This is a rush transcripts.

[00:00:01] Welcome to Chapter two of Compass Bible Church, Huntington Beach. If you want to grab your Bible, opened it up the 1Thessalonians 2. We're now moving into our eighth week and we're getting to our second chapter here. And if this is your first day with us, if you're here for the first time, could you just raise your hand right now? Let's clap for everybody who's got their hand up.

[00:00:22] Let's welcome them. Hey, it is great to have you here.

[00:00:27] Thanks so much for coming. We want to be a family here at this church. And so it's great to have you here in under our easy ups, I would say, at our home. But this is all we got right now is under our easy ups. And so it's great to have you here. I grew up in the Blakey family, if we haven't met. My name is Bobby and I had a brother named Bill and another brother named Ben. My dad's name was Bruce and my mom's name was Berta. We were one of those families. All right. Every pet had to start with a baby boomer. Buster buddy, we had a small first address I ever remembered was Brookside Lane. That's where we lived. And we were the Blakey's. And it was good growing up as a Blakey because we were one of those families where, you know, dad and mom actually loved each other and we actually had family meals together and we would quote movie lines and laugh at each other and enjoy being in each other's presence. And one day we were at dinner and I was eating my peas. And that always took a while and we were talking there.

[00:01:29] And then my brother Bill, the middle brother, he started to talk about how there were these guys that were kind of chasing him and trying to beat him up at school. And at that time, I went to the same elementary school as my brother Bill. And he's like gathers these guys. They chase me every day at lunch. I call them the electrocuting 11 because there's literally eleven guys coming after me. And I was like, are we going to sit here and listen to this nonsense at the dinner table? There are not eleven guys chasing you at school. This is ridiculous. I go to school. I don't see it. Well, that same week there was like some funky schedule going on. So even though I was older than Bill, I ended up having lunch at the same time as him. And I'm sitting there with my buddies, you know, and we're eating lunch bags. They're we're getting our food, our eaten. And I see my brother Bill just taking off across the playground. I mean, he's going full speed bump in arms. And I look and it's like, one, two, three, four, five. There's eleven guys, Chase and my brother. And I'm like, That's my brother, man. You don't mess with him. And I grab my buddy big, you know, sixth grader, black belt gonna be future all American life, man. And I'm like, we need to go save my brother. And we run over there across a playground. By the time we get there, the electrocuting eleven have caught my brother there on top of them. He's at the bottom of a group of guys in a dog pile. And here comes my big friend. And he's just starts grabbing little kids and throwing him up in the air off of my brother. And I get in there underneath the crew and I grab him and I'm like, this is my brother. You don't mess with him. You know, he's my blood. It's like, what's up? I'm tough. Look at me. I'm the big bro, you know, that's how I'm acting. And then my brother, he, like, dust himself off and he looks at the guys and he's like, That's the last time you'll ever catch me. And he takes off running across the playground. And I'm like, Dude, you are on your own. You don't know me. But that idea of being a brother, that idea that appealed to me in my heart that day of like, that's my brother. You don't mess with him. I've got his back. That's actually how we're supposed to think about one another here at this church. I don't know if you know this, but in the New Testament, the way that it refers to a group like us more than any other way is not Christian. It's not disciple. The way that it talks about a group like this is brothers. That's the main way that it refers to us. Look, just look at First Thessalonians, Chapter two, which we're getting into starting here this morning. Just look at the first verse. Look at how Paul addresses the crowd. He says, for you yourselves, no brothers that are coming to you was not in vain. Hey, guys, we have this thing in common. We're kind of all in the same family. I'm gonna refer to you as brothers. I mean, look down at verse nine. He says for you. Remember, brothers are labor and toil. We worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you. Look at verse 14 for you. Brothers became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, verse 17. But since we were torn away from you brothers for a short time in person, not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face. And on and on it goes. He calls this group in this one letter. He refers to them as brothers 19 times in the New Testament. If you add every reference to Christians as brothers, it's over three hundred. Family references in the New Testament.

[00:05:05] He's not just throwing out a word here, there's meaning behind it. He's saying we have something in common. I. Everybody here, we can all naturally relate to what I'm saying right now. We have that family feeling that you're my brother. You're my sister. We came from the same mom. We came from the same dad. That that immediately makes us blood. It makes us tight. It makes us united. That's we understand that concept of family very naturally. And what I want to teach you today, what First Thessalonians two is going to be all about is that we're supposed to have that concept of family here at our new church. That's the kind of relationship we're supposed to pursue with one another that you would look at the other menhir if you're a guy or that you would look at the other women here. If you're a woman and you would say, these are my brothers or these are my sisters, this is my family.

[00:05:55] That's how we're supposed to think about it.

[00:05:57] And and that's gonna be a theme that we're gonna see over the next few weeks. And so I just want to make sure that everybody sees the family connection we have in Jesus Christ, because everybody here who's a Christian has had the same conversation with God. Turn with me to Isaiah, Chapter one. I just want to review what gets us into this family, how you become a part of the family of God. Everybody here, we have a same relationship with God. If you're a Christian here this morning, you've had this conversation that God initiates here in Isaiah.

[00:06:28] Chapter one, verse 18, Isaiah, chapter one, verse 18. Let me just start with you here in the Old Testament. And this is a great verse. If you're not familiar with it, here's this versus like God is speaking straight to you here this morning and God says, come now.

[00:06:46] Let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like Scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they are red, like crimson. They shall become like wool. God saying, hey, I want to.

[00:07:03] Let's let's just kind of think this through. I'm offering you a deal. I want to put something on the table and you let me know what you think about it right now as you come before me. I'm a God. I live in heaven. I'm perfect. I'm holy. You're down there on earth. You have seen in your life you have fallen short of my perfection. So here we are. We're sitting at the table.

