Well, welcome to church. I always say that when I get up here,
church is my favorite part of the whole week. Church is my favorite
thing in life. Even I'm a little church mouse. I told you last
week. I'm a little church mouse. Church mouse. And we are starting
a series. We started last week and we're continuing to go right now,
and it's called the My Church Series. Can you tell it's everywhere right?
If you were a little confused, just move your eye a little bit and
then you'll get clarity. But the My Church Pathway, I'm going to talk
to you a little bit today about the my Church Pathway. Our goal here
at New Horizon is that each of you would begin to absolutely love church.
Oh that's better. I want you to love church. And the reason I
want you to love church is because Jesus loves church. Jesus loves church.
God loves the church, and you are the church. And it's amazing.
So but our church, of what we talk about right now is my church.
This is my church. Can you say that this is my church?
Can you say that? We want you all to step away from saying their
church, that church, the church down the road, the one I go
to every once in a while and be able to say, no new horizon,
this place is my church. Now if you want to make another church
your church, awesome. I love every single church. I drive by every
church I d I reach my hand out and I bless them. I hope
you do too. Bless that church. You know they're going through it.
You know they have troubles, you know they have an assignment. You know
they have stuff to do. You know they have great people in there.
You know they're birth and babies in the House of God. Reach your hand
out and bless every church you drive to and then go to your church.
Go to the one that says you can say this is my church. Amen.
And I'm hoping that as the day goes by, you're going to understand
why I'm saying these things. But so the my Church kind of series that
we're doing, it's, uh, it's got two big words that are associated
with it. So it would be it's our way of assimilation if you're new,
to kind of bring you in and synthesize you into the fabric of this
church. And also if you're a longtime member and you've been in this church,
we got to keep you integrated just because you just because you're sitting in
the garage. Doesn't make you a car right just because you come to church,
it don't make you a strong member, a strong, healthy piece of
that church. Amen. So this whole situation, it has four different sections
to it. We want you and the words are really little, so put
your glasses on if you need them. So we ask four different kind of
pathways. The my home, which is the membership that says, this is
my home, church, my community. This is my group of people that
I know and I get together with on a small group basis. This is
my team. This is the team that I serve on, and then my
growth. In other words, I want we want you to be involved in
some of the teaching and the wisdom that comes out of church. See Church
formed me, Church continues to form me. The Bible declares that it's through
the church, somebody say, church, that the manifold wisdom of God will
be made manifest to principalities and powers of this age. It's through the church.
Wisdom flows out of the church. Friday night we had club wed.
Wisdom for your marriages flows out of the Word of God, and out of
the church, wisdom for your family, wisdom for your business wisdom. Now,
wisdom is different than knowledge because knowledge is knowing. Wisdom is how do
you make knowledge work in your life right? And a lot of people they
gotten, they gotten the know how, but they don't have the wisdom to
bring it forth. And that's what you get in church. Church is amazing.
I love church. Church is. Church is the underpinning of Western civilization.
You pull the church out of Western civilization and it will collapse. This
is the foundation for society. Church is the stabilizing force. Church is called.
Jesus called you the salt of the earth. In other words, you
are sprinkled all over the place so the earth won't rot. That's you,
that's us together. This also says that you are the light of the world.
In other words, if you don't shine out there, the world becomes
a very dark place. So you're the light. I'm telling you, the
church is so vital and so important. The church is. As Frank was
stealing my thunder up here, my next line was gonna be Frank, this
is my line. The church, Jesus declares, is the thing that will
stand against the gates of hell. And guess who wins the church? Because
Jesus has declared that the gates of Hell will not fail, will not prevail.
So that tells me that the Church is, as I said last week,
gonna come toe to toe with darkness, with evil, with Hell itself.
And we better not shrink back. We better not waiver, we better
not wonder, we better not get afraid, because our savior, Lord Jesus
Christ, has declared that we will be the victor in his tandem with him
against the gates of Hell. Turn to your neighbor and say, you and
I are gonna win against the gates of Hell. You may be wondering who's
gonna win us or the gates of Hell. Well, Jesus already told us,
So quit wondering, get out there and stand. I'm preaching really good.
