I have asked that question in hundreds of churches and in different environments all around the world. And you know what? We get the same exact response. Because that's just the way it happens. Oikos. Now let me wrap this up. What do we want you to do? Starting a brand new series called Multiply. We've got some incredible things planned for you this summer. Listen, if you are going on vacation July and August, cancel those plans because you are not going to want to miss it, ok? Especially the month of August. It is going to be radically awesome. We are going to do some things for you to draw and compel in Anacatso. Your Oikos to come, ok? So I am doing my Best Anacatso with you right now. Here's what we want you to do. Take the Oikos Challenge. We want you to make a list of your 8 to 15. Who are they? We want you to pray for these people every single day. You need to make sure you're here on Saturday, June 27th. We're going to teach you how to do all of this stuff. It's going to be incredible. Third thing that we want you to do is we want you to do life with them. Invest your life into theirs. It's very difficult actually. It's impossible to change a world that you're not in. The fourth thing is, we want you to invite them to church regularly. Invite them, invite them. Bring them to Bible study, Bring them to church. Bring them to your small group. You guys have an event, go bring them to it. You got them to camp, bring them to camp. Bring them to youth group. Bring them, invite them. Fifth thing is, we want you to prepare yourself to be used by God in a significant way. This is what discipleship is all about. Why do we go to all those classes? Why do we do all of these things? We do that so God could use us and build in us so we can be an ambassador of Jesus Christ. And then finally we're just going to let God do the rest. You know why? Because you've never saved anybody and neither have I. Oikos. It's powerful. Let me close this with reading you a poem if it's okay. It's a poem called the Pit. A man fell into a pit and he couldn't get himself out. A subjective person came along and said, I feel for you down in that pit. An objective person came along and said, you know, it's illogical that someone would fall down into that pit. A Christian scientist came along and said, you only think you're in the pit. A Pharisee said, only bad people fall into a pit. A newspaper reporter wanted the exclusive story on the pit. A fundamentalist said, you deserved your pit. Confucius said, you know, if you had listened to me, you would have never fallen into the pit. Buddha said, a pit is only a state of your mind. A realist said, that's a pit. The scientists calculated the pressure necessary to get him out of the pit. A geologist taught him to appreciate the rock strata within the pit. A tax man wanted to know if he had paid taxes on the pit. The council inspector asked him if he had a a permit to dig the pit. An invasive person came and avoided the pit altogether. A self pitying person said, you know, you've not seen anything until you see my pit. A charismatic said, just confess. You're not in the pit. An optimist said, things could get worse. A pessimist said, things will get worse. But Jesus, seeing the man, he knelt down and he reached his hand out and he grabbed the man and he pulled him out of the pit. And that's your story? That's my story. God didn't leave us there. He radically saved us. But grace was never designed to just vanquish and evaporate with us. He designed it, and he put some people in your life so you could go home and you could tell people what it was that Jesus did for you. It's Oikos. And that's how he's always chosen to multiply his kingdom.