[00:07:23] You've got a crimson stain. Here's what I'm offering you. Why does Snow Day, you know that you're guilty. You've got this conviction of sin in your life. Hey, here's what I'm really willing to offer you.

[00:07:34] One hundred percent forgiveness will wipe the slate clean. That'll be all behind us. See everybody here who's a Christian? You've had this conversation with God. Have you not?

[00:07:45] Where you came before him and you were willing to admit to God that I have fallen short of your standard. In fact, I could never live up to the holiness that you have in heaven. And so, God, I want you to forgive me. Please forgive me for that sin.

[00:08:00] Now, once you become convicted of your sin, once you identify yourself as a sinner, there's kind of two things you can do. One thing you can do is you can do what God's saying here is at MIT, your crimson stain and come to him and beg for mercy and forgiveness. Or you can do what a lot of people do is you can say, I got this crimson stain. Let me just kind of scrub that out a little bit. I don't know if you guys are working on laundry. I'm not an expert in the field of laundry, but I am an expert in getting clothes dirty. Anybody else ever have that problem right? Like, you're there and you're having lunch and it's the burger you want and here's your fries and you know, you're bringing your fries to your mouth. And what happens? The ketchup is now on your favorite shirt. And let's get real. That was your favorite shirt. Like you looked good in that shirt. Like, if you're somebody like me, that doesn't happen with every shirt. You know what I mean? Like, today was a good day. And now I got catch up on this shirt. And so you go to the laundry and what do you do? You get that stain remover stuff and you start scrubbing and you almost start to believe like if I scrub a little bit harder, see, I'll get that stain out.

[00:09:06] Do you realize how many people are doing that with their lives?

[00:09:09] You realize how many people know they're guilty before God. And they think if I just try a little harder, if I just do a little better, if I just finally stop doing that thing that I know I shouldn't be doing in this week, I have a good week, then all of a sudden, God, and I'll be OK. That's not the deal that he puts on the table here, because there's only one way to do this. You admit your crimson stain and when you confess your sin, when you turn from your saint. I wipe it completely clean.

[00:09:37] That's how it works.

[00:09:38] Isaiah 64 six is a reference you could write down. It says, our good works are like filthy rags. I like trying to wash your car with a rag that's already soiled and dirty. It's not going to get the car clean. That's what we are. If we just try to. If you're coming to church this morning and you're trying to be a better person, you're trying to do the right thing. That's not the deal that God puts on the table. God puts you admit defeat. You admit you're not a good person. And then I will change you from the inside out.

[00:10:09] Man, you've got this dark stain. Here's what I want. White as snow. White as snow. That's what God's offering.

[00:10:16] And there's only one thing that can change your heart from. From crimson stain to white like snow. Turn with me to first Peter, chapter one. And let's look at this one thing. This is what everybody who's a Christian here has in common. First, Peter. Chapter one. This is this is what washes us from our sins and makes us clean and acceptable before God. It says here. And first, Peter, chapter one, verse 18. Look at it with me first, Peter. Chapter one, verse 18. It says, Knowing that you were ransomed, you were purchased. You were paid for from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things. Nobody bought you with things like silver or gold. Here's what it bought your salvation. Here's what purchased your soul.

[00:11:04] The precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

[00:11:13] So when you come to God with your crimson stain and he washes you as white as snow. There's only one thing that can clean you. And that's the blood of Jesus Christ. Nothing but the blood will wash your sins away. Can I get any men from anybody here this morning? Oh, I hear my brothers and sisters have showed up here this morning.

[00:11:30] Say, what makes you a brother or sister with somebody? You have the same parents. You feel like you come from the same blood. We are the same exact way, my friends.

[00:11:40] If you're a Christian, let me tell you how you got there through the blood of Jesus Christ. Same blood that washed me. Washed you. Guess what that makes us blood. Brothers or sisters in Jesus Christ.

[00:11:51] We're family. See, we were born again with the same blood. In fact, in this passage, look back up at verse 17. Look what it says it before it gets to the blood that saved you.

[00:12:04] Look at the relationship you have with God. And if you call on him as what does it say there?

[00:12:08] If you call on him as what father say who judges impartially, according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. In fact, if you go up even further back to verse 14, it says, as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

[00:12:29] You see what's happening here.

[00:12:31] You have a relationship with God. You pray to him. You say, Oh, father in heaven. And how did you get into that relationship with God? Through the blood of his son, Jesus Christ. If you're a Christian here this morning, you and I have the same dad.

[00:12:45] And we were purchased with the same blood. And I want to suggest to you that the blood of Jesus Christ is a stronger bond that two people can have than any other relationship you could ever have here in this world. Let's get this down four point of one. If you're taking notes, I want you to see that we are all blood relatives in Christ. See that we are all blood relatives in Christ. That's what the Bible means when it says brothers. It's very theological. The blood of Jesus purchased you. It purchased me.

[00:13:16] And we're all now in this together.

[00:13:19] That that's the idea here, that you and I could be a family. Now I'm away here to church this morning. I saw a lot of things that people were do, and I saw people were at the baseball field, a lot of people at the baseball field. Now, if you have baseball in common with somebody. Right, can you have a good time?