The church is also called the Body of Christ. It's very interesting.
The church is powerful. It's large. The Church is the largest group of
people in the world. Did you know that two point eight billion Christians worldwide?
Two thousand years ago it was zero. Now it's the biggest belief group
on the planet. And you are part of it. You are a part
of a winning organization. And the enemy wants you to be so scared,
so fragmented, but it's based in a lie. The truth is that you're
a part of something very big and something very amazing. The church is not
anemic. It's growing, it's gaining straight and the church is doing amazing things,
doing amazing things. Now, some churches are struggling a little bit here
and there, but I will tell you what that on the whole, the
church is winning. Jesus is winning through the church. Hallelujah. So I
told you. The church is sometimes called the body of Christ. And the
reason why he talks about that is that, now if he says that,
that means I can look at my body and get some ideas of what he's
meaning. Okay, so my body, he's the body of Christ. Or
we are the body of Christ. He's the head. We are all the
body. Right. Well, I have a body, I have a head,
and I have a body, and my body kind of looks like one
unit. Right, this is me, Count me as one, right,
But really, what I am is the sum total of twenty eight billion little
tiny cells. And every one of my little tiny twenty eight billion cells are
busy little places. Inside of each one of my twenty eight billion cells,
there's a little manual and inside that manual is what God wrote about what I'm
supposed to be. It has written in there the color of my eyes,
the color of my hair, how tall I'll be, what all look like?
And every one of my cells reads that and goes, Okay, this
is what I am. This is my identity. I am not something else.
I am Joel, and I'm gonna do my very best to build Joel.
I have twenty eight billion little tiny pieces of cells that reads its instruction
and becomes just like me. And inside of each one of my cells there's
these little things called mitochonda. Anybody know what mitochondria is, right, So
there's these little time are you a medical person a nurse? That's right?
So inside of every single cell there's these little things called mitochondria, And inside
of mitochondria there are a little powers like power plant, and they make these
things called a d P a dino try a dinocene triphosphate ATP sorry. ATP
is energy, it's strength, it's ability. So every one of my cells
has to be really strong and really healthy and really a and so that all
of my twenty eight billion cells can stand at attention and do what I want
it to do. Now, I Joel inhabits what my cells have built.
I am not my cells. I am a spirit. But I live inside
of the sum total of all of my cells. And depending on the health
of every one of my cells, that will enable me as Joel to do
great things. But if everyone of my cells is not healthy, kind of
weak, not really doing what it's supposed to do, then when I try
to express Joel, my body won't be there to help. Right. So
the other day we went out and we played soccer as a family. I
have always been fairly capable of getting myself out on the field to do sports
type activities. I've usually been able to hold my end up of any team.
And we're out there and I saw the ball rolling towards me. It
was about ten feet off to the side, and my head said, Joel,
we're gonna go get that ball, and we're gonna steal it away from
Ryan. Ryan is my son in law who is six' four and really
big, and the I was going to get in there and steal it from
him. So head said, run really fast, be very cool as you
run, and swing your leg out and just hit that ball and steal from
So my head said, my cells had a different story. My cells were
some of them were yawning, some of them were sitting around, some of
them were sleeping, some of them were confused. So when my body said,
you know, okay, let's go, I started running. I was
kind of like and I went to swing my leg and I threw my leg
out right down my back and I missed the ball. Okay, So what
happened was the sum total of not very healthy cells. So I walked away
saying, okay, self, we're going on a diet, we're gonna start
exercise, and we're gonna change life up. But what I'm trying to tell
you is I am the sum total of the health and strength of all of
my cells. Now, the Kingdom of God is the same way. We
are called the Body of Christ. The body of Christ. The local church
is the building block of the Body of Christ. There are thirty seven million
local churches worldwide, thirty seven million of us that get together on a weekly
basis. And every single one of those thirty seven million churches needs to be
healthy, needs to be strong, They need to be well put together,
well united. They need to be organized, and they need to be honest,
you know, to be to be unified with one another. They need
to come together so that that body, that cell can be there at attention.
