Grace Means Change: Church Planting

Lord, your word says, not to us. Lord, not to us but to your name give glory because of your faithful love, because of your truth. Why should the nations say, where is their god? Our god is in heaven and does whatever he pleases. Lord, in the chaos of our world, it's important for us to know that you are on the throne. This is why we come on Sundays corporately because you're not a god who started the clock and then left us but you are active, ruling. Lift our eyes to you. May our hearts be knit and tethered to your heart. And I pray that we will be people that would obey what your word says. We ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Good morning, CTK. Good morning. I'm glad to be here with you all. As I said to the early service, I'm here with family. And I don't say that lightly. Even though I have a little bit more melanin than many of you here, it's not even about my skin color because the Lord Jesus Christ died to bring a people from different ethnicities together, and it is evident as I'm here to worship with other brothers and sisters. This is not a trite or flippant statement. I'm glad to be here worshiping with my wonderful bride and some people from Reconciliation, Bapo and Shamika, as well as some of those who are singing. So I'm glad to be able to come to you and open the word.

I'll ask you to forgive me because if you are the people that like paper and you're looking at scripture, that's not the scripture we're using today. I failed to get to Danny the scriptures that we would use, but they are on the screen. Today, I want to look at church planting, but I want to look at it from the Old Testament.

Our text is Genesis 12 verses one to three.

The Lord said to Abraham, "Go from your land, your relatives, and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you." — Genesis 12:1-3

I also want to look at a New Testament text in Ephesians chapter two verses 12 to 16.

At that time, you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel and foreigners to the covenants of promise without hope and without god in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who are far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace who made both groups one and tore down the wall of hostility. In his flesh, he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. He did this so that he might reconcile both to god and one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. — Ephesians 2:12-16

Hip Hop and God's Plan

Hip hop. I know. How you going to start a sermon with hip hop? But I want us to look at hip hop. What is it? It is an art form. It is an artistic and cultural movement that has influenced everything from fashion to politics. It has influenced everything. The major way that it is expressed is through music.

Now, some of you may disagree with this, but that's okay. We can pontificate and disagree later. But I love halftime of the Super Bowl. I did. I loved it. That hip hop expression took me back to my teenage years. I loved every minute of it. This is an art form that originated in New York in the nineteen seventies, the decade in which I was born, and it was a cultural exchange between Blacks, Latinos, and the Caribbean in New York. Just them getting together over some music with an emcee who seems to be guiding it while they are dancing in between these subdominant cultures.

Today, not only has it become one of the most consumed genres in the United States, but if you travel the globe, you would see hip hop's impact to the ends of this earth.

What has hip hop to do with church planting? I think a lot. Because before there was hip hop that would impact the world, God had a plan to use his people, the church to saturate and impact this world in a greater way than hip hop will ever do. His church—his plan from the beginning was to establish a people who would impact the world.

I want to say this to everyone sitting in here: if you do not see yourself as a world changer, I believe your view is too low. Even from right here in the triangle in Wake County, as the people of God who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are a world changer. How will you impact this world?

God has and will continue to use his church to be a place where people collectively gather for worship, where the gospel of Jesus is proclaimed, and where people will be equipped to go out and make much of Jesus as his ambassadors. Coming on Sunday is not a place where you come and get fat or, like my wife would often say, become a pew potato—just sitting and receiving. No, you come here to listen to the preached word of Jeff Bradford, James Sutton, or anyone else who comes up here to proclaim the gospel, to be equipped.

To equip the saints for the work of ministry — Ephesians 4

I am looking at hundreds of ministers sitting in this church. You are called to be equipped to then go out and impact this world. Paul also states in Ephesians 2 that this new community is a place where traditional barriers of race, social standing, and sex have been destroyed. These categories become barriers within our society—we put people in categories, saying these are inferior and these are superior. But that should not be so in the church.

The dividing wall of hostility has been torn down — Ephesians 2

Those barriers no longer exist for the people of God. This has been God's heart all the way from the beginning. We can look at Adam and Eve—the first community established on the planet. Today, I want to look at Abraham and see that God's heart for the church is already evident there as well.