[00:13:39] And can you get to know somebody? Yeah. You're on a baseball team with somebody. You can be a good friend. I also drove by the swap meet this morning and everybody else drive by the swap meet this morning. That's what happened in place. Shopping. If you go shopping with people, can that unite you together? Right. Any ladies ever go shopping? Ever go on shopping trips? Feel close to people? We spent money together. We went into debt together. Now we're tight. Right. Ever had to happen? See, those are the things that that the world looks to just start relationships. I'm saying you've got a better relationship with somebody here that you've never met than somebody you play baseball with or shop with because Jesus Christ, he died for you just like he died for them. And that defines your life and that defines their life. You could not even know each other right now. And by the end of today, if you started talking, you could feel closer than anybody you've ever been on a baseball team with than anybody ever went to work with.

[00:14:36] I mean, think about the things that usually unite people. We live in the same neighborhood. We work at the same place. Right. I mean, how much more important is it that Jesus Christ died on the cross for me and for you? And we now have his blood in common?

[00:14:52] We're family here and we got to start thinking like that. In fact, the Bible even wants to elevate your view of family that you would have with brothers and sisters at church to the level of your own blood family. Look at Luke, Chapter eight. Everybody turn to Luke, Chapter eight. And let's get a comment from Jesus Christ on what he thinks about the relationship of his people, the relationship that he has with his people. We have a father in heaven and Jesus Christ even claims in the scripture to be our big brother. That's the intimate relationship that we have with God, and that's supposed to change the relationship we have with each other. Look what Jesus says here in Luke. Chapter eight, verse 19. Look at what happens here in the life of Jesus Christ. Since then, his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. Now, at this time, let's just give a little context. Jesus his mother and brothers, did they believe in Jesus Christ that they at this time? No, they did not. In fact, if you look at the other gospels and how it describes the story in the book, Gospel of Market says that they thought Jesus was out of his mind. They thought he was going crazy because he was always with the people doing miracles and teaching. In fact, he wasn't even stopping to eat a meal. And his mom and his brothers were like this are like he's gone crazy. He's not even taking care of himself. He's not even eaten. He's at this house. He's teaching people. We're going to go talk to him. That's the context here. But they can't even get in to talk to him because there's so many people there with Jesus Christ. And so somebody shouts and look at Luke eight, verse 20. And he was told, somebody shouts, Hey, Jesus, your mother and your brothers are standing outside. They want to see you and Jesus. He flips the script right here at verse 21. But he answered them. My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.

[00:16:41] What? That's not what you would think he would say.

[00:16:46] I mean, this is the perfect son. This is the son who always honored his mother and she treasured all these things up in our heart. And now she shows up with his brose. And his first reaction is, hey, do you hear the word of God and do you do it? Are you a real Christian? Has the power of God's word changed your life? Then you're my mother, then you're my brothers. That's what Jesus wants to say. He wants to elevate the relationships that we would have here at church to the level of family blood relationships.

[00:17:16] That's intimate. Let's just get real, my friends. That's not how a lot of people are going to church today.

[00:17:22] A lot of people, are they going to church and saying, this is my family. I love these people. I got the back of these people I'd die for. These people were blood here or are they, like, kind of keep it in on the surface? I come into church. I go out. Yeah, I kind of know people what kind of Christianity is popular today.

[00:17:39] Here's the idea. If you if you do what God says. You're living your life as a Christian person. You're one of Jesus, his mother or brothers. He says you're a part of the family.

[00:17:51] Go to Proverbs, Chapter 18. Turn with me. Let's go one more passage on this idea to Proverbs Chapter 18. See, even at church, we can say, OK, I guess theologically we're all family here. So, yeah, OK, I'll call each other. Brother, you know, we do that here at church. We say, Hey, brother, how you doing? And we we talk like that. But. But I'm hoping here at this church, we're gonna have closer relationships that we are really going to get to where it feels like. I genuinely believe that the other people here at this church, when I call them brother, I'm not just saying something spiritual. Now, that's actually how I feel about the other men here in my heart. And when I call that woman's sister, it's because we're going through life together. We're sharing our faith together. We're striving side by side for the gospel together, like we could get to where we don't just say brother, because that's a word in the Bible. And we know that's kind of true. We could say, brother, because that's how I feel in my heart about you. And I know we have that kind of relationship. What kind of church do you want to be a part of a church that surfaces and you'd see each other on Sunday and everything's smiling and kind of fake. Where do you want to be? A part of a church where people really get to know each other? What kind of a group do you want to be a part of? Thank you for answering that question. I appreciate that. That was the right answer. The real the real church. Here's what here's the difference. Proverbs 18 24. Here's just a nugget of wisdom to think about here from the wisest man on planet Earth, Solomon. He writes this. A man of many companions may come to ruin. But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

[00:19:27] You want to have a church where you kind of know a bunch of people and it stays on the surface. Or do you want to become such good friends with each other here? That you start to say things like, you know, my church. It's really actually my family. In fact, sometimes I even hear people say stuff like I'm actually closer with the people at church than I am with my own brothers and sisters and father and mother, because we have something in common in Christ that I don't have in common with them.

[00:19:55] Their pastor, Mike, he's the pastor of CompassHB Bible Church down in Allessio video that sent us out here to start this church. And one day he said something that really got my attention. He said, I'm tired of people at church being friendly. People at church shouldn't be friendly. And I was like, what are you saying? Where are you going with this? And he said, people at church shouldn't be friendly. They should be friends.

[00:20:17] So much stuff that happens at church in the name of Jesus Christ is fake. And it's on the surface. And I want to challenge our church to get deeper than that. And to put yourself outside of your comfort zone and to say, no, I'm really going to start acting like the people here at this church. I'm going to try to get to know them as if they were my own brother or sister.

[00:20:42] That's what I want.

