Speaker 1: We're in part three of a series that we started
Speaker 1: a couple weeks ago on what does it mean to
Speaker 1: really follow Jesus? And we're looking at words that describe
Speaker 1: what it means to be a follower. The first word
Speaker 1: we looked at as the word disciple. If you miss
Speaker 1: that message, I want you to go online and listen
Speaker 1: to it. It is a very important message on the
Speaker 1: five definitions of what it means to be a disciple
Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ. Then last week we looked at another
Speaker 1: word that defines what it means to be a follower,
Speaker 1: the word ambassador. The Bible says we are ambassadors for Christ.
Speaker 1: The third word that I want us to look at
Speaker 1: this weekend is the word member. The word member. The
Speaker 1: Bible says that to be a follower of Christ means
Speaker 1: to be a member of his family and a member
Speaker 1: of his body. Following Jesus is far more than just believing.
Speaker 1: It's not enough just to believe in Jesus. The Bible says,
Speaker 1: we're not just believers. We're belongers. We are to belong
Speaker 1: in the family of God, which is called the Church.
Speaker 1: And once we belong, then we become so we believe,
Speaker 1: then we belong and then we become all that God
Speaker 1: wants for us to be in the first place. Now,
Speaker 1: the Bible says this there on your outline, Romans, Chapter twelve,
Speaker 1: verse five. Let's read it aloud together. In Christ, we
Speaker 1: who are many, form one body, and each member belongs
Speaker 1: to all the others. Now circle the word belong. The
Speaker 1: Bible says that if you're a follower of Jesus, you
Speaker 1: don't just belong to God. You don't just belong to Jesus.
Speaker 1: You belong to me, and I belong to you, and
Speaker 1: we belong to each other, and you belong to every
Speaker 1: other believer. You're in the family. Now, You're in God's family. Now.
Speaker 1: It's interesting that in the Bible, two of the descriptions
Speaker 1: of the church are the church is a body and
Speaker 1: the church is a family. The church is the body
Speaker 1: of Christ and the church is the family of God.
Speaker 1: And in both of those cases, membership means something. In fact,
Speaker 1: the word English word member that we use for membership
Speaker 1: actually comes from the Bible, and the word membership has
Speaker 1: far more to do with life than simply like a
Speaker 1: you know, wear a hat or secret signal, or say
Speaker 1: the password or handshake. Membership means far more than you
Speaker 1: just put your name on a roll. It means you're
Speaker 1: vitally connected. The Bible says your hand is a member
Speaker 1: of your body. If it's disconnected, it shrivels and die.
Speaker 1: The Bible says your ears are members of your body.
Speaker 1: They're members. If you cut off your ears, they're worthless.
Speaker 1: They have no value at all if they're detached from
Speaker 1: the body. If you cut off your legs, your knees,
Speaker 1: your feet, they are members of your body. And if
Speaker 1: you cut it off, a disconnected foot is worthless, it
Speaker 1: has no value. It shrivels and die. You will shrivel
Speaker 1: and die spiritually if you're not connected to the body
Speaker 1: of Christ. And in the same way, you're a part
Speaker 1: of a family, and the Bible says that we have
Speaker 1: family responsibilities to each other. In fact, look at the
Speaker 1: next verse, they're on your outline. The Bible says in
Speaker 1: Galatians chapter six, let us do good to all people,
Speaker 1: especially those who belong in the family of believers. Now
Speaker 1: notice it says we're to do good to everybody. You
Speaker 1: can't mistreat anybody, you can't hate anybody, you can't show
Speaker 1: disrespect for anybody, not be a follower of Jesus. The
Speaker 1: Bible says, as the follower of Jesus, I am commanded
Speaker 1: to love everyone, to respect everyone, and to be kind
Speaker 1: and loving to all people, regardless of who they are,
Speaker 1: what they believe, their lifestyle, what they do to me,
Speaker 1: I am to return love for them. So let us
Speaker 1: do good to all people. But he says, especially those
Speaker 1: who belong to the family a believer in us. Again,
Speaker 1: circle the word belong. In both cases, you belong. You
Speaker 1: belong as a member of the body of Christ, and
Speaker 1: you belong as a member of the family of God.
