Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This morning we have a full agenda today. So you are here on a great day and if you're joining us online, oh, you're going to wish you had been here.
So today is an interesting day. The first thing we want to do today is we will get to the message, which is one of my best. I swear it's one of the best I've ever done.
But we will get there eventually. But we have a lot of things to do first and afterwards.
And the first thing I want to do is something that is going to make me very sad. So I am going to need some help doing this one.
Many of you know the Patterson family, they've been with us since the beginning, since we launched our church way back nine years ago.
As we launched it and as I talked with Megan and Chris and we talked about ways that the Lord could use us to do ministry together, it became apparent that they just have these servants hearts that are unique, formidable, life changing, sacrificial, all of the wonderful adjectives you could add to that word.
They have demonstrated that over and over in our church and for nine years we've done ministry shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand.
Some of the things that you may have enjoyed that our church has done, for instance, the baptistry this brought to you care of Christopher has been very instrumental in helping us do all the baptisms that we do and like it's easy to see it all set up, but it takes a lot of work to do all of that and figure out how to get water from there to here and make it work.
Working in the sound booth, working with setup and tear down holy smokes, that was a lot of work.
I wonder if we added up all those hours, Christopher. I wonder how many hours that would be for eight years of setup teardown at Fountain View.
But it has been a joy to serve with Christopher as he has used his gifts around here and helped us with everything from serving to teaching to all different things that we have done. The backpack ministry has largely been on his plate and he has done wonderful things with that as well as we bring backpacks filled with school supplies to the children of Carol Stream.
So List could go on and on, but it has been a privilege to serve with him. And then Megan, if I could just take a minute and talk about Megan.
You may not know this, but I drag Megan out of bed at six o' clock in the morning every Wednesday morning and we get together and we have coffee and we try and wake up each other as we talk about plans going forward and I give Her a whole new list of things to do every single week. And she does it all well, most of the time with a smile.
And she is wonderful to work with.
She has a large heart for seeing the church grow. And so I'm really grateful that we are in the middle of a church series that we are doing as we watch them take the next step that the Lord has for them. Megan has served in our church also for the last nine years. I can remember her bringing Corbin in and bringing Corbin, and she came to me and she said, hey, listen, Corbin walked. And I said, get out of here. Corbin was walking. And Corbin, you were like, this small.
And she said, corbin's walking. So I went into the nursery, and she said, watch this. And I can still remember it. I can say, corbin, you push yourself up and you walk towards your mom. And I was going, first time ever. First time ever. And I'm here to see it. And since then, the Lord has blessed you with amazing little girls to add to your. To add to your family. And we are grateful for all of you and that we have had the opportunity to watch the Lord grow you and grow our church through you. And so a couple of things. That's the introduction. Believe it or not, this is something that we are going to give the Pattersons as they take their next step. They're going to be moving away from us into a.
A different ministry that the Lord's calling them to. And we're going to pray for them as they. As they make their way from here and follow the Lord in obedience to what he has for them next. But I did this little thing that we all can help with. All right, so this is going to be in the room as you walk in to the church. This will be in the cafeteria area, and there's markers there, and you can say something on here. And this will be a keepsake for the Pattersons that they can take with them.
And so you can write all around. Write anywhere you want on here, because I know we didn't all bring cards today. So that's for you to participate with.
And we have a couple more things. So without further ado, let's invite the Pattersons up. Would you guys mind coming up here? All right, here's the Patterson family.
Such cuties. All right, I'm going to ask the elders to come up as well.
The microphone is right there. Thank you.
Yeah. So we wanted to take a moment this morning as we spend time with them and honoring them. We have a couple of things for you this morning, and then Cupcakes. Cupcakes at the end, too. So don't leave. We've got some cupcakes for you to have together.
I tried to figure out something that Megan and the kids would like, and cupcakes are at the top of the list.
So we're going to spend a little time with them afterwards. You can sign that note as well. We also have.
They have been very involved in the children's ministry, particularly Megan and the kids. Actually, Corbin will tell you anything you need to know about dinosaurs and sharks, and he keeps them well entertained back there.
And so we have invited the children to come in and be a part of this as well. So are the children here? I can't see. Okay, they're all there. All right. So, Helen, why don't you come up and you can take. You can take part in this as well. For all of the ministry that these guys have done and the children growing up in our children's ministry.
Jojo rushes the stage.
It's always fun to work with you, Jojo. So I'm going to give the microphone to you, Helen. You can stand right up here in the light
[00:06:26] Speaker B: for the Paris and family, especially for my friend me.
I love you very much.
The kids we want to miss very much and Village Kids Church are very grateful for how the faithfulness of the kids there. The teachers are very grateful for their growing their faith. I can tell. I told Covid and no doubt that the Lord is going to use you as a great man of God who loved the word of God. He memorized many Bible verses faithfully in. In the inherit too.
And these beautiful ladies. It's going to be great moments of faith. So we are very happy for that. And so thank you, Christopher as well as I talked to him this morning. They're going to miss him very much too, during the communion time. And so it was a pleasure. And so we have something special for you guys.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: So this is a collage of photos through the years as your children have grown in the ministry. And so we've taken lots, apparently lots of pictures of your family. And so we've put them together so that you remember your time as your children have grown together through our church time together, through our ministry together. So thank you, Helen, for that. Excellent.