[00:20:44] That's what the Bible clearly teaches. Go back to First Thessalonians, chapter two. It gets even. It gets even more intimate than that. Look at First Thessalonians, Chapter two. It doesn't just say this word, brothers, to get us into the idea of spiritual family. It's going to get even further with this analogy. If you look at First Thessalonians, chapter two, verse seven, and I don't know if you're taking notes here. What I want to do is just give us an introduction today to this big concept of the church as a family. So if you can see on your notes, we've got the whole passage that we're looking at. And there's three different spots that we've got in bold, three different passages that we're going to look at briefly, and then we're going to come back and go through them more thoroughly later. But I just want to get the big picture here this morning. First Thessalonians chapter to start with me in verse seven. And this is Paul, a man he's actually writing on behalf of himself, Silas and Timothy.

[00:21:36] And he says, But we were gentle among you describing his relationship with the Thessalonians. We were gentle among you like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.

[00:21:49] So being affectionately desirous of you, so in love with you, so longing for you, so passionate for you. We were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, we didn't just give you the scripture information.

[00:22:01] Now we also shared with you our own selves, our own souls, our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.

[00:22:11] And I'm a man and I try to have close relationships. I definitely have guys here that I would call brothers. I've even had people where I've referred to almost younger men, where I was almost a father figure to them. But I have never once referred to myself as a mother in front of anybody. All right. Not one time.

[00:22:31] I mean, you want to talk about the most intimate way that you could describe how you care about somebody. Let's compare it to a mother with her newborn nursing child. I have absolutely no experience in that department, but I've been blessed to witness that relationship three different times at our house. And there I mean, that is intimate when you talk about a mom and her love for her baby. Can I get name in from any of the women here? All right. There we go. I mean, do you realize what a big deal it is in a woman's life and she's going to have a baby? The process I mean, you get that the Lord has given you plenty of time to think about this in the way that he has designed pregnancy. Right. And so what do we do? We do showers. We go and have a baby registry.

[00:23:17] Right? We do showers where everybody gives you all kinds of gifts. I mean, the room is decorated before the baby's ever shown up and it's the best looking room in the house. Have you noticed that? Right. I mean, it's just like you got a theme and it's got this elaborate decoration. I mean, we had someone come before our first child. We had someone come and paint the Winnie the Pooh storybook world all over the wall.

[00:23:43] You know what I mean? And we were just sitting there be like, this is gonna be so precious. Right. Fast forward a few kids and it's like, I will put them over here, you know? You know what I mean? Right. But I mean that that when that baby is born. Right. And you even like you even put that baby right there on and on the mother. We've had some babies born recently here in the life of our church. In fact, we have the best cry room in Orange County. Do you guys see what we got? Let's say hi to our new families out there. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. We got Ford. We got Hunter here. Very exciting stuff that that's going on at our church. And Dustin, he was talking about the incubator. Right. The incubator is a way that you're trying to make it feel like mom. It's like technology's version to try to make it feel like what it feels like when the baby goes on. Mom.

[00:24:32] That's what it is. That warmth. See that care of mom cradling the baby to herself. That's what he's talking about here. Now, this is Orange County. This is the year 2014, and I'm a man, that's way too much emotion. That's way too much intimacy for our culture. For what makes us comfortable.

[00:24:54] For me to start saying that, I would feel about the people here at this church like a mother cradling her newborn baby towards her breast, like that's how intimate the relationship would get here at this church.

[00:25:07] That's what he's talking about. That's the analogy the man Paul wants to use. I am so affectionately desirous of you.

[00:25:16] I love you, is what he said.

[00:25:20] I mean, can you honestly say, I know we're just getting started and we're just getting to know each other, but maybe at the church you were at before, if you if you're just diving in with us and this is your first church. Can you honestly say that you're trying to love the people here? Is that your goal?

[00:25:32] Is that your end game here to get to know people that will become so close they could hurt you? You would feel bad for them. If something had happened in their life that hurt them, you would take their pain. If they were going through a hard time, you would bear their burden like everything a mom wants to do for a baby.

[00:25:51] Is that what we're signing up for here at church? Because that's what the example is that we're looking at from the scripture. I'm so affectionately desirous of you like a mother with her newborn babe. Point number two, let's put it down like this, we need to love the new lives God gives to us.

[00:26:10] We need to love the new lives that God gives to us. So we got people praying here at this church. We got a whole team of people there are praying all the time for what God's going to do here at this church. And here's the kind of things we're praying for. We're praying that new people will show up every single Sunday. So if you raised your hand, this is your first time. You might not realize this, but people have already been praying for you. All right. And we're praying even more than just that. People will come. We want to see people get washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. We want to see people get cleansed from that crimson stain and have a new relationship where they can call Godfather and they can be blood brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. Can I get any man? Is anybody here praying that people will get saved here at this church? Anybody praying that at all? OK, we're praying that. Now, here's what you're saying. When you pray that, though, that means if you're asking for God to give us new life, bring new people into our church, save people that come to our church, make them new creations in Jesus Christ, make them born again. If you're praying that, then here's what you better be able to do. You better be ready to love those people when God gives them that life.

[00:27:17] You better be able to welcome those people and greet them in the name of Jesus Christ when God brings them here to the church. Sometimes I've seen people get rallied up and fired up and we're going to pray for God to save. And then you know what he does? He saves people. And then guess what? I see that new saved person sitting all by themself in church.

[00:27:36] It's like, where's the motherly love, where's the person that's treating this person like a new baby? And they're going to care for them and they're going to work with them.

[00:27:45] So we got to write down a word here under point or two, we got to write down this word hospitality. See, we don't know what this word means anymore. Hospitality, we think that hospitality today means that we're having donuts from the dough nuttery after the service. That's what we think. Right. Like one one week in our water over there. We've got, you know, this church. We go all out. We give free water away every Sunday. Right. And one week in our water, there was cucumber and and oranges and lemons in the water. Did anybody see that? And it was like, what great hospitality here at this church. That's what we think it means. All right. Well, we think oh, it feels like a day spa. Wow. You know, hospitality has nothing to do with food. It has nothing to do with the fun shway of your living room. When you have people over in the scripture, hospitality means one thing to love strangers. That's what hospitality means.

