This sermon emphasizes the importance of knowing Christ intimately, trusting Him completely, proclaiming Him boldly, and obeying Him sacrificially. It highlights that the church is built on the foundation of Christ and the proclamation of His glory. The call is to lay down our lives for His mission, leading to ultimate satisfaction and fulfillment in Him.

We invite you to open with me in your Bibles if you've got one to Matthew chapter 16 I want to give you a picture of where I want us to go over the next Next four weeks that I have with you in God's Word and by the way just to decide no next week is BH jam And the students will lead us in worship. I'll actually be in Indonesia I hate that I'm going to miss that but I want to encourage you to to not only be here But be extremely supportive of our students as they lead us in worship It's going to be an incredible time from everything I hear But doing the next four times this week and then the three weeks after BH jam What I want us to do with this series radical restoration is we're going to take an honest look in Scripture And how the church can best organize around this mission this mission that we've talked about for a while this mission We really focused on last week going outside the camp making the glory of Christ known in all nations making disciples of all nations And so many of you come up to me after last week and say they were in I'm in I want to be a part of this. I want my family to be a part of this We want in on this mission. Just show us what to do and that's where we're going We're gonna go on that journey together. But before we go on that journey as individuals I think it's important that we step back and look at how this journey affects us as a community of faith We have a we have a real tendency of particularly in our American individualistic culture today to look at our Christianity as individuals And that's not the way Scripture looks at Christianity. It looks at Christianity as a community of faith We're together on this thing walking through this journey together and together. We're making disciples of all nations That's what this whole thing is about And what we're going to do is we're going to look at Scripture and see some things about how the church can best organize to Accomplish this mission and that's going to mean we're going to actually make some adjustments in the coming months and how we organize as a church How the leadership structure of the Church of Brookhills looks based on Scripture so that we can best align ourselves With the mission God has created for us And this is the thing that undoubtedly has overwhelmed me even over the last week as I thought and I prayed That God has entrusted me with the responsibility of leading this group to accomplish this mission I I got something last week from the 9 a.m first grade boys small group and What the the folks who lead this small group had done is they had gone to these first grade boys and they had asked them Questions about the senior pastor and I want to share with you some of their responses First question was who is our new senior pastor one kid said I know him, but I don't know his name Another said David Platt, and I knew before last week, so he had an inside track Somebody's parents let the cat out of the bag. Oh, no Another guy said I don't know but he's moving one of the first grade boy says he's really fun. Thanks. Thanks This is an interesting one one one One kid said I think it's that goofy guy on the unicycle. I don't get it, but but I'll take it um another said dr. David Platt Another question how did the church know that the dr. Platt should be our new senior pastor One person said because he had done some stuff here before Another person said they got a big group of people and picked which one would be best Another person said there was a sign one kid said he kept asking the other pastor so many questions One kid said because he'd been our pastor for a week already He's funny nice and preaches really well, I like this one. He was practicing here, and he was really good Yeah, he had the most votes everyone liked him a lot and they prayed Which was a good response They said do you have any questions that you'd like to ask the new pastor? Here's the questions from first graders first one. How old are you? Even the first graders want to know What is your favorite animal will there be another circus family fun night Top thing on the agenda, okay Have you been a pastor before? What is your favorite sport when did you know you wanted to be a pastor have you seen over the hedge For the record I have not What college did you go to what is your favorite movie, and how good will you preach that is yet to be determined? What does a senior pastor do First first person said well they tell people they don't know God they don't know God about God Another kid said helps people tells everyone about God teaches people how to love Tells us about God and Jesus prays and sometimes baptizes One kid said I don't know how to explain it. It's too hard. He teaches adults in that big group You know I don't think these first graders knew it, but that's a question That's subject of a lot of debate today and discussion and church world. What does the pastor do who is a pastor? What is what is the role of the pastor a lot of people who see the pastor as a CEO type model? And that's how the pastor leads