You may say the word church doesn't appear in the Old Testament, and if you read it in English, you are absolutely correct. However, the Greek word translated as church is ecclesia. The same word is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint. The Septuagint translates the Hebrew word "assembly" as ecclesia, or the word we use as "church." In the Old Testament, this word is used for Israel as they gathered together to appear before God or as a general reference to Israel.

As we look at Abraham and the New Testament, we're going to see from the beginning that God has always had a sweeping plan. That plan was to effect an exodus—a cosmic exodus through the work of Jesus, the Messiah, as he gathers the scattered people of God and carries them home. There is a greater exodus coming, greater than the exodus that Moses led for the people of God out of Egypt. One day the Lord can come back and snatch us—the people of God gathered together—as he leads us on a procession to our heavenly dwelling where we would worship King Jesus forever. That's the exodus we should long for.

God Causes People to Walk by Faith

As I look at the text today, this is the point I want you and me to remember: God causes people to walk by faith. As good Christians who love the deep things of theology, we quote that God calls us to walk by faith. But if I'm honest, and if you join me in honesty, we don't like to walk by faith. We like to walk by sight. We want to see where we're going before we take a step. We're too afraid to take a step into the unknown. We don't see a hand guiding us. We don't know if we're going to be safe, and we want to take a step on sure footing.

But when we look at the life of Abraham, we see that Abraham didn't know where he was going. He had to walk by faith. And you and I as well must walk by faith. Faith is required in church planting.

Church planting is both exciting and hard. But if I tell the truth, we only want the first part of it. We want the exciting part. We don't want the hard part. But they both go together. It is both exciting and hard.

One of the things I am learning is that I am a product of this culture, a product of our time. We treat church planting like we do microwave dinners. Everyone in here has a microwave—it seems essential when you're buying a house. We want ovens, but we need a microwave. When we sent our son off to school, we wanted to make sure he had a microwave. What do these do? We take some leftovers—most of us know that there's an expiration time where we don't eat leftovers anymore—but in my house, the ministry of leftovers is amazing.

We get these leftovers and insert them into the microwave. Depending on how cold it is, let's say on average it's two minutes. I put it in two minutes, that thing comes out and it's ready to go. I feel like we treat church planting like that. Take something, insert it in the microwave, turn it on two minutes, and it's gonna pop immediately. It's ready to go. We want instantaneous results, but God calls us on a journey to trust him with the next step.

To be honest, once this service is over, it requires faith because we don't know what that next step will be. We don't know what the rest of the day will be. That's why it requires faith. God calls us on a journey, and on this journey, he teaches us more of who he is and he uses us in the process to make him known to others around us.

I was just saying the other day, my wife and I were meeting with somebody, and I'm convinced that because I'm looking for the end result—I want to know how this ends and so I know how it ends. I ain't worried about the journey. I'm just trying to get to the end line. But God has that already in control—what it will end like. But in the interim, this journey, what is that going to be? It's going to be a bunch of highs and lows, tears, laughter. But I don't want tears. I want laughter. But God is doing something. He's developing something in me.

For those whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed into the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. — Romans 8:29

God is making me and conforming me into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ on his journey. So let's look at Genesis 12:1-3. I want to read this again and extract some things from the text.

The Lord said to Abraham, "Go from your land, your relatives, and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you." — Genesis 12:1-3

Abraham's story is a pivotal point in the book of Genesis. It's pivotal. The book of Genesis begins with "In the beginning, God created." He created everything, including humanity, but humanity sinned in Genesis chapter three. They had two children, Cain killed Abel. Sin is spreading throughout. Then we get to Genesis six, and God starts over. That's where God turned chaos into something beautiful. What was beautiful then turned back into chaos with the flood. Then we get to Genesis 12, and God does something new. He's beginning something different using Abraham.