[00:28:34] It means to love strangers.

[00:28:36] It means you walk through the not the door of our church. You walk through the gates of our church. Right. You walk through the gates of our church. And I treat you like you're my brother. Like you're my sister. I don't know you, but I love you. Like you're one of my people. That's what hospitality means. And so, Amen, I encourage you, keep praying. God will bring more people here at our church. We got plenty of room for them to sit. Keep praying. To bring the people. But then maybe get here a little bit early and get ready to stick your hand out and get to know these people to love them.

[00:29:10] And that mother, she loves that new baby, that new life, cradling it into her arms, holding it close to her. That's how we're supposed to treat each other here.

[00:29:19] And then let's say God does the miracle of not just bringing somebody to church. What if somebody today after this sermon says, I want to be washed by the blood of Jesus Christ? I admit my sin. And I want to be cleansed from it. I want to be a part of the family of God that you're talking about. When me. Would that not be awesome if that happened here today? OK.

[00:29:38] Now, that person is a spiritual infant. OK. I mean, that could happen to somebody. They don't even know the Bible. They don't even know there's an old and the New Testament. Right. I mean, that person, they're going to need someone to come alongside them and nurture them, cherish them.

[00:29:56] Probably talk with them on a daily basis, helping them figure out the Christian life. We've got this one on one discipleship program. Partners, where you meet at least once a week is the idea for 10 weeks and you take them through the basics of the Christian faith, like every new Christian needs, that level of discipleship, that one on one relationship to help them grow. Who here is ready to disciple a new Christian? Because we can pray for all the new Christians we want, but God, if he's a good father, would only bring them somewhere where we're actually going to take care of his kids. See, so when I pray that God will save people, what I've got to be ready to say behind that is I will work with the person that you save and I will encourage them and I will show them what it means to be a Christian by my example.

[00:30:44] I will teach them what it means to be a Christian from the Bible. I'm ready to give my life completely to another person that you will save. That's what you're saying.

[00:30:53] And now we see why a lot of times we pray for people to show up and we pray for people to get saved, and then we're kind of wondering, hey, I didn't really see it happen like it was hoping. Well, here's the problem. We're not ready to love those people.

[00:31:06] And why would God give us people if we're not ready to love them?

[00:31:11] And when when somebody is born into a family, one thing that happens sometimes when when a kid is when a kid is born but the older brother or sister starts to resent the new kid. Anybody, anybody ever experience that in a family? You don't need to raise your hand if you experience that right. But I hear about that happening.

[00:31:31] Isn't that sad? As a parent, when one of your kids starts to not treat one of your other kids, well, how does that feel for you, Dad? Right. One of your kids, your older child is ignoring your younger child. How does that make you feel that. That's how God feels when we don't take care of the new people that he brings to our church and the new Christians that he's Savon all around us. We got to love them like a mother loves her children. Go to John, 13. I mean, love is such an important thing that we need to talk about our love for one another.

[00:32:07] And John, 13, if we're gonna start talking about loving one another. John, 13 is where we want to go. John, 13. Look at verse 34. Here's what Jesus says. Hopefully, if you've gone to church for a while, you're familiar with this passage. If you're new to church, this is great because you maybe haven't had bad experiences and you can see what the church is supposed to be right here in these two verses. John, chapter 13, look at verse 34.

[00:32:32] Look what it says right here. It says, a new commandment I give to you. This is Jesus talking on the night before he died. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another.

[00:32:43] Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people everywhere in the world will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

[00:32:57] Jesus says, hey, I want to tell you something new. Love one another. Now, that doesn't sound very new. In fact, that was an old commandment you could write down if you're taking notes. Leviticus, chapter 19, verse 18. I don't know if you think of Leviticus as the love book of the Bible, but the first place that you're commanded to love your neighbor as yourself is Leviticus, chapter 19, verse 18. So this was a very old commandment. So why does Jesus say, I want to give you a new commandment? Well, here's what's new about it. Now, you're supposed to do it like I did it for you. Now, I've given you an example. Now there's been a demonstration of love. And here in John 13, if you know the context Jesus before he said this, he washed the disciples feet. OK. Now, they didn't have cars and they didn't have Nike's. They were they were wearing sandals and they were walking on dirt everywhere. And so it was customary when they would come into a room like the upper room where they were going to have this big dinner the night before Jesus died. It was customary there would be a servant to wash everybody's feet because the way that they ate back in the day is they ain't lying down. They reclined. And so your feet might be in some other dude's face. And so it was very important that everybody's feet would be clean if dinner was going to be a pleasant experience. And so there's supposed to be a servant washing everybody's feet. But in this room, there was no servant.

[00:34:18] And so who gets down on his hands and knees and gets with the grimy toes, warts and all of the disciples say, Jesus Christ.

[00:34:30] He doesn't act like what you guys are here to serve me, in fact. Which one of you is the newest disciple? See the disciples. They were always trying to get this, like, ladder of who was the greatest. And they were always trying to rank themselves and they were always trying to figure that out. Here's what Jesus says now. I'm going to serve you.

[00:34:44] I'm gonna wash your feet. And we know even better than these guys that demonstration of Jesus cries. No, I'm going to die for you. I'm going to take your sin on my shoulders and pay your punishment for your sin so that you could be forgiven. That's the love of Jesus Christ.