All right, I'm gonna give the elders a moment if you guys would like to share a little something short. And then we're going to pray over them. All right.
[00:07:58] Speaker C: It's a morning of, you know, that we as an elder team, as a leadership team, have not been looking forward to, frankly. But on the other hand, we are happy to send the Pattersons on to the next chapter of their life, knowing the great contributions that they have made here and even the contributions they made before Village east, as they both served in Bartlett. And I've known Megan her whole life. And that's just been a wonderful, just privilege and blessing for Deb and I. And times like this are tough, but they're also times that we recognize the providence of God and we recognize that he has given them a heart for ministry. Both of them being the servants that they are, which we can see are now being instilled in their children. And we know that God will be using them wherever they may land here in ways that they just cannot even imagine or conceive of. So we have this morning nothing but the great blessing of just being able to hug them, but at the same time, knowing that God has a great purpose for them. And we joyfully this morning can just wish them our greatest blessing in that.
[00:09:22] Speaker D: Chris and Megan, two words come to mind. First is servants, which you are. And second of all, you are faithful servants. And we as elders, just praise God for your blessing upon our particular church. And we wish you every. Every blessing going forward, clarity with regard to direction and flourish as only God could provide for you.
Yeah.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: And I just want to say, when I joined east and we were set up, tear down church, and I saw Christopher setting up and tearing down every
[00:09:57] Speaker D: week, that just moved my heart so much.
[00:10:00] Speaker A: That's why I joined the setup team was because of you and the good example you set.
And through that, we became great, great friends with you, with you, Megan, your entire family.
[00:10:12] Speaker D: And I'm just so grateful for all
[00:10:15] Speaker A: the blessings that have come from that.
[00:10:17] Speaker D: And I'm going to miss you a lot, brother.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: Yep.
Brent, would you do us a favor of praying over the Patterson family as we close this time out?
[00:10:27] Speaker D: Oh, Father God, we just come to you right now, as we always do, just in awe of your. Your grace and your mercy and your love for each of us. You love the Patterson family, and we are so excited and confident in that fact. And we pray now that you might give them strength and discernment and wisdom and diligence to continue to seek you with all of their heart and mind and soul and strength and bring their kids along in that endeavor all to the end, that they will magnify your name continually and bring honor and glory to you and advance your kingdom in ways even beyond they can't imagine now, just because you are the God that you are, so please set them apart for your highest purposes. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: Amen.
Good job, guys.
All right, so you should know they are not leaving the area, so you will see them once in a while.
In and out, maybe, but we're anxious to see. Love you, brother. We're anxious to see where the Lord takes them next for ministry.
All right, thank you, guys for coming up and doing that. I want to. Nope, got it. Thank you. I want to take us to the next thing we have to do, which we have to do, we get to do, which is once in a while, we get to do this wonderful thing of bringing in new members to the church. Now, we have a lot of people that attend the church, but we also have people who belong to the church, belong to our specific church, Village Church East. These are folks that get to serve in different ministries with oversight and accountability. That doesn't come with, like, a regular attendee. Anyone is welcome to attend church. We love it when people are here.
But once in a while, people are saying, you know, I want to do more. I want to get more involved.
I want to be in place of leadership like the Pattersons and do a little bit more for the Lord. Here in Carroll Stream, those folks go through a membership class, and then they join us as official members of Village Church East. We have two this morning, and I'm excited to invite up Teresa and Jessica, who will be joining the church this morning.
So can I have the lights in the front? Can we do the lights down here? Thank you. On the Baptistery? Lights on the Baptistery. Thank you.
All right, Teresa and Jessica. Jessica has served us in so many different areas. She just got baptized. How many weeks ago was that? That was. You can hang on to that.
Two weeks ago. Yeah. So we're excited about the way that the Lord has worked in Jessica's life. And now she has decided to make this an official thing. How long have you been coming to church here? Like, forever?
[00:13:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
Honestly, keep asking me. I don't know.
How long were you guys at?
[00:13:37] Speaker E: I don't know.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: A while. Did we turn this off?
It is. All right. Sorry, Sorry.
[00:13:43] Speaker B: I actually did membership class back during. During COVID So I feel like it was a while.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: Covid. Let's all forget about that for a while.
Jessica, she has helped us with so many different ministries, and she has a big heart for our youth. Today we're taking them to Dave and Buster's. And, no, you're not welcome to come, but all the kids are gonna go to Dave and Buster's. We're gonna have a blast.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: This is why I have to serve.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: You're all welcome to.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: Yeah, you're all welcome to come.
We're going to have a blast. But Jessica has been serving with the kids. She went on our trip last year. We went to North Carolina and helped with relief from Hurricane Helene.
And it's been wonderful to see you grow and use your gifts. So let me just ask you a question. Why are you wanting to join Village Church east today?
[00:14:33] Speaker B: I think just to make it official. I think my heart has been in VCE for a long time, and this is just an official membership day for me to be able to formally commit. But my heart has been here for a long time, so I'm grateful for the opportunity to officially be a member.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: Yeah, you and your family have been stipends here, so. We're not stipends. What's the word I'm looking for? Yes. Yeah, you've been here, so you've been a part of our family for so long, it's hard to remember. Remember when you weren't here, but.