And when God says I'm gonna move in the earth, because He inhabits
every cell, every church, that's where he is. He expresses himself inside
of every church, and he's waiting for the church to come together, and
he inhabits that gathering in that church. You see what I'm saying. See
where I'm going. The church, the local church is the building block of
the Kingdom of God, of the body of Christ, of the expression that
He wants to bring forth. He wants us, and he wants his kingdom.
He wants to say, okay, people, we're gonna go out there
right now and the world needs us. We're gonna go out. We're gonna
you know, He gives us all of the directions, and we got to
come out the gate ready to go. We don't want to be limping.
I love the church. God gives the church pastors. Pastors are the ones
that pull us all together and say, good, come on, guys,
we take care of you, we give you the word, we change you,
we wash you. The Holy Spirit comes and does his work and he
makes us is our goal here at New Horizon, that this church. I
can't speak to other churches, but that this church, if this is your
church, if this is my church, that we as the leaders of this
church, would lead us well, that this church can be expression of God.
That when he says go, we are right there, ready to go.
When he says stop, we stop. When he says sit, we
sit. When he says put your hands out and give. When he says
go over there, and minister here and minister there, we are right there
and ready to go. Because we are a healthy church. We have strength
inside of us. We're not wiped out, We're not burned out. We
are not tired of this. We're not bored with this. We're not distracted
by the world and their problems. We are a mighty, mighty unit of
the Body of Christ. The church is a busy place, just like the
cell is a busy place. I need eight volunteers. Come on eight,
Sebastian, you're gonna be another one. Come on up, I got one.
You were up here last week, weren't too. You know exactly what's
happening roun two. Come on up, Come on up, Joey, Sebastian,
are you trying to get your your friends there to help you. Come
up and be the hero. We'll leave those guys behind. Okay, come
on up. I need some more. I need some more. I only
have three. Here's four. I need eight of you. I need eight
of you. There's another one, Devin. Come on. Yeah, you're
gonna get voluntold in just a second. Oh, here comes Lona. Come
on up. One, two, three, four, five, six seven
one more. There we go, Come on up eight. So I am
the pastor of this local church. The Bible says that you are all lively
stones that He's gathered up today, and you have become a little living sacrife.
You woke up this morning and you said, I'm not going to live
my life for myself today. I am going to go to the House of
God and I'm gonna worship together with all of the rest of my lively stones,
so that we can build a sanctuary for God to inhabit. Now,
the church is not this building. The church is every soul that comes into
the building. So these are some lively stones. These are some living sacrifices
that have chosen to come together today. Amen. So I'm the pastor,
So I am going to get all of these living stones. Put in a
place to where they can just build the most beautiful right there. Push and
you come over. You know what this is all about. Okay, job,
come here. You're right here. Now, you guys have to spread
apart because we've got to have room for lots of people here. Okay,
now, hey, would you help me? Would you help me? Okay,
take this and grab another one. We're gonna make a little sanctuary here.
Put that over there. Hey, will you help me? Gerard,
thank you for helping. Give them a hand. Okay, all the rest
of you forre keep holding your arms up. Come on, we gotta have
nice, nice, really cool looking church. Keep them up. Okay the
rest of you. Welcome to church. How are you? Come on in
over here? People, This is the front door. Okay, you can
have a seat right here. Yeah, are you comfortable. Here's your coffee?
There you go. Come on in, welcome, have a seat,
have a seat. You guys all doing? Okay? All right? Come
on, come on in and have a seat. You can sit in the
front row. The preacher is a really good preacher, and she spits all
the time. You're right. So here's the church right here, and the
music starts playing and the people inside they're worshiping, and how is it?
Hallelujah, hallelujah? How you doing? Amen? Is you feeling good?
I feel this? Hallelujah? How you doing? Back here? You feeling
the love? I feel the love? You feel in the love? How
you doing? Oh? Yeah? Praise praise God? What fun? Fun?
Fun? Fun? You know what your arms? How are your arms
feeling? Praise the Lord? How are they feeling though they're on fire?
They're on fire with Jesus or because they're tired a little bit of both.