[00:35:04] Now he says, here's how you can know if you're a Christian. You're going to love other people like I've loved you. So who are you passing on the love of Jesus to?

[00:35:17] Who are you treating like that person is more important than myself, that I would die for that person, that I would show up and do grimy work to serve that person. Who can you say that you love now, I guess?

[00:35:31] I bet the answer that you're saying is you love your who.

[00:35:35] Who do you love your family, your spouse, your kids. But here's the thing about Jesus Christ. He says you're going to love more people than your natural family. You're going to love my family. And that's how people are going to see that there's something different about this group of people. Right here is that we don't just love our own. We love those who belong to Jesus Christ. We love one another. Are you going to be a part of sharing that love here at this church? We really need you to. We need people who are going to show up here on Sunday and talk to each other throughout the week and put other people as more important than yourself and really learn how to love each other. I want to be a part of a church like that. Do you want to be a part of a church? Like, the best way to be a part of a church like that is to be a person like that. Say. Or you're going to love other people as more important than yourself.

[00:36:31] Turn with me, first Corinthians, Chapter 13. I mean, I'm I'm really excited about our church. I mean, the first seven weeks. God's already answered so many prayers. He's already brought some of you to be a part of this family. God's already doing some great things. I can't wait to see what God is going to do. I'm hoping someday God's going to put us in a building. I'm hoping he's going to keep growing. People that will come most of all. I can't wait to see people God's going to save and lives that are going to change. I'm pumped. I got big hopes. I got big dreams for what God's gonna do here at our church. But we just got to start with this first Corinthians, chapter 13, verse one. If God does amazing things at our church but we don't have love, then it's like nothing has happened. See, look at First Corinthians 13. Verse one says, If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels and I can impress you with all my words, but I have not love. Well, I'm like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. I'm just like a drum sound. All right. I mean, I'm I'm obnoxious first, too.

[00:37:32] And if I have prophetic powers, I'll tell you amazing things from God and understand all mysteries and knowledge. And if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. And if I give away all that I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing. I mean, do you understand what that saying if someone gave away everything that they had. We would think what an amazing person. If someone gave up their body to be burned. If someone here was a martyr for Christ, we would all say that person was my hero. That's amazing. Look at their faith. And it says here, if you do something without love, then it's like you've done nothing at all.

[00:38:18] Even if you did the greatest thing you could think of. Give it all away, die for Christ if it's not out of a heart of love for your heavenly father who saved you an out of love for his other people that he has saved. Then it's like you've done nothing. So we can come here and we can talk about the Bible and we can feel spiritual and we can go to our small groups and we could talk more about the Bible and show other people how spiritual we are. We could set up, we could tear down, we can go evangelize. We can do it all. But if we don't love each other, then it doesn't mean anything to God. One thing that we got to make sure we get right at this church. We have to love each other. Our love for God overflows to. I care about you. And there's more. Go back to First Thessalonians, Chapter two. The analogy is, is not done. One more thing we got to see here this morning in First Thessalonians, Chapter two, hopefully you're seeing the importance of love here at our church. But then he gets even deeper into the family analogy and he says in First Thessalonians, chapter two, verse eleven for, you know. And remember, he's always appealing to this relationship that they have this experience that they've shared. You know how like a father with his children. We exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom in glory. Okay. Now we've got the whole family here at the table of First Thessalonians two. We started out as brothers. Then all of a sudden, he was talking like he was their mother. And now he says and I was also like a father to you.

[00:39:59] See? I was the example to you.

[00:40:03] I was the one who instructed you, who counseled you. That's the idea here. If you look at verse 10, look at First Thessalonians two, verse 10, he you can see he's again talking about being an example. You are witnesses. And God also, everybody can see it. How holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers? And then, you know, I was like a father to you.

[00:40:29] I had the privilege of growing up with a dad that I can relate, that I can relate to in this passage. I don't know how many of you guys had a dad you could look at as an example, a dad who actually taught you the Bible. I'm finding less and less of those kind of dads in America today. But I was blessed to have a dad like that dad that I could look at. And he lived a certain way that I could follow in his steps and he would take me aside and he would talk to me. In fact, if you grew up in the Blakey house, there was not one day in the Blakey house where dad did not say, all right, family, let's get together. And the Bible was not opened and read. And someone did not pray in our house. Oh, you think? Well, maybe you didn't do it on somebody's birthday. No. If it was a birthday, we took extra time for the Bible. Maybe you missed it on Christmas and you went straight to the president. No. If it was Christmas, Dad had someone in the family prepare a sermon to preach to the rest of the family. That's how it was at the Blakey house. Like, we're going to die on one hill. We're gonna do one thing here at this house. We're gonna f I'm the data. This house is for me and my house. We will serve the Lord and we're gonna talk about what he says in the Bible and we're gonna do what he says in the Bible. That's how it worked. There was really no other option for me growing up than to do what Dad was telling me to do was the best possible way that you could grow up.

[00:41:52] And I'm really concerned. We're using the family analogy, the scriptures using the family analogy for how we're supposed to love one another here at church. I'm so concerned that we don't even know what a family is anymore in America that next Sunday we're going to leave First Thessalonians two and we're gonna take a whole Sunday just to look at God's picture of the family, because I think we don't want to assume that anybody knows who her dad is or who a mom is or what kids are supposed to do.

[00:42:19] So we're gonna go over the whole thing together next Sunday. Does that sound like a good idea to everybody? We need to review what a family is. Because when you do family, like God says to do family, guess what? You end up with a happy family. When you do family, like the world says, guess what? You end up with divorce. You end up with kids who can't wait to get out from the parents house. You end up with people who don't talk to each other. Oh, yeah, that's my dad. I haven't talked to him for years.