Okay, good. Anything else you wanted? Do you want to say anything you hope to achieve through our church?
[00:15:12] Speaker B: I absolutely love the youth, so I hope our youth ministry continues to grow.
I consider you all family, so do not be surprised to continue to get hugs from me, whether they're welcome or not.
And yeah, I hope any ideas you guys have to grow the youth program. Program, I would welcome it. But I enjoy serving you all and being fulfilled by the joy that I get from each and every one of you. So thanks for the opportunity to be a part of your family as well.
[00:15:41] Speaker A: Awesome. Thank you, Jessica.
Teresa, it's so good to see you up here. Teresa is a friend through my wife is the first way I get to meet Teresa. We went. I think it was at your house. We went over to your house and did. Was that when I installed the tv?
Was that the first time?
[00:16:00] Speaker E: No. He wouldn't let you install the tv?
[00:16:02] Speaker A: No, he wouldn't let me install it. Oh, that's right. He didn't install the tv.
[00:16:04] Speaker E: You helped move the furniture.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: I remember the furniture. Somebody else could install the tv. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. People don't let me have tools. So, Teresa, you've been a good friend for all these last couple of months, and it's been amazing to see how you bless my wife for years.
You may not know this, but Theresa has a large heart for serving, and she actually has served on the foreign Field in foreign missions for quite some time. And in South America.
[00:16:36] Speaker E: Central America.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Central America.
[00:16:37] Speaker E: Honduras.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Honduras, yeah. So we're excited that you have gone through the class and you want to make this an official family moment where you join our church. It's been a really special day. So why would you like. What's the onus for joining the church? Why would you like to do this?
[00:16:55] Speaker E: So when I first started attending, I only attended virtual health wise. It was really difficult for me to get out.
And so that was probably the summer of 2024, I think. And so last year in January, my good buddy Beth invited me to the women's ministry, the Bible study at her house and was only four minutes away from my house. And I thought, I can do this, I can do this. And I loved the opportunity, getting to know so many of the women there.
And so then the very first Sunday that I attended officially was the celebration Sunday of opening this.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. I did not realize that.
[00:17:39] Speaker E: And the most exciting part was I had so many friends here because of all the women that I had met in the Bible study.
And it's my family all lives in other states, so it's just me. So gaining. It's interesting you said family, because gaining this new family has just been such a blessing to me. And I still attend Bible study. And now even just yesterday, I'm like, oh, this friend isn't here. Oh, that friend's not here. But there are so many other new friends that I'm getting to know and loving and meeting so many others. And so this place, it's like coming home. It's just a family time together, and I love that part of this.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: Well, we're grateful you're here, Teresa. Yeah. Awesome. Good job.
All right. I would like to pray for these ladies. And as the Lord takes you from here and uses your gifts in different ways to bless our church.
So if you wouldn't mind, let's pray together as church. Father, we're grateful for Teresa and we're grateful for Jessica. How you have blessed them with these gifts, how you have worked in their lives, how you have led them through so many different paths of faith and journeys of life, challenges, low times, high times, but always, Lord, to bring them to this place where they would make this commitment through Village Church east to lock arms with us and to do ministry here in Carroll Stream, the surrounding area. We are anxious to see what you will do with our church. We're so happy to see the way that you're using us already.
Now, will you use Jessica and Teresa and their gifts in amazing ways so that we can do things beyond what we could even think or imagine already. Thank you for their gifts. Thank you for their willingness to serve.
May you transform lives because of their decision today.
And Father, thank you for our church watch over us and use us in the future. All our gifts serving together. For your honor and glory, I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Thank you very much, ladies. Thank you.
All right, that should be the end, don't you think?
Yeah. Don't answer that.
That's right. We got reservations at Dave and Buster's. That's really important. All right.
You're probably wondering why you see behind me a ship wheel. So I feel like I need to do something this morning to explain why that's there. So if you'll bear with me, We've been working through a series called Redemptive Church.
As we've been doing that, it's been really awesome to break into the passage that we read this morning together, Ephesians 2:19 to 22, and just kind of watch that verse form a new way of thinking for me or refresh a new way of thinking for me about the church and the importance of the church, especially in 2026. Our world is changing.
Sometimes I think our world is changing faster than I can keep up with. There's new ideas, there's new thoughts, there's new societal influences, there's new challenges for leadership. There are new. There's this country being attacked or that country being attacked.
And all it does, I think for a lot of us is it just makes us worry or angry or fearful.
And when we go through those moments, we need a stable force in our lives.
And I think over the last couple of months, as I've been putting this series together, I've been impacted in a fresh way of how that stable force. Force is seen in the church, in local churches, in churches that minister in areas of the world, in areas of the country where we are able to make an impact for Jesus Christ and help families hold it together.
And so we're going to be doing a two part message. This one's called Unstoppable Together.
It's.
Our screens are really dark, aren't they?
Oh, it's that slide. Okay.
But we're gonna be working through this Unstoppable together over the next two weeks.