Okay, so we got us a church going here. How's your arms doing?
Here's a They're okay, they're kind of shaking a little bit, getting
kind of tired. All right? Well, hey, you know what,
I don't know about you, but you would you be I got I got
a worker back here that needs a break, see you right there? Would
you be willing to help out? Would you? Oh? Wow? Come
on over here? Yeah? Now, Devin, you could come over here.
You could just say here, it's another Sunday worship. Woo. How
you feeling fine? Your arm's getting tired? No? Okay, well you
can keep working. How are you're feeling they're a little burning. They're burning,
don't drop them. Okay, Hey, how about you? Would you
like to help someday? Oh you will help? Well, come on over
here. Look at what I got. I got some help. But you
can sit down. So what we have here is we've got a really healthy
church. A lot is going on, a lot of energy is being expended.
Amazing people are coming in from the community. They're feeling the love of
God, They're feeling the presence of God. Because the Bible says in one
Corinthians three sixteen that don't you realize that together you have become God's inner sanctuary,
and that the spirit of God makes his permanent home in you. This
is God's permanent home. Not this this because these lively stones decided to come
to church today and kind of help out. How's your arms doing over there?
Kind of you're kind of lowering them. Wouldn't it be nice if you
could, maybe one Sunday a month not have to come and hold your arms
up? Wouldn't that be nice? Hey, would you like to help?
Why don't you do that? All right? All right? And hey,
would you be willing to help out over here? So Sebastian could maybe sit
down, look at that. Okay. Now the next Sunday. We've got
our teams in place. We've got everybody helping one another. Let's pretend it's
the next Sunday. Everybody switch on your Marcus, I go switch, find
your place, get on your team, lift up your arms, sit down,
that's your job. Okay, and it's the next Sunday. Everybody switch,
find your place, sit down, worship God. Party. Who are
your arms feeling better? Okay, next Sunday, every switch whoa Now,
this is a church that can run the distance. This is a church.
Everybody's switch. It's the next Sunday. There you go. This is a
church that we'll be able to beat the gates a hell because we're not exhausted.
This is a church that's working together. This is a church that's unified.
Switch it's the next week. This is a church that works together and
loves one another. We don't have observers, we don't have concert goers.
We have bodies of the Christ that come together and serve one another. Give
them a hand. You guys can go sit down. This is what makes
a good church. I think if I ask to every soul in this room,
do you want a good church. Every one of us lungs for a
good church, a healthy church, an effective church. Every one of us
want to be involved in a place that when God says, do this,
we're right there doing it because we're healthy and we're strong, we're healed.
You spend all week with Holy Spirit and you and He washes you, and
you read the Word, and you grow and you have your prayer times and
you become more and more like Him individually. But when we come together,
when the lively stones come together and be living sacrifices, laying down what you
want to do, dyne to your own will and desires, dying to your
own ambitions, and are willing to come together and build the House of God,
we will see his presence. We will see his presence. I love
the verse. You guys don't have it back there, So don't worry,
mister projection, Brad, how many of you I love, Brad, come
and be his living stones who are continually being assembled into the sanctuary for God.
For now you serve as holy priests, offering up spiritual sacrifices that He
readily accepts through Jesus Christ. That is church, and that is what I
lay my life down for That's why I get up in the morning, and
that's why I love every single one of you during in the not did you
see me up yours? Just looking at you, taken you in. You
are my gift. But you know what the Word says, says that I'm
your gift because I'm your pastor. Duange your pastor. He's my pastor,
He's my gift. God gives you gifts called pastors. Pastors are to bring
the Word, and pastors are to encourage you to conform to the Word,
whether you like it or not. I heard that over there. Who was
that that was laughing at me? That's my job. If I don't,
the Bible says, I'm going to stand before God and give an account for
what I have done with my life. But because I'm a pastor, I
also have to give account for you. You don't have to give an account
for me. I have to give an account for you. So that means
me, my husband, the rest of us who are on staff here as
pastors. It is incumbent upon us that we teach you well. So are
you ready for some word? This is not me, this is God speaking
to you. Are you ready? So? Brad the next ones are gonna
go fire, rapid fire fast. Are you ready back there? Don't you
wish you could be a projection person? Absolutely? The answer is yes one
Peter four, ten and eleven. Every believer has received grace gifts, so
use them to serve one another as faithful stewards of a mini colored tapestry of
God's grace. I'm gonna skip to the next one, Mark ten five.