[00:42:47] Is that a common story? That's America.

[00:42:51] So we've got to get back to what a family is. And Dad is supposed to be this example that is supposed to be the Bible teacher of the home, the pastor of the family who walks with his kids and tells them how to live. He takes what he's learned and he passes it on to the next generation. Let's get that down for point number three. You need to pass on what you know to the next generation. And I'm not preaching the family's sermon yet here. OK. That's next Sunday.

[00:43:18] No, he's saying in the church. He was like a father to them, instructing them, being an example to them. So here at church, you're supposed to take what you know about Jesus Christ and you're supposed to pass it on to children, to people who are younger in their faith than you, who know less than you. You're supposed to take it and you're supposed to pass it on. That should be a goal for everybody here that you would be doing some kind of ministry at our church where you were passing on, not just setting up easy ups, although we need that kind of ministry, not just cutting the donuts. We need all of that. But to where you're doing the kind of ministry where you're talking with someone about your relationship with your father in heaven and telling them how to have a relationship with their father in heaven, where you're being a spiritual father figure to somebody.

[00:44:08] Like they're learning how to be a Christian by following you.

[00:44:13] Whoo hoo hoo!

[00:44:14] On the day Jesus Christ comes back and he gets all of his people together. Who's going to say I was discipled? And they're gonna put your name in on the end of it. Who's going to claim that you made them a disciple of Jesus Christ?

[00:44:30] That should be your goal.

[00:44:32] That you want to have that kind of investment in somebody else's life and something you guys are like. Well, I don't know if I could do that. I don't know if I know enough right now to help somebody else. Well, this is a great time then to seek out an example for yourself and to really try to go to make sure that you are someone who's learning about Christ, who's living for Christ, someone that somebody else could follow. This is a time for you to really grow if you're not there yet. But the truth is, you know something about Jesus Christ more than somebody else.

[00:45:03] Because it starts it starts like with kids. You probably know more than some of the kids in our two, three, four year old room right now. You could sound really smart and biblically authoritative if you went in to our two threes and fours and started teaching the Bible. Right. If we got the kidney gardeners and we sat you down, I would imagine you could blow their minds with a couple of fun facts from the scripture. Okay, then, if you want to know my story, here's how I got started doing.

[00:45:33] Ministry, kids, ministry, good ol vacation, Bible school. Right. Just trying to get them to listen, which usually involved bribing them with candy. And then quickly throwing a Bible verse on the end of it. Anybody else ever done that before? That's how I got started. Next thing you know, they were saying, hey, we want you to teach the junior high. That was tough. That was tough. I came to my first junior high surman I ever did. I came and I was like, guys, I'm going to blow your mind today. Look at what this says here. It actually says this in the Old Testament in five different places. Let's go look them up. And I'm like, look at this. Look at this. Look at this. Isn't that exciting, guys? Nobody cares. You know what I mean? And we still got 30 minutes left on the clock. Welcome to Junior High Ministry. You know, I mean. Then eventually, somebody offered me a job full time to do high school ministry and to preach to young people the Bible. So I started doing that and the group started to grow. And all of a sudden I had all these college age young people saying, hey, we need more by Bible teaching. And I started running the college group, too. Next thing you know, now I've been promoted, I guess, to adult level. And here we are talking here this morning. Say, that's it, just you find somebody where you can tell them something that they don't know. And you start doing it. Don't worry about being in the right spot. The Lord will get you to the right spot. You just start passing on what you know about Jesus Christ to somebody else.

[00:46:58] I mean, if you're a Christian, you at least know how to be a Christian, so you could pass on to a non Christian the gospel of Jesus Christ. Right. Everybody here should be a part of making disciples go to Philippians. Chapter three with me, Philippians, Chapter three. Here's a here's a great verse that we need. We need many father figures. We need many examples in our church. In fact, I would suggest to you that our church can only grow as much as however many good examples we have in our church. That's really how big our church can be, is how many how many men do we have that men can follow the example of? That's going to be the size of our church right there. And so Philippians three, verse 17, puts it like this.

[00:47:42] It says, Brothers, there it is again. Three hundred times, brothers join in, imitating me. And keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. I mean, you've heard the phrase it takes a village to raise an idiot. Everybody heard that phrase before, right? Well, it takes a church of godly men to to set the example for the for the younger people in the faith. And I'm not necessarily talking. You might have somebody that's actually older than you in age in their first birth, but they're younger than you in age, in being born again. You might even have to end up helping somebody who's older than you. But you've been walking with the father longer than they have. You know dad better than they do. And so you need to help them out. So let's talk about spiritual life. Here's a passage that we need to do at our church. Hebrews Chapter three. Let's just end with this together. Hebrews Chapter three, verse 12 with me. I mean, it talks about a dad. What dads are supposed to do, according to Deuteronomy six, if you come back next Sunday, will get into this full steam.

[00:48:47] But what dads are supposed to do is they're supposed to teach their kids the law and they're supposed to do it not just in like an official Bible time, but they're supposed to do it when they lie down and when they rise up, when they go out, when they come in. Dads are just supposed to constantly be talking to their kids about God and sin and the scripture. That's just how dads are supposed to roll. That's the idea in the scripture.

[00:49:09] And it says here in Hebrews three that if we're supposed to be full father figures to other people in the church, we're supposed to always be talking to one another and exhorting one another.

[00:49:19] Hebrews chapter three, verse 12 says, Take care, brothers. Just I'm just just trying to point out something. Take care, brothers.