the pastor CEO is the pastor a shepherd is the pastor a Spiritual leader or advisor is the pastor a a business manager manager of a corporation What does the pastor look like and there's a lot of different discussion about what the role of the pastor is? And I don't want to dive into that whole discussion this morning, but I wanted to make one thing pretty clear I am NOT the CEO of the church at Brookhills. I Am NOT the head of this church, I don't call the shots at this church So yeah, you're you're the pastor. You're the one somebody's got to call the shots. You call the shots ultimately I do not call the shots at this church. I am NOT a leader of a corporation, and this is not David Platt's Church Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus Christ is the head of the church at Brookhills He is the CEO. He calls the shots this is his church and Ultimately, I am convinced from Scripture that my job responsibilities in my role boils down to one main thing and that is to bring your attention and your Affection to the glory of Jesus Christ and to see him for who he is because I'm convinced that if I can do that you will be compelled to make disciples of all nations and you will be driven by a Passion for him to make his glory known in all nations. And so that is my job. That is my responsibility And so as we begin to look at what the structure of the church looks like how we can organize best to accomplish this mission This is the most appropriate place for us to start with looking at what it means for Jesus to be the head of the church What does that practically look like at the church at Brookhills and I believe Matthew chapter 16 gives us some answers to that question We'll start it in verse 13 The Bible says when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi He asked his disciples who do people say the Son of Man is? They replied some say John the Baptist others say Elijah and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets But what about you? He asked who do you say? I am Simon Peter answered you are the Christ the Son of the Living God And Jesus replied blessed are you Simon son of Jonah for this was not revealed to you by man But by my father in heaven and I tell thee tell you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ from that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and Suffer many things at the hands of the elders chief priests and teachers of the law and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him never Lord. He said this shall never happen to you Jesus turned and said to Peter get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to me You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men Then Jesus said to his disciples if anyone would come after me He must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me Forever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses life for me will find it What guilt will it be for men for a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for a soul? The Son of Man is going to come in his father's glory with his angels And then he will reward each person according to what he has done I tell you the truth some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom now in this passage of scripture I I want us to see four non-negotiables for the church at Brookhills if we're gonna if we're gonna be about this mission And if it's a community of faith, we are going to go on this journey together And you got some notes there in your celebration guide. I'd encourage you to pull those out I want us to look at four Non-negotiables for the church of Brookhills and every single one of these Revolves around the person of Christ and his role as the head of the church First of all number one we must we must know him intimately We must know Jesus Intimately this passage begins really with the discussion between Jesus and his disciples about his identity who he is there they are kind of on the outskirts of Caesarea Philippi and Jesus says who do people say the Son of Man is the Son of Man is a term that you just often would use to refer To himself throughout the Gospels. They say well some people say John the Baptist other people say Elijah Other people say Jeremiah or one of the prophets basically It's a picture of a lot of confusion about who Jesus is at that point a lot of people thinking is John the Baptist Reincarnated or Elijah reincarnated or Jeremiah reincarnated or one of the prophets so at least he's a pretty good guy Maybe even a godly guy, but we're not exactly sure who he is So there's a lot of questions at this point about who Jesus is well, I wouldn't make a direct correlation between that day and ours obviously we live in a culture where there's a Pretty strong tendency to have the same questions who is Jesus really whether it's the Da Vinci Code the gospel of Judas Whatever it is in our day or whatever it was 10 years ago or 20 years ago or 200 years ago there's always been questions about who Jesus is and A lot of people who are willing to say it's a good guy a lot of people are willing to say maybe he even is He's a godly guy does a lot of great things But who do we really say he is? What I want you to see this morning when it comes to knowing him Intimately is it who we say Jesus is will determine everything about how we follow him And I want us to grab hold of that truth right there Who we