For even the son of Man did not come expecting to be served by everyone.
That's Jesus himself, but to serve everyone and to give his life as
the ransom price for this salvation of many Galatians five point thirteen. You,
my brothers and sisters, were called to be free, but do not use
your freedom to induldulge in the flesh. Rather serve one another humbly in love
Hebrew. For God the faithful one is not unfair. How can he forget
the beautiful work that you have done for him. He remembers the love you
demonstrated as you continually serve his beloved ones for the glory of his name.
Philippians two four. Abandon every display of selfishness, possess a greater concern for
what matters to others instead of your own interests Matthew twenty three eleven. The
greatest, I mean the greatest. That doesn't leave much out between you and
the greatest. The greatest among you will be the one who always serves.
This is a truth. God wants to bring his lively stones together. Not
so we get a warm, fuzzy feeling and get filled up for the week.
But that happens. That happens every time because his presence meets us.
But God brings us together, and he says, I want you to serve
one another. Why that's dumb. Don't you know how important I am.
Don't you think you should serve me? I work hard all week. I
don't need to come to church and serve people I don't even know or like.
But God commands us to serve. Because when you serve, you can't
be proud. And serve you immediately become humble. You immediately become a living
sacrifice when you serve, and God calls us to be living sacrifices. Once
again, let me remind you what a living sacrifice is. It's someone who
has died but not yet, someone who has completely died, but you're still
alive. Say, I am a living sacrifice. I am a part of
a local church. I am a part of the body of Christ. Amen,
did I hurt you too bad? So when you stand before God and
you give an account for your life, some of it's going to be gold
and gems, the Bible says, but some of it's going to be straw,
little sticks. Those things will burn up. But the things that are
left are what you're going to offer. I want my arms so full.
I want a backpack packed up. I want a rolling bag. I'm taken
with me. I want my purse stuff. I want my pocket stuff,
so many gems, the things that don't burn up, so that I can
dump it at the feet of Jesus. So I just want to encourage you
here today. Let's make New Horizon the healthiest church on the planet. Let's
just do it. Let's do it. Let's buck the tide. Let's buck
the tide. I want every marriage in New Horizon to be the strongest,
most healthiest marriage. You know, they say that churches Christians have the same
divorce rate as the world. I'm just gonna say not. Here at New
Horizon, our marriages are strong. Are they perfect? Absolutely not? But
are they strong and healthy? Absolutely. Children are falling left and right in
this world, but not New Horizon kids. They are gonna so the Lord.
They're gonna serve the Lord. They're gonna know what God's love is.
Churches all across America, they're defined by the few that do a lot of
work. New Horizon is going to be exactly the opposite. All the people
are gonna do a little bit of work. You didn't clap very hard for
that one. You're all shouting and hooping about the marriages. But I want
this church to express the love of Christ. And I want this church to
be the healthiest of all churches. And Duyna and I pledge to be the
best pastors we can be. We're gonna fail, we're gonna make mistakes,
but there's gonna be so much grace and mercy and this place, and we're
all going to be so humble. We're going to hear the word of the
Lord, and we're going to conform every one of us. Every one of
us stand at the cross, not just you. I do too, Amen.
I need all the department heads to go straight to your table. I'm
a little bit late, but not too late. These are all heroes.
Everybody, give these heroes a hand. These are all people that have stepped
up said I am willing to take on the responsibility to lead some teams so
that we can have a strong church. These are ones that take teams,
take volunteers and build them into teams and make the place just hum right along,
just hum right along. So what we have here at New Horizon.
Over here we have deb Morris, who's in charge of the Prayer Ministry.
Give a big hand. We have great prayer here. We have the Destiny
Prayer Team, which also includes the Prophetic Team. So come on over there,
talk to them. We got Sandy over here though Inspire Women's Ministry.