Abraham and his life is vitally important for us because there is a rich Christology there. Jesus even said so in John chapter eight, verses 54 to 56:

"If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. My Father, about whom you say he is our God, he is the one who glorifies me. You do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say I don't know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad." — John 8:54-56

My friends, all of Scripture is about Jesus. All of Scripture. Even when you get to John 1:1, John 1:1 should bring your mind back to Genesis 1:1. I can show you in the first phrase when God says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," Jesus is there.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. — John 1:1

Jesus is on the first page of Scripture, and he ends Scripture. He is all through it. Jesus says in John chapter five, verse 39:

"You pour over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about me." — John 5:39

What Scriptures is Jesus talking about? The New Testament was not written at this time. The Bible that Jesus had was Genesis to Malachi. And when Jesus points to those Scriptures, he says they testify about me. So my friends, when you're reading Leviticus and you start seeing all these laws, don't jump from Leviticus. Jesus is there. He's there. The first five books—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy—Jesus is all through those pages. The text is about Jesus.

Therefore, when we come to the Old Testament, we must ask ourselves as we read and study it: How in these words is Christ speaking about himself to the church? He is talking to us in Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 to 3.

God's Command to Go

Looking there, the first thing I want us to see is God's command for Abraham to go. Go. He told him to go from your father's house, and this was a command. And in this command, we see God's plan for the redemption of the world. Now, we know that redemption did not come through Abraham but through his seed.

Genesis, I mean, Galatians says, and the seed was Jesus, the Messiah. This is why we proclaim Jesus in the church because there is salvation in no other name. My friends, Russell is a one trick pony when it comes to preaching. Every preacher should be a one trick pony. We don't have any other message. Now, there are different ways we can share that message but the message is the same. It's Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's all I got for you. That's all I have and my friends, that is enough.

Is Jesus already sending him crucified enough for us in this time of COVID? Is he enough? Is he enough when there is sickness that impacts your home? Is he enough when you lose your job? When your kids go crazy, when there is tension among spouses, when you are single and it seems that God has not allowed you to even be married and you desire so bad to be married. Is Jesus enough?

God told Abraham to go, to go. See, God's people are never called to be stagnant in the midst of life but always on the move. But if I'm honest, it's often like pulling teeth to get us to move. I understand this totally. My wife and I can testify that going, especially into the unknown, is too scary. We are here in this area because we distinctly sense God's call to plant. But early on, I tried not to voice how scared I was. I tried not to because I knew what God was calling us to. But God, like some people talk—like, church planting, you need to be an entrepreneur. I am not an entrepreneur. I don't want to start nothing. No. I just want to move into something that already exists. But I know that God was calling us to this and my wife was on board. Let's go do it. But there is still fear because it's easier to stay where we were. We were comfortable. We had friends. We were able to get to family quicker. You know, all of that—it was just God calling us to do something that we're not ready for, we don't think. But God called us to go to a place that was unfamiliar.

The Call to Move

So, friends, is God calling you out of complacency to join him in what he is doing with church planting? I want you to assess your heart and what God may be calling. Don't try to suppress that when you feel like, "I feel something here," but God, "No, I'm gonna push that aside." What is God doing in your soul by his spirit? Is church planting something that makes you afraid? God says, go.

Because I think the way that we talk about church planting today is, "Oh, that's amazing. We're going to charge the hills." And yes, that's part of it. But you don't know what's on those hills. They got mountain lions and all kind of animals just lurking and waiting. And I don't want to deal with no mountain lions. If I see one, I'm going to pass out. I don't know the difficulty. I gotta raise this money. What if people don't give me any money for this work in the church? It's so many uncertainties. And when we start thinking about all the things that will stop us from doing it, we will talk ourselves out of obeying what God has called us to.

But I want you to take comfort in the word of God to us that's given in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 8:

By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed, and set out for a place that he was going to receive an inheritance. He went out even though he did not know where he was going. — Hebrews 11:8

Abraham didn't know where he was going but God called him and he went because he trusted God. Friends, are we willing to trust God even when we don't know what's ahead? Even when we don't know what's in front of us? Is God's promise enough? I can make promises and I probably won't come through on them. But when God makes a promise, you can take that check to the bank and cash it. It's always going to come back sufficient funds. Is this promise enough?