Speaker 1: Now this is a very different understanding of a church
Speaker 1: than most people have. If you ask most people what
Speaker 1: do you think of when you say church, they think
Speaker 1: of a building a building, or they think of it
Speaker 1: as an event and church is something you see on
Speaker 1: a corner or church is something you go to to attend.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that's not a church at all. Church
Speaker 1: is neither an event nor a building. Church is a relationship.
Speaker 1: It is a family. It is the family of God.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's going to outlast your physical family. In fact,
Speaker 1: it's going to outlast everything on earth. The Bible says,
Speaker 1: God created the entire world because he wanted in the universe,
Speaker 1: because he wanted a family, and that family is the
Speaker 1: only thing that is last. One day, there isn't going
Speaker 1: to be an IBM, a Microsoft, Eulett Packard, a Dell
Speaker 1: computer or anything else. There an't going to be any businesses.
Speaker 1: One day, there isn't going to be any nations. There
Speaker 1: won't be a Russian, America, China. But there I will
Speaker 1: be a family of God because it's going to last forever.
Speaker 1: It's the only thing on earth that has permanent value.
Speaker 1: God's family. Now, the Bible tells us that you cannot
Speaker 1: be a follower of Christ unless you're a part of
Speaker 1: being tied in to a church family. I mean, I
Speaker 1: hear people all the times said, well, I love Jesus,
Speaker 1: I just don't want to be a part of any church.
Speaker 1: Then you don't really love Jesus. Let me just be
Speaker 1: around honest. You don't love him because the body of
Speaker 1: Christ is his church. You can't say I love Jesus
Speaker 1: but I hate your body, or I love Jesus but
Speaker 1: I hate your bride, or I love Jesus but I
Speaker 1: hate your family. No, no, it's all together. It's like
Speaker 1: trying to say I want to be I want to
Speaker 1: play football in the NFL, but I don't want to
Speaker 1: be a part of any particular team. Sorry, ain't gonna happen.
Speaker 1: You can't do it. It's impossible. You cannot play in the
Speaker 1: NFL without being a part of a specific team. It's
Speaker 1: like saying I want to be in the United States Army,
Speaker 1: but I want to be connected to any specific class platoon. Sorry,
Speaker 1: it ain't going to happen. You can't do it. You
Speaker 1: have to be tied to a specific platoon in the Army.
Speaker 1: It's like saying I want to play the tuba but
Speaker 1: not be a part of an orchestra. Well, good luck.
Speaker 1: Not many people like to hear a tuba or solos.
Speaker 1: You sound a whole lot better when you're playing with
Speaker 1: a bunch of other people, a whole lot better. Just
Speaker 1: as a bee needs a hive, you need a church family.