And one thing, one reason I want to do this is because a lot of even happened last week. A lot of times I get asked this question, what makes your church unique?
I don't know if people ever ask you that question, what makes your church unique? And so I kind of have thought it through, like, what are some things that make our church unique? The supremacy of Jesus. That's definitely one that makes us unique. Jesus is supreme over all the authority of Scripture. That definitely makes our church unique. We bow to the authority of scripture. We look for Jesus truth, God's truth in scripture. Jesus quoted it, God wrote it, so we should really know it and use it for his honor and glory.
Salvation through faith, that's another thing that's unique.
There's no crawling on broken glass in order to impress God here. Every one of us in here is a sinner. We are sinners saved by grace. And because of that blood of Jesus Christ, it makes us children, sons of God. And so we believe in salvation by grace through faith. That's a cornerstone of a church believer's baptism. Not every church does this. You're going to get to see this at the end of our service again, three weeks in a row. This is why I'm wearing this shirt. It is cleaned every single week, just to let you know.
And we have bold and active engagement.
This church is not built on any one person's shoulders, as you have already seen this morning. As we have talked about ministry that has been shared with Patterson family, with Jessica, with Teresa. Now, as ministry is done here, it's not done by any one person.
It is an active engagement where everybody is called to serve and use their gifts.
Everyone is called to serve because we don't follow one person.
We don't follow one person here in this congregation right now. We follow one leader, and the leader we follow is Jesus Christ. Right?
So for the next two weeks, we're going to talk about the unstoppable force that the church is as we serve together, following the lead of Jesus Christ. And the verse that just laid on my head literally this week is Matthew 16:18. I don't know if you've ever heard this verse, but it's a pretty popular one. It says, on this rock, Jesus is talking to his disciples, and he says, on this rock, I will build my church. And you want to say this because it's so powerful and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now, one thing you need to know about gates. Do gates move?
Well, they swing, maybe, but do they actually move from place? No, you put posts down, you put gates on it, and it keeps something in or it keeps something out. That's what gates do.
So when Jesus says, on this rock, I will build my church, and the Gates of hell shall not prevail against it. What he's saying is, I'm going to build a church that is so formidable that it is not going to stand still, but it is going to go against the gates hell has put up. And we're going to charge in and we're going to take people for Jesus Christ.
We're going in enemy territory.
The gates of hell will not hold the church back.
You may feel like when you watch TV or the news or something like that, you may feel like the gates of hell are prevailing, that the church is not making a difference. But when Jesus intends to. To set up the church, he intends for it to be a moving, unstoppable force that works so well together that it tears down the gates of the enemy and it brings those who are captive to the things of this world into the freedom of Jesus Christ.
When I was a kid, I used to play hockey.
And then I.
Nobody asked me to be on their team a whole lot because, well, I played hockey and then I learned to play basketball. And there. Nobody asked me to be on their team a whole lot because I played basketball like I played hockey.
And you can't play basketball like you play hockey.
If you do that. You get called on a lot of fouls and things like that.
But it's a lot of fun to play basketball like you would play hockey. I had a problem because I would.
I would want to be in everybody else's lane. I would be wanting to. The ball's over there. I'm going to go get the ball. I would never stay in my position.
You know, it's a free for all, and it's a small place in hockey and you can move fast with your skates. So I treated the basketball court exactly the same way, and I had a problem staying in my own lane.
The church is very interesting because in the church, we are gifted differently, but we make up one body together. We are gifted to serve together. We are called to use our gifts together. We are to be actively building God's family through the church.
So we need to work together.
And the challenge sometimes for churches is working together.
In fact, on the practical side of things, how many of you actually been in a room where you tried to get everybody to agree on the same thing?
Like, that's hard to do over Thanksgiving dinner, much less in a room full of people that are totally different from you. And yet in the church like this one, in the local church, we are made up of people with all different backgrounds and all different ideas and all different experiences. And we are called to come together in the same place and work together. This is a high calling. It's very difficult to do. In fact, reality shows are based on the fact that, that this doesn't work.
Reality shows put people from different backgrounds, different experiences, and they put them in a small area and they say, okay, now here's a project you have to do, and if you don't do it well, somebody's getting kicked out and you want to know how to figure out who that somebody is. You get to vote and see who the weak one is. And we're kicking them off the island, Right? That's every reality show, because the world does not work well together.
In fact, in our flesh, it's very difficult to do. But in the church, it's a beautiful thing to see.
In the church, we are gifted differently, we are talented differently. God gives us different ways that we can serve one another. And instead of fighting and bickering with one another, when we do it as God intends, it becomes a beautiful picture of the family of God.
When this happens in the church, when it goes south in the church, it's never a fun thing to see. But the church was never supposed to be Survivor.
God loves structure.
So it goes without saying that he's going to plan a church that works with structure. And so for the next two weeks, we're going to talk about what does that structure look like in the church?
How do we work together in the church in a way that blesses and glorifies God and doesn't cause infighting. So today we're going to be talking about who builds the church. And next week, we're going to talk about how does the church work together. The first thing I want you to know this morning is this. The church is unstoppable because of who, not what it is built upon.
Historically, some people would say that the church is built on the apostle Peter, the disciple Peter.