say Jesus is in our lives will determine everything about how we follow Jesus if we say Jesus is a good teacher Then we will follow him as such We'll listen to some of the things he has to say and follow them Somewhat if we say he has done some good things maybe even has some good ideas Then we'll give attention to them on Sunday mornings Then walk aside and live our lives like we want to But if we're going to say Jesus is the Christ the son of the Living God the Lord the God of the universe and that changes everything about how we live Who we say Jesus is will determine everything about how we follow him even last week when we talked about this imaginary Jesus that many times we create a Jesus who is content with our our materialism and our Excessivism and our individualism He's okay with us living our lives according the standards of the world It's very easy for us to create Jesus to be who we want him to be or who we desire him to be But what Jesus is saying here from the very beginning is that we've got to know who he is Truly in order to follow him and this is huge We we get so subjective when it comes to spirituality and faith in our culture and we start to think Well, if I want to experience even in the Christian life If I want to experience all the Christian life has that I've got a I've got to work on mustering up enough faith and and getting The right feelings and doing all of that in order to really follow Jesus and somewhere along the way we miss out on the fact That it's really not not how much faith we have Really comes down to what the object of our faith is. How well do we know the object of our faith? Let me give you an illustration Jim Shattuck's my mentor down in New Orleans. He's actually here in Birmingham. He'll be here in the second service I remember he and I were we're preaching up in North, Mississippi This was a couple of years ago two different places in North, Mississippi But we were preaching on Friday night and we had to be back in New Orleans early the next Saturday morning And then I was gonna have to come back Saturday night to preach up there in North, Mississippi Yeah, it was about a four or five hour drive. So there was no way to really put it together I called the youth minister. I said, I don't know how this is going to happen He said well, I got a guy in my church. He's got a plane I said, okay, so I started thinking, you know, I've got a private plane gonna take me from North, Mississippi to New Orleans big-time Okay, so get up early Saturday morning Jim and I we go out there about four or five in the morning go out to this Air strip in Winona, Mississippi. All right The guy's sitting in his truck asleep at that point the pilot so we kind of go knock on the door Hey, wake up ready to fly us and so he gets out kind of gets the plane ready We get into this and there's room for three of us in there this guy on my left I'm in the front seat and Jim gets in the back there We're coming around to the the airstrip So to speak and as we're turning on to it ready to get into our takeoff mode all of a sudden my door pops open The guy looks at me. He said is that your door? I said, yeah, that's my door. It's open He said oh, I forgot to lock it. And so he gets out and goes around. I look around behind me Jim's eyes are huge The guy locks the door comes back in and I said man, I don't want to be rude or anything But just out of curiosity What if that would have happened about 10,000 feet from now would there been a problem here and you know I began to think as we took off and flew in that plane It really doesn't matter how much faith I have in that plane When the right wing falls off of that plane and we're going down. It's not going to matter how much faith I've got what's going to matter is what I put my faith in You see it really doesn't matter how much faith we have What matters is we put our faith in the right thing And you can have a lot of faith even throughout your Christian life in the wrong Jesus and miss the point altogether What we've got to do is look at scripture and know Christ for who he is You see that next blank there. Our goal is not great faith. That's not our goal to have great faith Our goal is to have just a little bit of faith in a great God. You see the difference there What does the Bible say if you have faith as small as a mustard seed what will happen you can move mountains It's just a little bit of faith in a great God There's a preacher one time an evangelist who who traveled and he spoke in different places And one person came up to him one time and said and said how do you how do you know as you travel all the time? That your wife is faithful to you And so I know my wife's faithful to me. That's not a problem He kept going on pressing it over and over again. He kept asking that question Well, how do you know no, how do you really know? What do you do to make sure she's faithful to you when you're gone? He kept saying I just know she's faithful to me. Finally the guy had asked enough. He said wow you you're a man of great faith The guy looked back at that man and said I'm not a man of great faith. I'm a man with a great wife And there's a big difference there Between having a lot of faith and a little God and just a little bit of faith and a great God and that is what I Believe my goal is as the leader as the pastor of this church is to show you Christ Week in