Speaker 1: It's like an explorer needs a base camp. It's like
Speaker 1: a sailor needs a ship. You cannot be what God
Speaker 1: wants you to be. You cannot follow Jesus. You cannot
Speaker 1: follow Jesus without being connected to his family. And the
Speaker 1: Bible calls this membership. Being a member In fact, if
Speaker 1: you say, well, I believe in Jesus, but I don't belong,
Speaker 1: then there's a word for you. You're a spiritual orphan. You
Speaker 1: don't have a family, you are a spiritual orphan. Now,
Speaker 1: once a year, the Constitution of the United States requires
Speaker 1: that the President of the United States give a report
Speaker 1: to the nation called the State of the Union. Here
Speaker 1: at Saddleback Church, we've had a similar tradition for thirty
Speaker 1: years that every year, in the month that the President
Speaker 1: gives a State of the Union message, I give what
Speaker 1: we call a State of the Church message, in which
Speaker 1: we take a different section of Saddleback Church, a different
Speaker 1: part of our strategy, and I explain it to everybody
Speaker 1: in detail. It's kind of an inside scoop. We only
Speaker 1: do it once a year, but I want to do
Speaker 1: that this morning, where I explain to you why we
Speaker 1: believe in small groups and how they are designed to
Speaker 1: help you develop your spiritual maturity. There are about ten
Speaker 1: thousand quote megachurches in the United States. A mega church
Speaker 1: is any church that has over two thousand people coming
Speaker 1: on a weekly basis. There are now about ten thousand
Speaker 1: of those. In America. There are probably five or six
Speaker 1: churches about the size of Saddleback that run over twenty
Speaker 1: thousand in attendance on a typical week. In the media
Speaker 1: typically treats churches like this as saying these megachurches as
Speaker 1: if there's some new phenomena, like there's some modern result
Speaker 1: of marketing or something like that. Well, it just shows
Speaker 1: a lack of knowledge of history, because Christianity has a
Speaker 1: two thousand year history of extremely large churches, dating all
Speaker 1: the way back to two thousand years ago. The very
Speaker 1: first church that started in Jerusalem, the very first church,
Speaker 1: was five times the size of Saddleback Church. Most people
Speaker 1: don't know that. But the idea of a mega church
Speaker 1: is not a new idea. Jerusalem was an enormous church.
Speaker 1: And before we look at the strategy, I want you
Speaker 1: to just see this, to notice the growth, because the
Speaker 1: Bible is very specific about it. Now, the book that
Speaker 1: tells us the history of the Church is called the
Speaker 1: Book of Acts. It's the Acts of the Apostles, and
Speaker 1: it's actually the acts of the early Church. And it
Speaker 1: was written by Luke, the same guy who wrote Gospel
Speaker 1: of Luke. Luke was a doctor, a physical doctor, a
Speaker 1: medical doctor, and in the Acts he gives us a
Speaker 1: running progress report of the growth a saddle backed church.
Speaker 1: He tells of the Jerusalem Church, he tells, yeah, I
Speaker 1: wish we're actually Acts chapter twenty nine. So but Ax
Speaker 1: records the exponential growth of the church, and he gives
Speaker 1: us very detailed progress reports. So let me just quickly
Speaker 1: take you on a little survey here through the book
Speaker 1: of Acts. When Jesus Christ died and then rose again,
Speaker 1: he told his followers, I want you to wait here
Speaker 1: in Jerusalem until I send my spirit, and that will
Speaker 1: be the beginning of the church. And he goes back
Speaker 1: to heaven. And the Bible tells us in Acts chapter one,
Speaker 1: verse fifteen, that there were about one hundred and twenty believers.
Speaker 1: You and see that there on your outline. One hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty believers. We're meeting waiting in the upper room
Speaker 1: for God to send his spirit before Pentecost. Then in
Speaker 1: Acts chapter two, we have the story of the first
Speaker 1: day of the Church. It's called the Day of Pentecost,
Speaker 1: and it says on that day Peter preached and three
Speaker 1: thousand people were added to the church that day, the
Speaker 1: very first day of the church, three thousand people. It says,
Speaker 1: we're baptized and added to the church, So they were
Speaker 1: a megachurch on the first day. I would say, you're
Speaker 1: not really a New Testament church till you have at
Speaker 1: least three thousand people, because that's what they add on
Speaker 1: the very first day of their church. Then down in
Speaker 1: verse forty seven in Acts chapter two, as we go
Speaker 1: through the book, it says the Lord added daily circle
Speaker 1: daily those who were being saved. So the church is
Speaker 1: growing on a daily basis. Now, how many days in
Speaker 1: a year three hundred and sixty five, which means at
Speaker 1: least three hundred and sixty five people are being added
Speaker 1: to this church at a minimum every year at least
Speaker 1: three hundred and sixty five people. So it's growing at
Speaker 1: least that much. Every single day. People are being added
Speaker 1: to the church. Now, by the time we get to
Speaker 1: Asks chapter four, it says that in the church at Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: Jerusalem Community Church, more and more people believe. Now it
Speaker 1: says the number of men grew to five thousand. Now,
Speaker 1: notice that says, men, everywhere, you've got five thousand men.