And so I want to give you one of the most misinterpreted verses of scripture traditionally, and this is what it is, Matthew 16:18.
Here's what it says. It actually is the same verse I quoted before, but here's the entirety of the verse it says. I tell you, Jesus says, you are Peter. He's talking to Peter.
And on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Now, some might say, according to this verse, Craig, Jesus is building the church on Peter, on a person, on a disciple, on an apostle. But that is not what Jesus says. Here, and it doesn't agree with any of the rest of Scripture.
So we have an immediate problem if we're going to interpret this verse that way. Paul's role, or Peter's role was that he was a leader in the church. He wasn't a foundation of it.
Jesus is going to build his church on a person, but it's not Peter.
So Jesus was quizzing. Let me give you a little bit of background of this verse. This is going to be fun for us to do. Jesus is quizzing his disciples in this passage of Scripture, in Matthew, chapter six. And as he's quizzing his disciples, he starts off in verse 13 by saying this. So this is a couple of verses before verse 18.
Jesus asks his disciples. He asks those that are around. He says, now, when Jesus came to the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is?
All right, you're out there, you're rubbing shoulders with people. You're talking to the Jewish people or waiting for the Messiah. Listen, they all know me.
So let me ask you, what are you hearing?
What are people around you saying about me?
What do people. Who do people say that I am?
The disciples answered him, and they said, well, some say that you're Elijah. I've heard that before. Some say that you're one of the prophets from the Old Testament. Some people say that you're John the Baptist, you know, reincarnated, because John the Baptist had his head cut off by this point.
Some people say that you're Jeremiah. They gave him a list of things because they've been hearing this among the crowds that they are engaged with.
And then Jesus said, he doesn't even say, oh, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Doesn't say that.
Instead, he says in verse 15, he looks at them, his disciples, and he said, okay, you've heard from everybody else, but who do you say that I am?
You disciples that have been doing ministry with me. Who do you say that I am? And of course, like usual, Peter speaks up first because he's the guy that. I've got something to say, everybody. Would you just hang on a second? You're going to want to hear this. And so Simon Peter speaks up first, and he says, you are the Christ.
Verse 16.
The Son of the living God.
Christ is a word for Messiah. It is not Jesus last name, Jesus Christ. Christ is the Greek word for Messiah.
Old Testament is Mashiach.
This is a similar word used in both languages to point to the fact that Jesus is the Promised One, sent by God.
So Peter says, you are the Christ, the one we've been waiting for, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered him and said, this is a great one. Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but the Father, my Father who is in heaven.
Peter says, you're the one we've been waiting for, the Promised One, the Promised One that's coming to save us.
And Jesus says, peter, that's fantastic. Good theology.
Good call. Excellent. I'm not Jeremiah, not one of the prophets. I'm not reincarnated John the Baptist. I am Mashiach, Messiah, Christ.
And then he says in the next verse, I tell you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Jesus makes a pun.
Do you know what the word Peter means?
Petros is the Greek word. Anyone know what the word Peter means?
Rock.
Actually, it means little pebble.
It means stone, a small rock.
So Jesus says, you are Peter, using his name and knowing what it means, you are the small pebble.
And on this rock, different word. Petra. Do you know what Petra means?
Petra means a boulder, a large mass, or bedrock.
Jesus says, I tell you, he makes a pun. He says, you are Peter small stone. And you have said something that is cornerstone, something that is cornerstone to the church. You are Peter, and on this rock, this bedrock confession, I am going to build my church. And what is the bedrock confession that has just been said by Peter? The bedrock confession is you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. That is the bedrock of the church.
Not an apostle, not a disciple.
You are. Peter is simply saying, you are the rock, Jesus. You are the cornerstone on which the church is built.
Now, I want to make sure that you understand this. I'm not pulling this out of thin air. Not even Peter thought he was the rock that the church was built on.
If you go to Rome today, you go to that big basilica that's in all the pictures of Rome, and you can see that Peter is buried.
His grave is right in the middle of that big building.
And there has been an idea that Peter is the bedrock on which the church operates.
But not even Peter thought that.
How do I know that? Because later on, Peter would write a book that we have in the New Testament. Actually, he wrote two of them. First Peter and two Peter.
This is where we get these wonderful words from that I've actually used in this series already. First Peter 2, 9. But you are a Chosen race, a royal priesthood, talking about the church, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. He's talking about the church.
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Church, you are holy. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't feel holy a whole lot in my life.
And I do things that don't seem very holy in my life. However, according to God, if I'm a part of the church, if I'm a follower of Jesus, built on the bedrock of Jesus Christ, I'm a part of his family, I'm a part of his church. Therefore I am a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.
Right before this, Peter actually clarified a teaching from the Old Testament that talked about the church. If you back up from this verse right here and you go up a little further to verse five, Peter says, you yourselves, like living stones, still talking about the church, are being built up as a spiritual house. That sounds like the Ephesians 2 passage we read, right? You're being built up into a dwelling place for God. This is same language. You yourselves, church, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture. He refers to the Old Testament to talk about the church that is being established in the New Testament and in our lives today. Verse 6. For it stands in Scripture. Isaiah wrote this, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious. And whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Peter was very aware the cornerstone that he's talking about was not him.