[00:49:28] Let's there being any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall the way from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

[00:49:47] See, here's something my dad did every day. He wanted to talk to me about the Bible. It's not like he told me once. And then he expected me to know it every day. He wanted to talk to me because here's what my dad saw about me a little bit. Maybe this guy's not getting it 100 percent. So he could use a little reminder. That's how we're supposed to think about each other.

[00:50:06] Like you're here at church. You're telling me you're a Christian. We're getting to know each other in home fellowship group. And I'm starting to think about you like you're my brother. I'm starting to think about you that I. I love you. And I'm here in your testimony of how God saved you. And I'm getting to know you. And I'm thinking I really like this person. It's so exciting that I get to go to church with this person that God's bringing us together. I'm starting to have family kind of feelings with people at this church. I know some of that some of that's the way you guys are already starting to feel about each other here.

[00:50:35] And you're supposed to have this thought in yourself. I mean, wouldn't it be terrible if this person that I'm getting to love my brother or sister in Christ, would it be terrible if they stopped coming to our church? Would be terrible if they fell away and they didn't really want to walk with the father anymore and they went back to their old life that they told me God saved him out of. Wouldn't it be terrible if they started doing those old sins again?

[00:50:56] And I do not want to see my friend fall away. And so I exhort them every day.

[00:51:02] It says here, man, I'm wondering maybe somebody in my small group, maybe they've got that evil heart of unbelief where they're going to end up going back to their sin. And so I get on the phone with them. I get face to face with them. At least I text message them and I try to encourage them because I don't want to see them fall away from the faith. Ever talk to a parent whose child they thought was saved and has fallen away from faith in Jesus Christ?

[00:51:30] Never had that broken hearted conversation with mom when her precious little baby has grown up, is going off the deep end into sin and doesn't want to talk to her anymore. Saying that's how we should think about one another.

[00:51:47] That would be so concerned for your soul that I would love our fellowship and our family here at church so much, I would never want to see you go back to sin. I would never want to see you fall away. So at random times throughout the week, every day I'm hitting you up. How you doing today? Hey, here's a verse. I was thinking about you today. I'm leaving you. I'm calling. Even if I know you're not going to answer, I'm believe in you. Voice mail, encouragement.

[00:52:11] All right.

[00:52:13] That's the idea. Are we going to be the kind of church that sees each other once a week? Are some of you going to be like the Advanced Placement, AP Christians and go to small groups and see each other twice a week? Or are we in this every day like a family here at this church?

[00:52:28] Exhorting one another every day, I can't stop thinking about you guys. I love you. That's what we're looking for. Now, at the Blakey house, we did something because family also has to be fun, so we had this thing called Family Fun Night. And one night of the week, you knew that we weren't going to do anything else usually actually at our house. It was on Friday night. And somebody got to pick the meal. They got to give you the entire menu, anything they wanted. They got to pick what our family was going to do. We did. We did stuff like lame stuff like mini golf, bowling, watching movies that we'd seen 10 times already. Families stuff, say. So I'm calling for our churches first family fun night. We're actually going to have it this Friday night. Now, not everybody can choose the menu. But but here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna have dinner together this Friday night. I mean, I'm inviting our whole church to come. Then we're gonna play games, okay? And we're gonna have a pie baking and eating contest we're calling a fall fest. All right. I want I think that we should come together as a family. In fact, if you want to bring something, bring pie. That sounds like a good gathering. You like I can't bake pie. Two words for you. Marie Calendar's all right. You can still even submit it into the pie baking contest if nobody here can bake a pie better than Marie Calendar's. You win.

[00:53:48] All right. That's what we're doing. All right. We're gonna have family fun night this Friday night. Everybody's invited. We're going to, in fact, pull out your your bulletin here and you'll see what's what's going on. You've got all the four one one right there.

[00:54:03] You got a little map of where Murdy Community Center is, where we're going to be starting at six o'clock to eight o'clock on Friday night, starting with dinner. We're gonna do a fun game boost for the kids if you got kids. Have them dress up. You can dress up if you want to. We got tons of candy. You guys have been so generous bringing candy, and we're gonna give a we're gonna give away candy and we're gonna have a pie baking and eating contest. It's going to be fun. And if you want this to be your church family, I hope you'll come and join us. And I hope that's the way it'll start to feel for you around here as people welcome you and love you like we are brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. In fact, there's a little card there. If you want to get there early and help set up or you want to be a part of cooking dinner or you want to just help us tear down when it's over. There's ways you can sign up to serve. You can put that at our Compass Connect Table after the service. But we're having our first event, our first family fun night on Friday. And we would love to have you there. Let me pray and then we'll continue some time of worship. Please pray with me.

[00:55:01] God, we thank you so much for the vision of church, a family that we get to see so clearly from how Paul describes his relationship with these, Thessalonians got what it would have privilege that we could be brothers and sisters in the blood of Jesus Christ. What a privilege that we call you our Heavenly Father that sinners like us could become before a God like you. And instead of having a crimson stain that we could be as white as snow before you because of the precious blood of your son, Jesus Christ. And now we can all have that that salvation in common. And we can look at each other and we can really love one another passing on the way that you have loved us. And we can treat each other here is more important than ourself. We can feel like a mother does for her newborn baby, like a father does for his kid that he wants to see. Stay on the right track. We can have that kind of family relationship here at this church. God help us to get past the surface, help no one to remain comfortable and closed off in private. God help us to open up. Help us to reach out. Help us to extend that. That right hand of fellowship and get to know each other. Maybe become a part of a small group. Come out on Friday night. Ready to get outside of our comfort zone and meet people. God. May we may we cry in the future as we think about the love that we have for brothers and sisters here at this church that we don't even know yet? Make us a family guy. We pray this to you, our heavenly father and our brother, Jesus Christ.

[00:56:37] Amen.