and week out not to give up here come up here and give a speech Not to come up here and give some some ditty where you where you walk away and say oh that sounded good My goal is to come up here and open the Word of God and show you a picture of Christ and show you who he is Because I'm convinced that if you can see who Christ is it will change your lives It'll transform your lives just a little bit of faith and that picture of Christ I want to show you a couple of quotes that really are kind of foundational in my whole philosophy theology of preaching up here on The screen you'll see him one is a guy named James Stewart He said this he said if we are not determined that in every sermon Christ is to be preached it were better that we should Resign our Commission forthwith and seek some other vocation If I stop showing you Christ, and you can stop listening to me I need to find another job if I'm not displaying Christ to you on a week-by-week basis Charles Spurgeon took another step further. He said if then we do not preach Christ What is the Holy Ghost to do with our preaching if we do not make the Lord Jesus glorious if we do not lift him up? High in the esteem of man if we do not labor to make him King of Kings and Lord of Lords We shall not have the Holy Spirit with us Vain will be rhetoric music Architecture energy and social status if our own design be not to magnify the Lord Jesus We shall work alone and work in vain That's a good word for us in the church today All the music and all the talk and all the nice buildings are in vain if Christ is not at the center And if he's not driving everything the goal every Sunday morning is not to come in here and have a good feeling the goal is To see Christ to glorify Christ to honor Christ and have our lives changed as a result of that we must know him intimately We must know him for who he is Second we must trust him completely We must trust him completely now We come in here Jesus has asked these guys who do you think I am Peter stands up as a representative disciples? He says you're the Christ the Son of the Living God makes a Confession of faith and who he is Christ literally is the term that they would refer to the Messiah the long-awaited Messiah at that point Peter's getting it here He hadn't grasped it completely who Christ is as we see later in this passage, but as a representative the disciples He says we know we you're not just John the Baptist. You're not just Elijah We know that you're the Christ. You're the Messiah the Son of Living God and So then they begin this dialogue Jesus replied blessed are you Simon son of Jonah for this was not revealed to you by man But my father in heaven, and I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it now those two verses. We've just read or some of the most divisive verses and the history of Christianity Because this this is one of the passages that that really divides evangelicals and Catholics Because Catholics look at this the Catholic Church looks at this passage and says this is when Jesus instituted Peter as the as the Pope so to speak as the leader of the church and there's a Succession that comes from that and therefore a year ago when Benedict comes on board He's the next guy who's in the line of Peter. They traced all the way back as the leader of the church So is that the really the question is who's the rock in this passage? Is it Jesus? Is it Peter? Who's in charge here? Who's the one on whom the church is built and you can see that in the importance of the Pope in the Catholic Church? And I Want to say to you this morning that I don't believe the church should be built on me or anybody else I believe the church is built on the foundation of Christ Who's the architect of the church the architect the builder of the church is Jesus? He said I'm the one who's going to build my church now We'll get to to what the rock I believe means in just a second But we've got a we've got to start with the fact the church's architect is Jesus. He is the one who is building this thing Some people have asked me what do we call you as our pastor do we call you David do we call you Dave? Do we call you? Pastor do we call you? Doctor do we call you a reverend? Dr. Pastor, you know, if you're into titles, you can go there You can call me whatever you want. I've been called a lot worse, but don't call me Pope. I'm not the Pope I'm not I'm not the one on whom everything is based here. Okay Jesus says I'm gonna build my church and this is huge Yesterday at my house, there were some guys who are working on building a deck I'm gonna be honest with you up front with you this morning. I am So delinquent when it comes to building things like that, and I know I'm just kind of There's some men who in here are really disappointed right now and for that I apologize, but I'm just not that's not my strong suit I don't know how to build a deck. I had a nail gun I was playing around a little bit Kevin Carroll took it out of my hands. I just I That's not my strength at all and so these guys I Wouldn't even know where to start building a deck which is probably one of the reasons while they were out there because they knew that I would really hurt myself if I was not out there and so they they go about this I have no clue how to build a deck But these guys who knew exactly how to do that start putting it together putting all the pieces together