Speaker 1: How many women and children have you got at least
Speaker 1: ten or fifteen thousand? So by this time, by Acts
Speaker 1: chapter four, the Jerusalem church is already at twenty thousand people.
Speaker 1: That's about the size of Saddleback on a weekend. So
Speaker 1: by chapter four they've already got twenty thousand people coming
Speaker 1: to the church at Jerusalem. Then you get to Asks
Speaker 1: chapter five and it says, more and more, excuse me,
Speaker 1: Asks four, the number of men grew, and Acts five
Speaker 1: more and more believed that a multitude was added. Now
Speaker 1: there's so many people they're not even counting anymore. It
Speaker 1: says the multitude was added. It's just an in numerous amount.
Speaker 1: Then you get to Acts chapter five twenty eight and
Speaker 1: the critics come to Peter and John, who are leaders
Speaker 1: of the Jerusalem Church church, and they say, you have
Speaker 1: filled Jerusalem with your teaching. Well, yeah, I guess so,
Speaker 1: because this church is growing and it's exploding and everybody
Speaker 1: is hearing the news, and this mega church is having
Speaker 1: a mega impact on a megacity. Then in Acts chapter six,
Speaker 1: it says the number of disciples rapidly multiplied. Notice we've
Speaker 1: moved from addition the added daily three thousand added. Now
Speaker 1: we're going to multiplication, and they are rapidly multiplying. This
Speaker 1: is what's called exponential growth. The church is growing so
Speaker 1: fast they can't even keep up with it. This is
Speaker 1: God's will for the church. God wants his church to grow,
Speaker 1: and God wants his church to grow fast. The number
Speaker 1: of disciples rapidly multiplied. That's New Testament growth. In verse seven,
Speaker 1: it says the number of believers increased rapidly again, rapid
Speaker 1: exponential growth. Now I could take you through the whole
Speaker 1: Book of Acts, but let me take you over to
Speaker 1: Acts Chapter Acts twenty one is approximately twenty five years
Speaker 1: after the church has started in Jerusalem. How many people
Speaker 1: have they grown to in twenty five years? Saddleback's going
Speaker 1: to be thirty years old on April fourth the Jerusalem Church.
Speaker 1: And twenty five years later, Paul comes back to Jerusalem
Speaker 1: and he is told noticed tens of thousands have become believers. Tens.
Speaker 1: It literally is tens of tens of tens of thousands.
Speaker 1: The word there in Greek is the word murias. Murias
Speaker 1: literally means tens and tens of thousands. We get the
Speaker 1: word myriad from it. Do you know what myriad means?
Speaker 1: Too numerous? Account, the church was so big it couldn't
Speaker 1: even count them all. Bible scholars believe that by this year,
Speaker 1: the twenty fifth year, the Jerusalem Church had grown to
Speaker 1: over one hundred thousand members. He said, well, how big
Speaker 1: was the city of Jerusalem? Will archaeologists tell us the
Speaker 1: Jerusalem is a city of about two hundred thousand people.
Speaker 1: So you have a city of two hundred thousand people
Speaker 1: and one hundred thousand members of one church. That's what
Speaker 1: you call church growth. You know.