The cornerstone that Jesus talked about was not him.
The cornerstone of the church is Jesus Christ, prophesied in the Old Testament through Isaiah. This passage is a quote from the book of Isaiah. In the Old Testament, everybody knew, and Peter himself knew that the church is built on a foundation. But it wasn't him.
It was his answer to Jesus so many years before when he heard Jesus say, who do you say that I am?
And Peter says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And then he remembers what Jesus said. Blessed are you, Peter little stone. And on this big stone you just confessed, I will build my church.
Which helps us appreciate Ephesians 2 a little bit more. So back into Ephesians. This is the passage that we read this morning together. Here's what it says. So then you are no longer Strangers and aliens. But you are fellow citizens with the saints and. And members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
Christ Jesus himself being the what? Church Cornerstone.
So here's what I want to tell you.
This is the one thing I need you to remember from this morning. If you remember anything, remember this.
When the truth about Jesus is right and Christians submit to him, the church will stand strong because it's on the right foundation.
We don't build on a person. Not the pastor, not the elders, not even the disciples.
We build a church on Jesus Christ.
He is the cornerstone.
It's all for him. It's all in him and it's all through him. And before Jesus leaves the earth, he has a prayer with his disciples.
And in this prayer in John 17, we call this the high priestly prayer. Jesus in his prayer reminds these disciples they are going to be servants in the church. Just like you have seen servants stand in front of you this morning. They are going to be a part of using their gifts to build the church, just like you have seen people in front of you this morning. But they are not the cornerstone of the church.
They are not calling the shots. No single one of them was going to be the foundation.
And they don't have to worry about doing this alone. Because Christ says, I will be in you. Here's what he says in his high priestly prayer as he prays in front of his disciples the last night he's with them before the betrayal. John 17:22. The glory that you have given me. Jesus is praying to the Father. I have given them that they may be one, even as we are one.
Read the next phrase with me, if you would, please. I in them and you in me. I in them and you in me. Talking about the church.
I in them and you in me.
That they may become perfectly one.
So that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me.
The church is the best example of the presence of Jesus Christ on the planet that has ever been.
That's why church doesn't operate like Survivor.
That's why we don't throw people off the island.
Because every one of us has a part to play. A place where we can use our gifts. More on this next week.
But this is meant to be a place where we all become family, using our gifts to bless Christ who is the cornerstone, through what we do to serve one another and to serve our community.
The bond of the church is unbreakable because it's out of this world Jesus promises to be in us. No longer would they have to go through a temple or a Jewish system or sacrifices. They wouldn't have to travel to Jerusalem to do all the sacrifices. They wouldn't have to pay for all of those lambs and those bulls and those goats and the pigeons that they had to sacrifice. No longer would they have to go to a place to meet with God.
There wouldn't be any more need for Solomon's temple or Moses tabernacle or Nehemiah's wall or Abraham's name even. All of that stuff would be lost in the overwhelming, formidable force of the church.
Everything they knew about, everything they had done as children growing up doing, all their sacrifices and all of their feasts and all of their festivals and everything for these folks was about to be swallowed up in this new entity called the Church. And it would be built on the foundation laid by the apostles and the prophets of the Old Testament as they looked forward and saw this church coming.
And the cornerstone would be Jesus Christ. Because once he arrived and shed his blood and died on that cross and rose from the dead, he gives us this cornerstone so that we can become family.
You can't have church without Jesus Christ.
There is no church without Jesus Christ. He is the cornerstone of the church.
He found it.
Verse 21. Here's what it says. In whom Christ Jesus, the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place by God. The whole structure is joined together by the Spirit. The Spirit becomes the glue that pulls this church together. Not a human glue, but a supernatural glue. And this Holy Spirit, when you follow Jesus Christ as your Savior, you accept him as your Savior. You give your life to him. The Holy Spirit takes up residency in you.
We're going to baptize Jimmy in a few minutes here.
Jimmy's testimony is that he gave his life to Jesus a long time ago, but he's being baptized today because he wants you to know where his heart is with Jesus.
This Holy Spirit brings together people from all different backgrounds. It doesn't matter what you've been through, what language you're, what country you're from, it doesn't matter. Literally, the Bible says every tribe, every tongue, every nation, every culture, every time period would be knit together in this thing called the church.
The church is a dwelling that God chooses to abide in.
Ephesians 2. 22. Remember, in him, you two are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives through His Spirit. God doesn't live in denominations. God lives in his people.
And when his people gather together like this, his people are the visible representation of the Church.
When Paul writes to the church at Corinth, he tries to explain them to them. And he said, listen, it's not externals that bind you together. It's not that you look the same, it's not that you're all the same color, you speak all the same language. It's not that what makes you one as family is the Holy Spirit. Second Corinthians 3, 3 says this and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God. Not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of the human heart.
We're family because Christ's blood flows through us spiritually and that makes us family.
One more thing, the Church is built on the promise that Jesus doesn't leave us, but leads us.
Promise of Jesus is that he doesn't leave us, but he leads us.
And so the Church is a living organism, a growing community, a family that exists outside of time and outside of space.