And the reason I mentioned church planting: if we look out these doors, see cars riding up the street. There are people in those cars. There are houses with people in them. We need a thousand churches planted yesterday in the triangle. Who's going to plant those churches? And who's going to go establish the outpost of resistance against the enemy in that community that's going to actively push against the gates of hell? We need more churches.

But not only do we see God's command for Abraham to go. God told him to leave your land, your relatives, and your father's house to the land that I will show you. God told Abraham to leave the familiar. Leave the familiar. He called him a sacrifice. But what did he sacrifice? What did he sacrifice?

Since Abraham was the oldest child of his father, when his father died, Abraham would assume all of the responsibilities of his father. When we think of household in our context, we just think of maybe husband, wife, and children, but in Abraham's day, that included so much more. His household could've included 100 people, and Abraham would have had the responsibility of all of those people. With these responsibilities came land and property. Therefore, when Abraham left his father's household, he was giving up his inheritance.

He was giving up his inheritance. What are you willing to give up so that God will be glorified in His church? What are you willing to give up?

But how does this point us to Jesus? Paul said in Philippians chapter two starting in verse five:

He adopted the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. For this reason, God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. — Philippians 2:5-11

Abraham gave up a lot, but Jesus gave up so much more. You and I may give up a lot, but we will not give up what Jesus gave up. Jesus left the throne room of heaven where angels would worship Him. He came to this lowland of sorrow as a servant, tucked himself in a dirt suit, put skin on, and died—died for you and me. Jesus gave it all. He gave it all. He humbled himself.

Paul writing to the church at Philippi said, adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus. My friends, God will call us to leave the familiar and sacrifice for the benefit of others. Leave the familiar. Many of you here now, you're not from Raleigh. You left what was comfortable in your mom and dad's house or wherever you were. Maybe you went to college. Maybe you came here for a job. Do you know what it's like to leave the familiar? But God may be calling you to continue to move and leave the familiar. Is that okay? Is that okay with you?

Like Abraham, we must be willing to put our survival, our identity, our future, and our security in the hands of the Lord. All of it. We can't do to God like this—hold one hand behind our back with a fist closed and hold one hand out. We come with it all. God, you take it. Are you willing to do this for a church plant?

God's Plan for All Nations

There's one more thing I want to point out from the text. From Abraham came ethnic Jews, but God said to Abraham that all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. From the very beginning, friends, God has always been about multiethnicity. From the very beginning, even if our society does not want to acknowledge it, God has always been about multiethnicity. He has always had a plan to reclaim all people.

He would use the Jews—more specifically, Jesus was an ethnic Jew. He would use Jesus with his death on the cross not to die simply for Jews, but he died for me as an African American. He died for the Indonesian that's in Indonesia right now. He died for that person living in poverty in Kibera in Kenya, in Nairobi. Jesus's blood is sufficient for every ethnic group on the planet—every nation, tribe, tongue, and language.

Even in the Old Testament, God was giving us glimpses of blessing the nations using Abraham and his descendants. If we just start in Genesis, we come to the life of Joseph, and we read that story. It's just a hard story. Joseph, first of all, had some arrogance with him. But then his brothers, he goes into another man's house—Potiphar's. Potiphar's wife was out there. She wants to sleep with Joseph. Joseph's like, "No, no, this is not happening," and he runs. But she lies on him. Injustice. She lies on him. He gets thrown into prison.

He's in prison. God gives him favor in prison. He interprets dreams, but then they forget about it. Man, it's just one bad thing after another. Like, when am I going to get a break? Remember me. But then finally, they remembered him, mentioned him to Pharaoh. Pharaoh gets him, then Pharaoh elevates him. He interprets a dream, and when you read—I guess around chapter 47 or so—Joseph has set up a plan to store grain. Not just grain for the Egyptians, but grain for all of the nations around them. And what did those nations do? They came to Joseph to receive a blessing. To receive a blessing so that they would survive, that they would not starve.

But also in Second Kings five, God used Elisha to heal a Gentile of a skin disease.

His name was Naaman and then in First Kings 17, God will use Elijah to make sure that a woman and her son would not die in the midst of a famine. Again, God using those who are descendants of Abraham to be a blessing to the nations. All of this is in line with what we have in the New Testament concerning the greatest commandment.