and now there's a deck outside my house well, what I want to say to you this morning likewise is I To be honest with you. I don't really know how to build a church either That's bad news, okay For some of you, so you're thinking we really blew it. Why did we get this guy to be our pastor heat? And I guess it's kind of cold of me to come one week later and say okay. I Really don't know how to pastor. I don't know how to lead a church how to build a church I want to show you something hold your place here Matthew once you turn me over to John chapter 6 It doesn't know how to build a deck. He doesn't know how to build a church Look at John chapter 6. I Want you to look with me at verse 37. I want you to see this with me I want us to use this verse and then I want us to vault into a little bit of a tour of the book of Acts and see this unfold the church's architect is Jesus John chapter 6 verse 37 all that the Father gives me will come to me and Whoever comes to me I will never draw away for I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent Me and this is the will of him who sent me that I shall lose none of all that he has given me But raise them up at the last day for my father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have Eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day And what I want you to see here in John chapter 6 is Jesus saying I'm in the business of drawing men to myself That's what I do. That's what the Father's will is for me to do and all that he entrusts to me I draw them to myself. I want you to see it in John Jesus is in the business of drawing people to himself now with that foundation the Gospels turn me over to Acts chapter 2 One book over to the right look at Acts chapter 2 Now I want you to look at the very end of Acts chapter 2 in verse 42 This is a passage. We're gonna dive into I hope more in depth later in the year But I want us to I want us to see this is the very beginning of the church This is where the New Testament Church begins Acts chapter 2 verse 42. This is basically a paragraph that summarizes the church Says they've devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching and to the fellowship to the breaking of bread unto prayer Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the Apostles All the believers were together and had everything in common selling their possessions and goods They gave to anyone as he had need every day. They continued to meet together in the temple courts They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people now listen to this verse and The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved Who's building the church in Acts chapter 2 who's adding the people the newest program? The newest gimmick. No, it's Jesus the Lord added to their number daily Those who are being saved turn me over to Acts chapter 11 look at Acts chapter 11 verse 24 This is the church in Antioch Which is really the first sending base for the New Testament Church in the book of Acts look at Acts chapter 11 look at verse 24 this is talking about Barnabas when he had come to the people at Antioch It says he was a good man Barnabas was a good man full the Holy Spirit in faith and listen to this and a great number of people were brought to the Lord It's the same type of verb there. They were added. They were brought to the Lord who brought him Barnabas no Jesus brought them. That's what we saw set up in John So we see in Acts chapter 2 the Lord's adding to their number. They're brought to the Lord by who? By the Lord the Lord is drawing people to himself. Let me show you two more instances chapter 13 Acts chapter 13 look at verse 48 Acts chapter 13 verse 48 when the Gentiles heard this they were glad and they honored the Word of the Lord and all who were Appointed for eternal life believed all those who God was calling God was leading all of them believed one more instance Acts chapter 18 Look at verse 9 in Acts chapter 18, this is Paul in the middle of Corinth It's a very tough place for him to be doing ministry at this point a lot of paganism all around him He's thinking maybe I should leave verse 9 says one night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision Do not be afraid keep on speaking do not be silent for I am with you and no one is going to attack and harm you Listen to this because I have many people in this city So Paul stayed for a year and a half teaching in the Word of God this is before Corinth had a lot of Christians Jesus comes himself in a vision to Paul and says Paul. I've got a lot of people here That I'm ready to add to my church now based on that what I want you to see is We have a Savior who is in the business of building his church He is in the business of drawing people to himself And I'm convinced based on these passages in the book of Acts for that foundation in the Gospels is that if we would just align Ourselves with his word and do what he says is important and give ourselves to what he says is important I believe our Savior is looking to add people to a body that he can trust for this word And he can trust to do what we he says to do That's what I love about Acts chapter 2 they devoted themselves to these things and the Lord added their number daily those who are being Saved I believe with all my heart God has people in the city of Birmingham that he is ready to add to a church that he can trust with