A family where we have brothers and sisters we haven't even met yet. Brothers and sisters who have died and gone before us. Brothers and sisters who have yet to accept Christ as their Savior.
The Church is not a building, it's not a philosophy. It's a group saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. The Church is alive and life giving entity in the world today.
It's a group of followers who follow Jesus Christ and want others to follow him as well.
The Church is not hindered by geography.
There's no boundaries where the Church cannot enter.
The world will try to put up boundaries, but we break through those boundaries as the Church because the gates of hell can't keep us out.
And the Church is not hindered by time.
Those who have been martyred for their faith today, it's still going on today.
Those brothers and sisters we've never met before are part of our family and they're being slaughtered today because of their faith for Jesus Christ. The heroes of the Reformation 400 years ago, brothers and sisters of us today and those Church bodies who met in Paul's day under the secrecy of, of darkness.
They met because Rome was hunting them down to kill them.
Christianity was becoming a problem for Rome and so they had to meet in secret. You may not know this, but have you ever seen the fish symbol? Here's a fish symbol. Ever seen this on somebody's car?
The fish symbol is a sign of where the Church was Meeting while Rome was persecuting them.
This was like. This was like, if you want to meet as a church, you looked for where the fish symbol would be, and there you knew you had brothers and sisters.
When you see the fish symbol, that's a. That's a picture of the alpha, the letter alpha in the Greek. You probably don't care about all this, but it was just a picture of that morphed into something that was beautiful. Actually. It became a picture of the Ixus, the fish. But this was where you knew you could identify places where you can find brothers and sisters.
So that's a very special traditional symbol from history. There's also another one. You may not know this, but there's an anchor. Every time you would see this anchor, once in a while, you would see fish that were attached to the anchor. But the anchor also became a symbol for where you could find the church.
So if you're in a city that you don't know people and you don't want to get in trouble for your faith, you'd look for where you would find a fish. Or you look for. You could find an anchor.
These are ways that you could identify where your brothers and sisters were. Because there's family in this city. You haven't met them yet. They're hiding, but they're there.
One would think that with the power flowing through us, the power of God through these families, through space, through time, the church would remain overwhelming.
But in many local churches, power would not be an adequate term to describe the perceived potential.
In fact, you may have been hurt by one of these churches in the past that operates more like survivor than it does like a family of God.
Too often, churches fail in their power and potential. They don't live up to their calling. They live a mundane existence.
They never achieve their potential through the blood of Jesus Christ. And once in a while, these churches, these local churches will rot from within.
Sometimes there are church bodies that exist without even being a threat to the evil one.
They haven't broken down any gates together because it's all they can do to just live with one another.
C.S. lewis wrote a series of books called Screwtape Letters. Has anyone ever heard of the Screwtape Letters? It's a great series of books.
You may know C.S. lewis because he did Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe. What's the series, though?
Chronicles of Narnia.
But he also wrote this book called Screwtape Letters. And this is a collection of letters from a head demon to all sibling demons on how to take the church down.
It's really a unique read if you ever want to read it.
And in the book, the senior demon gives the junior demons ideas on how to get rid of the Church and how to take Christians down.
And here's one of my favorite passages. Here's what it says.
He writes to his demon that he's training this head demon. And he says this. One of our great allies at this time is the Church itself. This is a demon talking to a demon.
One of our great allies, friends, at this present time is the Church itself. Don't misunderstand me. I don't mean the Church as we see her spread throughout time and space and rooted in eternity. Terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy.
But fortunately, it is quite invisible to these humans.
Does that break your heart?
It breaks my heart because I think too often that's true.
The Church does not realize the potential of the power that flows through them to change the world for Jesus Christ.
God reminds us that as the world sails through time, the Church becomes more and more essential. I give you one of my favorite verses of scripture again, Hebrews 10:24.
Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. Church.
Let us how to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.
Not neglecting to meet together as the habit is of some, but encouraging one another. Would you read this next phrase with me? And all the more. As you see the day approaching, you know what day that is?
The end.
When judgment comes.
Church.
God sees the Church as an essential, formidable, unstoppable.
When it's led by Jesus Christ to take prisoners out of this world for Jesus Christ and lead them into truth. And this is so essential.
As the dark gets darker, the Church gets stronger.
You know when light works the best?
When does light work the best? When it's bright outside and you turn on a light.
When the sun is shining and you turn a light on, first thing I say to my kids is, please turn that light off. It's really unnecessary, right?
But you know when the light is necessary, when it's dark.
Perhaps the church in Carroll Stream has yet to realize the potential they have to possess. Perhaps the Church has yet to fully grasp the power of God that flows through them.
I wonder how the local church gathering would look and function if they truly believed that they were a formidable force poised together without barriers of time and space against the kingdoms of this world. I wonder how that would change the way we prayed. I wonder how it would change the way we sang. I wonder if it would change the way we read Scripture. I wonder if it changed the way we fellowship or reached into the world with the truth of Jesus Christ, with the boldness of the gospel of Jesus. I wonder if the timid church would stand strong among the silenced voices all around us. I wonder if the light would be brighter, the love would be greater and the movement would be irresistible. I wonder if we could grasp the words of our Lord. I tell you verse 18 of Matthew 16. You are Peter on this rock, on this confession that I am strong and working through you I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The church holds the potential to be the greatest adversary to the kingdom of evil in our world. You should take a picture of that because that's good. But the church looks really bad when it doesn't do it right.