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Speaker 1: The church at Jerusalem grew to one hundred thousand people
Speaker 1: in about twenty five years. Where in the world did
Speaker 1: they put all those people? I mean, you think we
Speaker 1: got a parking problem, Think about one hundred thousand people
Speaker 1: trying to get together for one church service every week
Speaker 1: and then going out. Well, the Bible tells us the
Speaker 1: strategy that they used. And it's very important for you
Speaker 1: to know the strategy of the Jerusalem Church because it's
Speaker 1: the exact same one we've used here at Saddleback for
Speaker 1: thirty years. It's there on your outline. The Bible tells
Speaker 1: us in one simple sentence the church strategy at Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: Acts Chapter five, verse forty two. They met day after
Speaker 1: day in the temple courts and from house to house.
Speaker 1: And I want you to circle temple courts and circle
Speaker 1: house to house, because these are the two different structures
Speaker 1: of a biblical church, temple courts and house to house.
Speaker 1: What are we talking about here, Well, you might write
Speaker 1: this down. It's large group worship and it's small group fellowship.
Speaker 1: Large group worship and small group fellowship. First, it says
Speaker 1: they met in the temple courts. Now I want you
Speaker 1: to this is maybe seem picky, but I need to
Speaker 1: explain it to you. Circle the s on courts. Notice
Speaker 1: it's plural. They didn't meet at the temple court. They
Speaker 1: met at the temple courts. What does that mean? One
Speaker 1: church meeting in many locations. Now, Notice it doesn't say
Speaker 1: that the Jerusalem Church met in the temple. They didn't.
Speaker 1: They did not meet in the temple. It said they
Speaker 1: met in the temple courts, which are around the temple.
Speaker 1: Why didn't they meet in the temple Two reasons. Number one,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't hold everybody. The temple certainly wouldn't hold one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand people. But number two, they were forbidden to
Speaker 1: go into the temple. Jewish law kept people out of
Speaker 1: the temple. In other words, people couldn't just go into
Speaker 1: the temple. Only the priest could go into the inner court,
Speaker 1: and nobody could go into the Holy of Holies except
Speaker 1: the priest once a year on the day of Atonement.
Speaker 1: So the temple wasn't like we built the day church
Speaker 1: or auditoriums where everybody gets together sings Kumbayah. Nobody went
Speaker 1: in the temple. They went up to the temple, and
Speaker 1: the priest went in the temple so they didn't meet
Speaker 1: in the temple because they weren't allowed to it, and
Speaker 1: it wouldn't have held them anyway if they good. But
Speaker 1: they met in the temple courts, and all around this
Speaker 1: temple were these courtyards outside. Now I've been to Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: and if you've ever seen Solomon's temple and the courts
Speaker 1: and what the remains of it, it's very obvious that
Speaker 1: the temple courts could have held maybe fifty thousand people easily.
Speaker 1: And so if they had two services on a weekend,
Speaker 1: they could easily have of one hundred thousand people at service.
Speaker 1: Because in those days you didn't sit to worship, you
Speaker 1: stood through the worship. And so they could have fifty
Speaker 1: thousand people in temple courts. But noticed they didn't try
Speaker 1: to all meet in the same court. Here's a giant
Speaker 1: church meeting in many different locations. Now, why do we
Speaker 1: believe in small groups. The reason we do it is
Speaker 1: because Jesus told us to do it, and it's a
Speaker 1: biblical model. When Jesus started his ministry public ministry, he
Speaker 1: was thirty years old. The first thing Jesus did was
Speaker 1: he was baptized as an adult. If you haven't been
Speaker 1: baptized as your personal confession of faith. Because of your decision,
Speaker 1: you need to be baptized. Now, Jesus was dedicated as
Speaker 1: a baby. Did that invalidate his dedication? No, But at
Speaker 1: thirty years of age he went down the Jordan River
Speaker 1: and John baptized him. There's a difference between a baptism
Speaker 1: of confirmation, which was your parents' commitment. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: you had nothing to do with it. I don't even remember.
Speaker 1: But there's the baptism of confession, which is your decision
Speaker 1: as an adult. And we baptize people as adults in
Speaker 1: this church. Why because Jesus set the model, and if
Speaker 1: he did it, we're going to do it his way.