We've got dessert, we got all sorts of fun. And you know what,
My banana bread is over there. Now listen, people, you have
to go over and talk and you gotta put your name on them, and
then you can have a piece of my banana bread. All right, it's
really good. Then next to Kingdom Kids, she's coming. I know she's
coming. Colleen. Somebody a Debbie, go get Colleen. I am in
charge of Kingdom Kids, so I should be standing over there. I'll just
let you know I have a couple of opportunities. Oh yeah, Gerard,
that's Colleen's husband. You will do, you will absolutely do. Go over
there and say hi to Gerard. I think there's banana bread over there too.
I need a couple. I need about four more adult volunteers for second
Service, and my teams will be complete. At this point, we got
a few people are having to do extra duty. We don't want that.
Hey, listen. When I was in Sunday School, my most favorite teacher
was Western Michael was her name. Everybody say Western Michael. She was eighty
years old. She had a gray bun right here, and you know what,
she hadn't yet. She hadn't tapped out yet. She's kept showing up.
And I remember sitting in the chair and she would sing Jesus Loves Me,
and she was faithful. She was there and it taught me about the
love of God for me. Okay, so much for Kingdom Kids. Go
over there and sign up Children's ministry. Oh, here's Colleen. Give her
a hand. Children's Ministry over here, Heritage Girls, Trail Life. Don't
tell me there's not a better, more important ministry right now for the world
than Heritage Girls and Trail life. Those are boys, okay, teaching boys
to be boys and girls to be girls. We've got tribe youth back there.
If you want to help out with the youth group. There's all sorts
of different things you could do back there. There's a food there is my
son back there and his lovely fiancee Wave. It's her banana bat bread recipe.
That's on my table. Over here, Food Bank Outreach, Hispanic Ministry.
We got Pastor Dennis and Almah. Over here, we got lights.
Lights is so easy, but it's so cool building, help with maintenance,
merchandise, so stuff you can do during the week. Stuff. I want
everybody doing something. There's no reason that we should have any lack for strength
in this house. Amen. Over here, we have sound and production.
Today was John Town's first day on the soundboard. Give him a hand.
He stepped up. Hallelujah. We've got worship and art. So we've got
projection over here, So come on over be willing to just click that mouse
for us. Then we don't have to have one person doing it all the
time, just everybody. We don't want anybody burned out. Right, green
room and restored life. Come see rock Sanna. We got the cafe.
Make a cup of coffee. People, you all say you love coffee,
Come one Sunday a month and make a cup of coffee. Right parking in
security, Brad's gonna have to run over there and do that. Help us,
help us keep our cars safe. That's easy. You don't have to
have any great amazing things to be able to do that. You have to
be available hospitality over there. I want every aisle to have a mighty man
and woman of God being an usher. Don't I want more hands greeting people
at the doorway when the world comes in. They gotta feel your love.
You don't want to be the one that sits here every time, because after
a while it'll start feeling like it's their church. I wanted to feel like
it's your church because you're on a team. Or you want me to stop
now, we ran out of parking spaces this morning. What in the world
Judah's prayer house over here? So I need you all. Do you have
a ministry menu card? Did you get a ministry menu card? That was
a long time ago? Man, we worshiped for an eternity. Okay,
pull up your ministry menu cards. Those are all the options for you to
get involved. Everyone does something right, it's a beautiful thing. So I'll
stand up. So there's goodies at every station. I want you to go
around, put your name on at least one list. You will be contacted
and given more information about it. But become an integrated part of a local
church. Amen. You're also gonna need to go get your kids eventually.
Here today first service forgot all about their children and it was chaos back there.
So my apologies to all of you. But so don't free to buy
your kids, but go around, talk to people, get your name,
just do a little something something. Maybe you used to do something something,
maybe you haven't done something something for a long time. Let's do something something.
Amen, Father and Jesus name, thank you for today. Thank you
for your lively stones and your living sacrifices. God, I thank you in
Jesus' name. Amen. Amen, you are dismissed. Go get some goodies
and get involved. Amen, find a team.