his word that he can Trust with his glory, and I believe God has people around the world that he is ready to draw to himself through a people who he can trust with his word and trust with his mission and trust with his glory and I want to Lead us to be that people Jesus knows how to build the church. We don't have to read the newest church growth books to figure that out Jesus has got that under control Let's line ourselves up with what he says is important give ourselves completely to him and trust him to do the adding Trust him to add the blessing You see that that comes down to two things he builds his church number one by his grace He builds his church by his grace It's not something we earn something we can we can do enough things then will be the church We need to be God does this by his grace. He adds people to his church Why does he do that because the one who gives the grace gets the glory? Don't miss that the one who gives the grace gets the glory. Here's the worst thing that could happen in the coming days It's for the people from the church at Brook Hills to go out and tell people about what great music there is and what a great preacher there is Come to this church because it's got great music and great preacher because here's the deal if that's why people come Then another church will rise up later on better preacher Better music people just go to that one and we'll go to the church to church to church That's what we do in southern culture We go from church to church to church according to who where the greatest preacher is where the greatest music is What happens when the center of a church is not great preaching or great music What happens when Christ is at the center of the church? Then people go out and the word will be out and I pray that the word gets out that the Church of Brook Hills Christ is being exalted and Christ is being honored and Christ is doing things to those people that nobody else could explain apart from His hand then we'll have gotten the point Let's trust him to do it because the one who gives the grace gets the glory And second he doesn't not only by his grace, but through his people notice that Jesus says to Peter here and we're gonna get to the rock thing in just a second But he says to Peter who we know is about to be one of the main leaders in the church acts 1 through 10 He is the leader in the church He's on this rock. I'm gonna build my church and he's addressing Peter and he's saying Peter you are gonna be key in this thing I'm convinced But he says the same thing to us today You in this room are key to advancing the kingdom of God He's gonna build his church through our lives Notice that he doesn't say he's gonna do it based on programs And he's not gonna do it based on on the new new techniques we come up with he's not even gonna do it based on Websites or music all those things are good But he's gonna build his church through changed lives People in this room who love Christ and have a passion for Christ and whose lives are being transformed by Christ That's how he's gonna advance his church in Birmingham. That's how he's gonna advance his church in all nations through us through his people here's the Incredible truth of this passage. I will build my church. The church is not a building the church in this passage Ecclesia It's a it's a word that basically means to call that ones the people I'm gonna build my people we belong to him We are his that's the picture he gives us here and it's such an incredible picture that unfolds throughout the book of Acts Just to save time. I won't ask you to turn there But I want to read you a passage from Acts chapter 9 verses 1 through 5 now I want you to follow along this is this is when Saul who'd been persecuting all the believers Gets a vision of Christ. I want you to hear what happens It says meanwhile Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord disciples He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus So that if he found any there who belonged to the way whether men or women he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem As he neared Damascus on his journey suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him Saul Saul. Why do you persecute me? Who are you Lord Saul asked? I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. He replied. Did you catch that? You can almost miss it here in Acts chapter 9 Saul's going out. He's taking believers putting him in prison. He's persecuting them He's doing all these things to the church that Jesus comes to him and says Saul Why are you persecuting notice? He does not say why are you persecuting the church? Why are you persecuting my people? What does he say? Why are you persecuting? Me, that's good. And then I Don't preach the people are being persecuted Jesus comes to Saul and says if you're messing with them, you're messing with me These people belong to me. We are one together. They're my body What an incredible picture Ladies and gentlemen, that's us We belong to him But he wants to use us to proclaim his glory and to advance his kingdom And I say we trust him to do that I say we trust him with the church and I say we trust him with our Lives, we've got to know him intimately trust him completely third We need to put we must proclaim him boldly. We must proclaim him boldly. Now. This is where we get into the rock here Just to summarize the