Speaker 1: Evidently his dedication as a baby was not enough. He
Speaker 1: was taken to the temple at day seven and dedicated
Speaker 1: by his parents. But when he got thirty years of age,
Speaker 1: he said, now this is my decision. It's now my faith.
Speaker 1: If you haven't been baptized, you need to be baptized
Speaker 1: the way Jesus was. Then the second thing Jesus did
Speaker 1: is he started a small group. He went out and
Speaker 1: he gathered twelve guys and he said, you're going to
Speaker 1: be my small group. And for the next three years
Speaker 1: he traveled with his small group. Even Jesus needed a
Speaker 1: small group, and he was perfect. You need one even
Speaker 1: more than he does to make it in life. There
Speaker 1: are four advantages of a small group. Would you write
Speaker 1: these down? Number one? Small groups are relational. Small groups
Speaker 1: are relational. Now why is that important? Because life is
Speaker 1: all about learning how to love, and you can't love
Speaker 1: unless you build relationships. You have to learn to love,
Speaker 1: and you can't. Small groups are the laboratory for learning
Speaker 1: relational skills. They're the laboratory for learning how to love.
Speaker 1: You can't have a conversation with a crowd. I mean,
Speaker 1: we can't have a conversation right now, you're just listening.
Speaker 1: This is called sit still while I instill. It's one
Speaker 1: way conversation. And you can't say, hey, Rick, what about
Speaker 1: and did this mean? And what about that? But in
Speaker 1: a small group, you can ask questions. In a small group,
Speaker 1: you can pray specifically for each other. In a small group,
Speaker 1: you can get support, you can share, and you can
Speaker 1: build relationships in a way that you can't do it
Speaker 1: in other ways. See one of the problems of our
Speaker 1: culture today is that we live among strangers and people
Speaker 1: aren't learning relational skills anymore. They're not very good at
Speaker 1: relationships today. Why because we don't have porches. People don't
Speaker 1: sit outside and talk to their neighbors. You know, one
Speaker 1: of the worst things that created a nation of strangers
Speaker 1: electric garage doors. Because you click the electric garage door,
Speaker 1: get in your car, drive out, go to work. When
Speaker 1: you come home, click the electric gage door, go on
Speaker 1: in and close it. You don't ever have to meet
Speaker 1: your neighbors. And my guess is you probably live on
Speaker 1: a street that you don't know people who've lived there
Speaker 1: for years. And one of the reasons why we're not
Speaker 1: very good at relational skills is we don't have a
Speaker 1: laboratory to learn them. And the evidence of that is
Speaker 1: a divorce rate in America. People get married and because
Speaker 1: they don't have relational skills, they don't know how to
Speaker 1: solve their problems and have to solve the conflict and
Speaker 1: the relationship dissolves. If Gezus said the most important thing
Speaker 1: in life is learning how to love, and he did.
Speaker 1: It's called the Great commandment. Love God with all your heart,
Speaker 1: love your neighbors, yourself. Then the most important thing for
Speaker 1: you to do is to learn relational skills, loving God,
Speaker 1: loving other people, and you do that. You can't do
Speaker 1: that with a crowd. Now, you don't have to know
Speaker 1: everybody in a church for it to be your church,
Speaker 1: but you do have to know somebody. You don't know
Speaker 1: everybody on your row right now, that's okay, but you
Speaker 1: do have to know somebody two, three, four, people who
Speaker 1: when you get sick, they know you're sick. When you
Speaker 1: get laid off, they know you're laid off, whet, when
Speaker 1: you're in the hospital, they know you're in the hospital.
Speaker 1: When you need a babysitter, they know you need a babysitter.
