On This Rock | Ps Joshua Long

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to the Newman Church podcast. Wherever you are in the world, we are so glad that you've joined us. Our prayer is that this message will reveal more of who our heavenly Father is as we grow deeper in intimacy with Jesus. Enjoy the message. [00:00:14] Speaker B: Amen. Is anyone excited to be in the house of God today? I will always ask that question because if we are living and breathing, we should be excited. I don't know if y'all understand what I just said. If we are living and breathing, we should be excited. And if you know Jesus as your lord and savior, the house of God is everywhere you go. I'm going to say that again. If you believe and have accepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, then the house of God is everywhere you go. A lot of times we get caught up in the building and we forget that he's coming back for his church. Not a building, but his church. And we are his church. So when he says, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord together. Yes, in that reference context, we're talking about a building because it tells us not to forsake the gathering of like believers. So we are supposed to gather in a building or in a room in a house. But we need to remember that the joy of the Lord is our strength and we should be joyful to live and know that he is living inside of us. Now with that all being said, I'm going to talk about on this rock and it's very exciting for me to have the privilege of leading and working the vineyards here in north with all of you. And I always want to honor Pastor Glenn and Pastor Lynn for just being spiritual parents and being the disciples and leaders of this house. And so I never want to go a day where I get to stand before you guys and not honor you, because I do honor you in that. Speaking of Pastor Glenn, he put a post up that really inspired me a few weeks ago. He talked about some pronounce it ekklesia and others pronounce it ecclesia. Depending on if you're from the deep south country like I am, where we say ecclesia, and then you have the probably proper way of ekklesia. It all depends on if you have a degree or not a degree in fancy or degree in common. But I just wanted to hit a few of those points that he spoke about. But then, you know, if you want to get a deep dive, just go to his facebook page. He put a great post breaking down how important it is for us to recognize the word ekklesia. And so it's a greek term translated as church. And so we have to understand that the word breaks down as out of or from and then to call. So if we put that together, it's the called out ones. So we are the called out ones or an assembly of called out one. So when we talk about the church, there's so many definitions that people have and they go, oh, you know, this church is the best church. I'm a part of Numa or I'm a part of, you know, new Bethel. I'm a part of, you know, bedside Baptist. I'm a part of whatever, you know, like it's always talking about the building. Have any of you ever been to bedside baptist church? It is amazing. They have pillows. Get the name bedside baptist bed, you're in your bed. American joke, dad joke. Ah, didn't cross over too well. But with that being said, you have the local congregation. It often refers to a specific local assembly of believers. For example, the church in Antioch, you have universal church. It can refer to all believers collectively. For instance, church. Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. That's what I was talking about earlier. We as the collective body of Christ. Then you have the general assembly. In some context it simply means a gathering or assembly, not necessarily religious. And then you have the example of that in acts 19 it refers to a legal assembly of citizens. And so there's this big tension sometimes when we talk about church it's, you know, do we go to a church building or do we go to home church? Is God going to move in the church building or is God going to move in the home church? And it's not one is better than the other. It's both and it's both and, and when we talk about the church and we talk about the initial movement of God in acts two, when the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples, and when the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples and they all received power and anointing, they left the upper room and they went out. And the Bible does not tell how they gathered. It simply says when they witnessed and gave the gospel of Jesus Christ, 3000 were added. It didn't say they did a Billy Graham conference. It didn't say that they went out and said okay, let's invite everyone at the same time to our homes. Or it just simply said they were given power and then they went out and shared the goodness of God. And what happened? And the result was 3000 came to Christ in one day. And since then the number has continually to add so I want to ask you today, whose church are you building? Whose church are you building? Are you building your church, or are you building his church? Now, you guys know that my degree is in psychology, and I like to stir up things. So I'm going to ask, by show of hands, who's building your church? Show of hands. Oh, that's really good. No hands were raised. Hallelujah. Now, who's building God's church? Show of hands. Can I be cheeky? Shame on you all. Shame on you all. Because in the Bible, there was a conversation between a man by the name of Peter and Jesus. And Jesus was asking the question, who do men say that I am? And, oh, you know, some say you're this, and some say you're that person. And some say you're that person. And Jesus was like, who do you say that I am? And Peter said, you are the Christ. And I love when Jesus looked at him and responded and was like, you know, that could only be given to you and downloaded to you from my father above. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now, when I said I was going to be a little bit cheeky and we all raised our hands and said that we are building his church, I want to say to you, we are nothing. He is building his church, and we are to partner with him in expanding his church. It's so scratch. It's like sandpaper sometimes, because we go out and we say, oh, but, you know, I'm a part of this church, and I got to help build what God is trying to do, and I got to go do this, and it all falls on me, and I got to do. And we become this martyr type image. If I don't do it, then it doesn't get done. If I don't wake up early in the morning, and if I don't stay late at night, then the church won't grow. If I don't do, if I. And it becomes to this point where you go, hold on, stop. Pause. Whose church are you building? Because the scripture says in corinthians one, corinthians 311, it says that for no one can lay a foundation other than which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. So if we're trying to build a church on our skillset, our knowledge of God, our ability to sing, dance, do sound, do lights, do kids ministry, do ushers, do hosting, do preaching, do what's next? Do everything. All things in one. I'm sorry. We will always fail. Because the last time I checked, as a believer in Christ, I need to try to do everything according to the word. And when his word tells me that building the church has to be upon the foundation of the cornerstone and the cornerstone is Jesus, then that's who I want to stand on. That's what I will promote in all things. It may get quiet in here. I've just started and I'm going to go a little bit deeper. The next part of foundation of the church is at the apostles teaching. It says in Ephesians 220, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus himself being the cornerstone. So we do have the ability to have gifts. So we, yes, we have the apostolic gifting, we have the prophetic gifting, we have the evangelist, we have the teaching, and we have the pastor. Right? So all of these the shepherd, if you want to go straight scripture, right. But even in that, it's not to build yourself. And even if you have those gifts, it's not for your self promotion. It's to equip the saints and it's to edify, not you, not me, but him. The thing that I'm trying to get to you guys, is that when we are trying to do God's job, Jesus responsibility, we will always fall short. We will have this thing where they call it, I believe in the church world, they call it burned out. I've gotten burned out. It seems like every time I now serve in church, I just get tired and I need to take a break. I'm sorry if I'm ruffling some feathers, but that's okay. Some of those feathers that are getting ruffled need to be plucked out so a new one can grow in. It's called a new revelation, a mind shift and a change. Because for those of us who have nine to five jobs, or three to eleven, or whatever hour shift that you have, you don't go, hmm, I'm a little burnt out from my job. I think I'm going to take some time off. But for some reason, when it comes to serving in the church, because we've taken the mindset that I have to do it, I have to do it. And then we start working and striving and doing all of this, and then we get burned out and we find ourselves in a predicament to where it's like, oh, well, the church is taking advantage of me. Oh, I got church hurt. And some would say church folks are the worst folks. And it's simply because we have put an expectation on man or woman to be all or do all or to make us feel a certain type of way instead of depending on our relationship, relationship with Christ. I'm going to go a little bit deeper. When we have a human centered approach to building the church, we rely on our charismatic personalities. And you got to understand, this is a constant. I will say this was a battle for me, that the Lord is most definitely keeping me humble. Like, I, Kelly, will tell you, there are some things that, you know, I do say, and I'm just, oh, gotta stay humble. Oh, stay humble. That's like my little reminder. It's kind of like jiminy cricket on my shoulder going, stay humble. Because the way that I grew up, I grew up in a good old country, pentecostal tongue talking, foot stomping, you know, hand clapping type church. Jesus getting us ready for that great day, that type of stuff. Right? And, I mean, when you grow up in that type of environment, just from my experience, you start learning things. So, you know, you learn how to play drums, you learn how to play guitar, you learn how to play keys, you learn how to sing harmony, you learn how to sing lead, you learn how to do, you know, all of the things that you do on the platform, and it becomes to this point where you become very charismatic, to where you're like, oh, I'm used to being in front of people. I know how to say this and get their attention. I know that when I lean like this and talk like this, it begins to change and shift some things. But the reality of all of that, I don't talk like that in a normal day to day conversation. So why is it that I turn that on? Notice the phrase turn that on, that charismatic thing to keep your attention, to draw your attention. To who? Not him, but to me, focusing on entertainment and spectacle. I can't get no help up in here. But when we get so focused on all of the lights and the camera and the action and the, we're going to start like this, and when we start like this, we're then going to transition in chord change to this, and then we're going to also bring out some people, and the singers are going to walk this way when they do this line, and then, you know, they're going to jump and cry. We get all into this spectacle of we have to do church this way. It becomes a performance, and then we mask it with this phrase. Well, we have to operate in a spirit of excellence. We must operate in the spirit of excellence, because if we don't operate in the spirit of