discussion. Who's the rock in Matthew chapter 16. Some people say it's Jesus kind of referring to himself on this rock I'm gonna build my church We see that first Corinthians 3 talks about Jesus is the foundation of the church first Corinthians 10 for Talks about how Jesus is the rock Ephesians 2 20 says he's the chief cornerstone So we know that in a sense Jesus is definitely the rock other people will say well, this is intensely personal for Peter He's the rock on whom the church is going to be built And I would say based on the context of this passage and what we see unfold in the book of Acts Is it's a little bit of both here You got to put the context here together connect the dots in this passage Obviously Peter is not not that strong yet. We see that after this. I mean He's rebuked pretty hard by Jesus It's not a good position for the the one who's gonna have the church built on to be put in at that point But at the same time Peter is the one who just stood up in the disciples And he said you're the Christ the son of the Living God and that's when Jesus says on this rock I'm gonna build my church. I believe the picture we're getting here in Matthew chapter 16 as you just say I'm gonna build my church on this rock. The rock of the church is the people of God proclaiming the person of Jesus Christ That is the rock Upon which the church is built. It is built on the saving death and resurrection of Christ, but not just stopping there It's you and I in this room who know that who have Christ dwelling in our hearts Going out and proclaiming that and that is exactly how the church is advanced in the book of Acts Acts chapter 2 verse 36 Peter comes to the end of the first Christian sermon and he says God has made this Jesus whom you's crucified both Lord and Christ both God and Messiah The exact same thing that we saw here in Matthew chapter 16 is exactly what Paul Peter preaches in Acts chapter 2 And then a few thousand people come to know Christ and the church is started That's the picture here. How is the church advanced? How does the church grow he grows and it's advanced through men and women from this room going out in the marketplace going out in the neighborhoods and Proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ And telling people about his greatness and his goodness. That is how the church will be advanced And I pray that that will be The strategy that we adopt as a family of faith here that we won't depend on having a right program Having this or that lined up and then we can really grow as a church We will grow as a church when the individuals in this room gets serious about telling other people about the goodness of Christ I cannot go into the places where you live and you work Whether it's a gated community that I can't get into whether it's your access card at your workplace that I can't get into I Can't go to those people But you are with those people for a reason and the church Will experience the blessing of God and experience the purpose of God when we give ourselves to this rock That's going out and proclaiming the goodness of God in Christ And I want to do everything I can to help equip us to do that But I'm convinced and I want to say this from the very beginning That the primary evangelistic outreach of the church is not going to be people just coming in here for a worship service I pray that people come to Christ week in and week out in our worship services But the primary way we're going to reach this community is not by having good worship services It's going to be by us getting serious about going out in the community and proclaiming the goodness of Christ That's the rock of the church and Jesus says the gates of Hades will not overcome it The gates of Hades is a term that basically refers to death in that day And he says death is not going to overcome it. How come death wouldn't overcome? well, the guy who said these words is about to rise from the grave after he dies and Then he's going to take his people with him Jesus guarantees the success of this mission That's why it's the rock of the church because when the people of God are proclaiming the person of Christ They are in on a mission that is not temporal. They are in on a mission. That is completely eternal We must know him intimately. We must trust him completely and we must proclaim him boldly in our culture and finally Before we must obey him sacrificially We come to the end of this passage and Matthew chapter 16 And Jesus says these harsh words that we even thought about some last week If anyone must come after me must deny himself take up his cross and follow me For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it Now here let's connect the dots from Hebrews 13 outside the camp last week and Matthew chapter 16 If we're gonna we're gonna find our life. We need to lose it. What does that mean? And I've got there in your notes there I want to I want I want to help you put some practical handles on how this looks How can you forfeit your life and then actually find it in the end? How does that happen? Why should we sacrifice everything for this mission? Why should we say my entire life and my family's life is gonna revolve around Christ and his mission Well that first blank there our sacrifice Always leads to his glory He must become greater. We must become less our sacrifice leads to his glory when we lay down our lives We say