Jesus would say, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. And when Jesus said that he is pointing back to the book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Again, I told you, all of the Old Testament is talking about Jesus.

The motivation that we have for planting a church or church planting is love. That's our motivation. It's love for those made in the very image of God. So therefore, we are willing to go because of our love for God and love for people. We are willing to leave the familiar and sacrifice because of our love for God and love for people.

And finally, we are willing to see our churches reflect ethnic unity that Jesus died for. By the way, every church that we read in the New Testament was a multi-ethnic church. Just notice how we in our day—and I'm not condemning us—but how we in our day have built back up the wall that Jesus died to tear down. Ethnic unity. And we pursue this because of our love for God and love for his people.

Symbiotic vs. Parasitic Growth

When I was in school, one of the subjects I hated was biology. I didn't care about how plants grow. I just wanted to eat the collard greens. I didn't like photosynthesis. But one of the things when you study biology, you would learn something called symbiotic growth. And symbiotic growth is growth that occurs between two organisms where both of the organisms benefit. Parasitic growth is growth that occurs when only one organism is growing because it's feeding off of another.

As Christians, we must ask ourselves how we are functioning in the organism of the body of Christ. Friends, are we spiritual parasites? If we are, then our thought is this: sing to me, preach to me, counsel me, help me but don't expect anything from me. That's being a parasite.

But as Christians, we must be interested in symbiotic growth because that says, yes, I have needs. Everyone in here has needs but I'm willing to give because everyone needs to benefit. What is the motivation of that? That's love for my neighbor. That's love for my neighbor.

Russell got a 101 problems. I do. But I'm committed to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Giving up myself for the church, for your benefit because there are some mutual exchange and there is the Bible will say iron sharpening iron. That's something that happens in both of us. Even when I'm hurting, even in my pain, but I can step into your life and give something.

That's what church planting will bring all of that out. Because you just gotta abandon folks to believe that Jesus, you can use us but we don't know what we're doing. My wife is tripping but I'm still coming with my wife. My wife thinks her husband is tripping but we still coming because Jesus, you are doing something here. Sickness enters my body and I don't know what's going on but I'm still coming to be a part of his body. I have a need but I still have something to give to the body of Christ.

You don't believe me? Paul will say this in the word of God in First Corinthians chapter 12:

As it is, there are many parts but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you or again, the head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you. On the contrary, those parts of the body that are weak or indispensable and those parts of the body that are that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor and our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect which our parts do not need. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable so that there would be no division in the body but that the members would have the same concern for each other. So, if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all members rejoice with it. — First Corinthians 12

Now, church planting, establishing a people in a real time and place on God's earth has always been God's heart. Always been God's heart. Don't be afraid to step out into that unknown. Asking yourself, what's going to happen here? Be willing to give of yourself.

And I'm not asking that for reconciliation because my prayer is out of Christ the King that there will be twenty, twenty-five, thirty churches that are birthed from here and that you would be a part of the people who go and establish those outposts of resistance. Active resistance. Why? Because of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.

Because of obeying the great commandment to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

Prayer

Let's pray. Father, I'm so thankful for the truth of your word. I'm thankful, Lord, that Jesus, you are at work even now. You are the head of the church—Christ the King—reconciliation, resurrection, life in other churches in this area, Lord God.

We are local churches here in this Triangle area seeking to make much of you, Jesus. So, Lord, I pray that you will send people. I pray that as you are establishing new churches, Lord God, that there will be people who are far from you who will be drawn to you, that you would rescue, that you would save.

If, Lord, we turn our eyes to the culture and the news outlets, we will lose hope. But I pray, Father, that we would turn to the timeless truth of your word—reading your word, hearing you speak to us. For your word is alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. Realizing that your word is more up to date than our news outlets and even our newspapers, we could trust you, Lord God.

Glory to your name. I pray in and through Christ the King. Presbyterian, glorify your name in reconciliation. Glorify your name in all the churches that proclaim the name of Jesus Christ. We ask this in the name of Christ Jesus. Amen.

Now, I want to