excellence, then people know that we're not good. Well, the focus is not for you to try to be good. It's for you to be used by the Holy Spirit and the spirit of excellence, if I could say, is actually you having a heart that is surrendered to him and every and all things that you do. And yes. Should you practice? Yes. Study to show yourself approved. That is practice. Know your lyrics, know your parts, know the sequence of. But when it gets to the point to where this, this, this. Oh, that didn't go right. Oh, we're in trouble because we are now trying to build something that is not meant for us to build. Can I say the word idle? Let's go to the next one. When we are human centered church builders, we prioritize numbers over spiritual growth. And this is a challenge as a church plant for north location, Melbourne, north location. And because of the auditorium that we in every week, we as leaders. And when I say we as leaders, I'm actually talking about all of us. Not just Pastor Glenn and Lynn and myself and Kelly and Jared and the rest of the team, but all of us. We come in and we realize that our banners stop at, like, row seven. And we realize that it's so dark up there and it's all these empty seats. And then sometimes we look to our left and right and we realize that there are empty seats beside us, and we just go, man, if only our numbers could grow, man, if we could just get an average of 200 people, man, what would that do for our church? We would just change. And it is such a challenge because, yes, we do want the auditorium to be filled, but our heart's desire should be that the auditorium is filled with people who were lost. They heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then they were encouraged to go on a discipleship journey. And a part of that discipleship journey was, hey, if you're not doing anything on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. there is this place at Montmorency Secondary College that they're meeting and gathering with people that believe, like you and I. Now you want to come be a part of that? Oh, what's going on? Oh, well, you know, I can tell you this. They're singing. There's happiness, there's coffee, there's high fives. There's all this type of stuff, like, you just want to be in the room. That should be the reason that we look around and go, man, we got to get this auditorium filled. Not for, you know, New Haven Church around the corner. They've been around for four years. And they only have 47 people. We've been around for eight months, and we're going strong at 160. Come on, we can do better. That's not the motive. The motive should always be how many lost people, how many people have had a, what we call church hurt, which really is just, they had their feelings hurt or something happened to them when they were a part of a different church and they deemed the entire church evil because of an experience with one person. But they need a hospital, and this is a hospital. It should be a hospital. Last time I checked, if I was needing healing and everything else and encouragement, I want to come to where other people can look at me and say, j long, I don't know what's going on. But you know what? You came to my mind, you came to my heart, and I just want to pray for you. You don't even have to tell me what's going on. But if I do tell them, it's still that encouragement of knowing that they're going to pray for me in that moment. And then the power of God moves and I'm healed. Does that make sense to anyone? Because here's the thing. When we are building from a humanistic, man focused desire, we are building on sand. The Bible says in Matthew 724, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man, but who builds his house? Who builds his house on a rock? So we now have to venture into the Jesus method of building his church. One of the ways of building a church through the method of Jesus is through faithful proclamation of the gospel. [00:23:00] Speaker C: Thank you for joining us. We hope that you enjoyed today's podcast, and we realize that not everyone has had the opportunity to respond to the good news of the gospel. And for this reason, in all of our services and platforms, we want to extend to you the opportunity to follow Jesus. The Bible teaches us that we have been created for a relationship with God. However, sin, which is essentially disobedience, independence and disbelief, or us simply missing the mark, entered the world and separated us from goddess. Romans 623 says that the wages of sin is death and a debt was owed. And the Bible tells us that he, Jesus, demonstrated his love for us, that while we were still sinners, he died for us. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. John 316 says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave us Jesus, that whoever believes in him will be saved. All that is required of anyone is that they believe in Jesus. The son of God who came, lived, died and rose again so that we could be forgiven, made right and given the right to become children of God and to have life forevermore. With today you can begin a relationship with Jesus. To believe in him is to simply to respond with faith in our hearts and confess with our mouths that he is Lord and we do that through a simple prayer. Follow along with me dear Jesus, I believe that you are the son of God. I thank you that you love me and came to forgive me of my sin. I repent from my old way of life and I turn to follow you. I receive the free gift of eternal life and I ask that you fill me with the Holy Spirit so that I can live a life of following after you. I thank you that I am born again as a child of God and that I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. Amen. If you prayed this prayer for the first time, we would love to connect with you and connect you to your next step and the local church in your area. You can contact us on our website at Numa Church. Thanks for listening.