it's not gonna be about us anymore. It's not about my dreams and my plans and my ambitions It's going to be about him then he is lifted up our sacrifice leads to his glory. We got that picture Easy enough right our sacrifice leads to his glory. Well second his glory leads to our satisfaction when God is our passion and when he is Here's the one who drives us who motivates us who compels us in our lives on a day-in and day-out Day-in and day-out basis then his glory equals our satisfaction We are most satisfied when he is being honored and glorified in us And that's why that's why these guys in Indonesia Who are in the middle of an earthquake ridden city who are planning churches throughout that city making the gospel in this Muslim-dominated nation But who have very little and who are experiencing persecution. That's why there's some of the happiest person people I know in the world Because they're satisfied because God has been glorified through them They don't have a lot of the things we have but they know that their satisfaction is not found in those things their satisfaction Is found the glory of God be made known through them It's a completely different way to look at life But our sacrifice leads to his glory his glory is our satisfaction and as a result of that you put those two together That means our sacrifice leads to what? our satisfaction Whoever loses his life will actually in the end find it. So here's the good news When I call you based on God's Word To lay down your life and your family to make the glory of Christ known in all nations and you begin to think well That's tough. That means I'm gonna have to miss out on a lot of things I'm not calling you to do something that will bring harm to you or there the will in the end Cause you to miss out on something I am calling you to lay down your life so you can experience more So you can experience what life is supposed to be students when I say throw aside The drugs and the drinking and the sex throw aside the image and the popularity and the things the world says are important throw aside Those things I'm not calling you to give up your the joy you can have as a teenager What I'm calling you to do is sacrifice that which doesn't bring joy for that which brings ultimate joy Ultimate satisfaction if you want to experience what God intends for you as a teenager to experience then lay it all down and Experience the life of making disciples of all nations. That is where joy and satisfaction is found And when I call you men and women to say in your life It's not going to be about building a resume or building a career It's not going to be about having the best retirement fund that I can have when I call you to do that I'm not calling you to miss out I'm calling you to let go of that which really doesn't matter in the end to experience what really counts So our sacrifice ends up leading to our satisfaction. This is a pretty good economy that God has set up here Our sacrifice actually leads to our good Because God has been glorified through us and that's where the most satisfaction is found. We must know Christ and trust Christ and Proclaim Christ and ultimately to obey Christ sacrificially Now that's it. I want us to do something a little different in Response to the word this morning You've got some blanks down there at the bottom of your celebration guide So what now when I put there identify one step you can take to know him more intimately Trust him more completely proclaim him more boldly and obey him more sacrificial So here's what I'm gonna invite you to do In just a second, I'm gonna pray for us and then across this room is a community of faith we're gonna spend some time in prayer and reflection and Thinking through these questions You've got some space there As well as on the back where you can write out some things and I want to encourage you to take full advantage of this time Before the rest of the day gets going and say here's what I'm gonna do in my life One practical step I'm gonna take to know him more intimately to trust him more completely to proclaim him more boldly and obey him more sacrificially And after I pray these guys are gonna be up here and leading us in song much like they let us earlier But we're not gonna be singing. We're gonna be responding. We're gonna be praying whether that's in our seats writing things down Well, that's coming down here the front I want you to feel the freedom throughout these couple songs just to come down here and spend some time before the Lord just You and him with your family and him and I want us to have a time across the room where we reflect What it means for Christ to be the head of the church and the head of our lives and we respond in obedience to that And I know that for some of you that may mean for the first time saying I want to begin a relationship with Christ I want to know Christ and I want you to know that if that is you If you come in here this morning, and you don't know Christ You've never been forgiven of all your sins through what he did on the cross for you. I Want to encourage you? Our sacrifice this is our satisfaction if you want to experience all that life has And let his love take over in your life. Let his grace overwhelm you Ask him to forgive you of your sins and say I want to give my life to following you and there you will find what true Life is all about will you pray with me?