Speaker 1: And somebody knows your needs and they help you. They
Speaker 1: show up when you need them. You don't need one
Speaker 1: hundred friends in life, but you do need three or
Speaker 1: four really good ones, and small groups are a great
Speaker 1: way to help people learn. Groups see a lot of churches,
Speaker 1: all they have is public worship. They don't have the
Speaker 1: house to house, and as a result, there's no way
Speaker 1: for people to really get to know each other because
Speaker 1: you don't get to know each other at worship. All
Speaker 1: you get to know is the back of the head
Speaker 1: of the person in front of you. You might like it,
Speaker 1: or you might not. But the truth is that's not
Speaker 1: a very deep relationship. So small groups are relational and
Speaker 1: that's why we do it. The Bible says, life's all
Speaker 1: about love. Number two. Small groups are flexible, and the
Speaker 1: value of that is they're not like a worship service
Speaker 1: and it's the same time every week. You can change
Speaker 1: the time, you can change the location. Small groups can
Speaker 1: meet any time, they can meet anywhere. They can be readjusted.
Speaker 1: You know, the small group that I'm in right now,
Speaker 1: I've been in five or six years, the one I'm
Speaker 1: currently in right now, And a lot of times we
Speaker 1: all can't meet on the same day. It's like, well
Speaker 1: we can't meet our normal Tuesday. Okay, Well we get
Speaker 1: on the email or we get through phone or text message.
Speaker 1: Could you meet on Thursday? Some days like text or
Speaker 1: twelve messages till everybody goes, yeah, we could all do
Speaker 1: on that one, and we change where we're gonna meet.
Speaker 1: We don't meet at the same house every week. We rotate.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's our house, sometimes at somebody else's house. We've
Speaker 1: met at restaurants, we've met at Disneyland, we've met outside.
Speaker 1: We even had an all nighter one time, and it's
Speaker 1: like a you know, an overnighter, and the result is
Speaker 1: you build relationships. Small groups are flexible, so they can
Speaker 1: meet any time or anywhere. You don't have to meet
Speaker 1: in church to have a small group. The Bible says this.
Speaker 1: Jesus said in Matthew eighteen twenty for where two or
Speaker 1: three come together in my name, that's called the small group. Folks,
Speaker 1: where two or three come together in my name, there
Speaker 1: am I with them. There is a presence of God
Speaker 1: in the small group that doesn't show up in ways
Speaker 1: in other ways. And so you just get two or
Speaker 1: three people together and that Jesus says, I will be
Speaker 1: with you in that moment. Flexible. Number three, small groups
Speaker 1: are expandable. Jesus said, we must care, so we keep
Speaker 1: reaching out. How do we do it through small groups?
Speaker 1: They're relational, they're flexible, they're expandable. Number four, they're economical.
Speaker 1: What I mean by that, I mean we don't have
Speaker 1: to pay for them. There's no overhead for the church.
Speaker 1: We believe at Saddlebacked church is not a building. It's people.
Speaker 1: And we are far more interested in building people than
Speaker 1: we are in building buildings. We believe that buildings are tools,
Speaker 1: not monuments. They're just tools for ministry. You don't build
Speaker 1: them as monuments.
Speaker 2: You know. This Christmas, you can enjoy the beauty of
Speaker 2: God's Word with a brand new set of fifty two
Speaker 2: stunning scripture cards, each featuring verses about the birth of
Speaker 2: Christ and adorned with elegant Christmas artwork. These are perfect
Speaker 2: for memory scripture, tucking into gifts, or placing on your
Speaker 2: holiday table. These cards are a simple way to bring
Speaker 2: meaning to the season and share God's love with those
Speaker 2: around you. So whether you're starting a new tradition or
Speaker 2: looking for a unique way to share the Gospel with
Speaker 2: friends and family, well, these cards are a perfect fit. Today.
Speaker 2: When you give a gift to help Daily Hope take
Speaker 2: the certain Hope of Jesus to people worldwide, be sure
Speaker 2: to request this very special collection of Christmas scripture cards.
Speaker 2: It's our way of saying thanks for supporting Daily Hope.