Church holds the greatest potential to be the greatest adversary to the kingdom. If you think the world is getting more and more evil, you should run to the church.
Find a church where you. Where you feel like you can serve, where you feel like family that preaches God's word, that does baptisms, that believes in grace, that believes in faith and not works, that holds up Jesus and doesn't not talk about him, that follows God's word first and foremost. Find a church and get involved. Run to it, not away from it.
God works through his church and he works through us. And every church should be reminded. Every member of every church. The gates of hell doesn't stand a chance in the face of an advancing and bold church.
Couple of so what's if Jesus is our foundation, this is not your church, it's his.
Don't you like that? Some people say, well that's Craig's church. Please don't ever say that. This is not Craig's church. It's a church where Craig leads and serves and attends. But it is not Craig's church. It is Jesus Church in Carroll Stream.
Because of that, we don't get to define it. I don't get to shape it around my preferences. I don't get to treat it like I'm buying something from a store.
It doesn't belong to me. It doesn't belong to you. It belongs to him. He bought it. He builds it. He sustains it. His work is done through it and he dwells in it.
You are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. And that knowledge changes everything.
We come to a place not to visit God.
We are the place in which God dwells.
So the question is, are you treating the church like it belongs to you, or are you treating the church like it belongs to Him?
Number two, our opinion. If the church is Jesus and not ours, our opinion is not ultimate. His word is. He is the foundation. It's his truth and not my preference.
That sets up the way that we teach and we believe and we follow.
Not my background, not our comfort, not our past church experience. The church is built on the rock of Jesus Christ, not my preferences.
And you've seen this. When church wanders from the truth, they get confused as to what they're really doing there.
That's why in this church, you won't see very many symbols around.
But the big symbol that you do see is the cross.
That is the one symbol that changes all of our lives.
Because on that cross, our Savior died and he rose from the dead to solidify our ability to be a part of his family.
When the churches drift from truth, they don't become loving. They become more confused when they build on personalities. I've seen this.
You build a church on personality, it doesn't become stronger, it becomes fragile. What happens if the bus hits the personality?
Not good things.
But when the truth about Jesus is clear, everything stabilizes. So I would say this on the screen. You don't build a strong church by agreeing with one another. You build a strong church by agreeing with Christ.
So we don't elevate our opinions above his word.
You may hear your friends say, well, your church needs to evolve. It needs to change. It needs to start adapting the opinions of 2026, oh, man, that is like the opposite of what we do. The cornerstone is Jesus Christ. We stick to his teachings and nothing more.
Number three first. Then unity comes from alignment with him first. Remember, every tribe, every tongue, every nation, every culture, it doesn't matter. We are brought into one church. The spirit of God is the glue that holds us together. Therefore, unity doesn't become something because we all think the same or we all dress the same. Unity in our world is not unity. It's uniformity.
Uniformity is not something that is helpful. Uniformity takes away your identity. It forces another identity down your throat. We don't want to be unified as the world describes unity. We don't want to be unified as God describes it. We are unified around a person, and that person is Jesus Christ.
So we don't all think the same.
We don't all do the same things. We don't all vote the same way.
We are not the same. But we are family because we are unified around the blood of Jesus Christ. We are surrendered to the same Christ.
Strength of this church will never be determined by who stands on the stage, but by how clearly we stand on Christ's truth.
So I brought little something with me that I've had for about two decades now at our church that we were at in Madison Church that we love, like this one.
As I served there, I did a series on the church. And one of the members of that church came to me and asked me if he could build me a prop.
And I said, okay. He's a woodworker and he's very good at what he does. And he says, let me build this ship wheel for you. And he surprised me with this.
It actually moves, which is kind of cool.
You can stand in front of it and say, I am king of the world. Whatever you want to do, you can do that if you want.
That doesn't even match you. Nobody knows that movie anymore. It wasn't a very good movie. But anyway, this ship wheel was given to me because it represented the steady course of the church when it is led by the Holy Spirit.
We desire as a congregation in Carolstream, to stay faithful to the course.
And the only way we do that is by letting the Holy Spirit work in us and through us on a regular basis.
He becomes our true north.
Not some idea, not some fanciful revolutionary thought that comes to us in 2026 where pastors say to each other, pastors, I had to say, if you're not doing this as a church, you're not doing the right thing.
You know what we're going to do as a church? We're going to do what Jesus tells us to do in his word. We're not going to add to it and we're not going to take away from it. That is the course we set out on nine years ago and that is the course that we are still on. And Lord willing, this church will always be on.
We trust that the Lord has given to us this church made up of physical human beings who surrender every day to Jesus Christ and seek out his will first and church. I want to tell you, like a mighty ice breaking ship, the church is set up to be an unstoppable force as together we glorify God.
You can't dent us, you can't blow a hole in the side, you can't sink us.
The church will be around forever.
The church will be around until we see Jesus come face to face. And then the church will have a day of celebration like you've never seen before.
I am thrilled to be a part of the church.
