How Unity Makes the Impossible Possible

This is the first night for midweek service, which is really now becoming Let’s Talk night. It’s a combination of Bible talk and midweek. And for some of us, that’s refreshing. For some of us that may be a little uncomfortable, but that’s okay. I have with me today, um, the gerunds and I have the OGs with me on this podcast, which is really not a podcast. It’s actually audio streaming because we’re doing audio streaming, video streaming, and a lot of other tricks. We’re going to provide for new media content for Let’s Talk night. So whether you’re sitting at a couch or a chair or maybe you’re laying on your bed, I hope you’re not laying in your bed if you’re at a house church, but you never know. Uh, try to relax and have fun. We’re experimenting. We’re going to do a lot of things differently. But this is really about the Let’s Talk night launch. In Genesis eleven verse six, it says, and the Lord said, look, they are one people and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. Nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. That’s Genesis eleven six in the new Revised Standard Version. The Tower of Babel is a cautionary tale about godlessness. That’s a perspective that I have, and hopefully you’ll benefit from and share. And all of my guests will share if you’re out there listening or if you’re just with us. The Tower of Babel is a cautionary tale about godlessness. There are two truths. The first is nothing will be impossible for human beings who learn to be one people with one language. So God tells them. And we can often get lost, because sometimes we have a punishment view of Scripture that we look at the way we think. God might punish someone, rather than look at the many lessons that God is always teaching. And one thing he says is, there’s nothing that will be impossible for human beings if they learn to be one people and have one language. The second is this if human beings learn to be one people with one language securing the power to do the impossible, then the only way their dream will fail to become reality. If is this their motive stands in opposition to the will of God. Something I’ve learned and seen in forty years of being a Christian. Sad to say, that’s older than the people on this podcast with me. But something that is obvious to me now is that we didn’t talk a lot about motive. And yet God makes the Tower of Babel all about motive. Jesus comes to the earth to give human beings the gospel. And what was he doing and how does that relate to Genesis eleven six? Well, he was giving us the ability to be one people with one language. In John seventeen and verse twenty, it says, my prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. What do we learn? Well, Genesis eleven six tells us that if we’re one people with one language, nothing will be impossible for us. But it also teaches us that unless our motive for whatever we do is God, then ultimately it will fail. And then we see that Jesus, in his prayer in John seventeen prays for unity. And essentially the gospel is giving us one language for one people. And he says, this is so that the world may believe. Well, what’s another thing we can learn? The world won’t believe a disunified church. We need to sit back and think about that as we’re together. The world won’t believe a Disunified church in John seventeen twenty two. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one I in them, and you and me, so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John seventeen twenty two to twenty three in the NIV. The world won’t believe a disunified church, and it says that they may be one as we are one. Meaning that let’s correlate that with John fifteen, where he says, God is the gardener. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. That’s to be connected with John seventeen, where it says that they may be one as we are one. When we’re connected to Jesus, we’re getting involved in the unity that Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit have together. And that’s what brings us to complete unity. And when we’re completely unified, the language of God, spiritual language as one people, then literally nothing will be impossible for us. Rare has been the individual church or fellowship of churches capable of sustaining unity long enough to experience the impossible. This failure of unity is why so few churches experience the fulfillment of their impossible dreams and destiny. If you do a little research on your own, you will find that churches decline at various rates. But even the best. After the generation that started the church begin to die, the church begins to fail. And there have been churches with ten thousand people that have dwindled to only one hundred in the time that those people took to go from their twenties to their 80s. It is rare to find a church that can sustain its unity. As a result, it is rare to find churches that see their impossible dreams come true. What happens to unravel the unity of God’s people is always a spiritual rather than organizational problem. Unfortunately, on most occasions, churches focus on the organizational. To the neglect of the spiritual. We end up arguing over when, where and how. To the neglect of who? Here in the Bay Area Christian Church, we want to avoid the divisive destiny. History teaches us is the future of most churches. We want to avoid the destructiveness of divisiveness by remembering four things. Number one, keep the Bible as our standard. This is essential, and it’s so basic that it’s easy to ignore. When we keep the Bible as our standard, we avoid splintering over personal agendas. I had a conversation at one point as years ago, and the gentleman I was talking to was about eighty years old, and he was in the Church of Christ. He’d grown up in the Church of Christ, which is the background of the Christian church. If you look at our roots church, Christ Christian Church, disciples of Christ, that that sort of the, the, the historic roots that we have. And I sat down with him and he said, Russ, he says, the thing you have to always watch out for in the church is this division because that’s the devil’s way of stopping us. He goes, I myself have been part of six church splits in the Church of Christ. I said six. He goes, yeah. He goes, I’ve seen it all. I think one thing we often don’t understand is when we start to splinter and want to go off, and I just want to do my thing, or I just want to do my thing. It’s hard for people to believe because what did we learn earlier? People cannot believe when we are a disunified church. The world won’t believe it no matter what arguments we make, no matter what intellectual sense we can take. They’ll look at our inability to get along, and it’ll undermine our ability to say we have something special. So splintering that means splintering off. And that’s happening in a lot of places. And our fellowship of churches that’s happening. People decide, oh, I’d rather do it this way. And they split off. And it’s not often talked about. And it happens because the Bible stops being the standard and personal agendas become the standard. Number two, commit to becoming like Jesus. That means stay hungry to change and grow together, not separately. Together. Number three sustain our passion for doing and evangelizing. Good to be salt in the world. That’s what Jesus calls the church. Number four sustain our passion for loving and evangelizing God. That means being light in the world, salt in the world, passion for doing it, evangelizing good. It’s light in the world. Passion for loving and evangelizing God. These four remembrances are not doctrinal statements or creeds. Some people write things down, say that’s our creed. It’s not a creed. It’s a statement of four reminders that come from scripture. We don’t need creeds, and we don’t need doctrinal statements. The Bible is all we need. But these reminders that unity must be built on biblical conviction, not the compromise of human negotiation over personal preferences. So you sit down with the Bible and you say, okay, we’re going to do what this says, but we’re not going to get into a place where we say, I’ve got a personal preference and I’m going to argue my personal preference, and we’re going to debate it and negotiate it until we come up with a solution that we can agree on. No, you sit down with the Bible and you say, what’s it say we need to be doing there? And those four things I mentioned are things that Jesus just says. That’s what we got to do. Those four things while we’re a large church in the back building in this way is best done in house churches, because I know some of you are sitting there right now. You’re going, okay, help answer my question. When are we going to let’s talk tonight. Give me some more details. Well, hang on a minute. I’m giving you all the details you need for a good, solid principles and understanding of the past. A little historic backdrop with Genesis eleven. The importance of being one people with one language. But the human beings can’t do it. It has to be done through God. Well, we’re a large church building like this is best done in house churches. We all want to help the church increase its capacity to help more and more people. But at the same time, as we grow larger and reach more people, we want to make sure the church feels small. It’s a place where we’re known and we can know people where we can grow together as we serve our communities. This is why we’re introducing the innovation called Let’s Talk Nights. These are our opportunities for us to learn how to have spiritual conversations, not only with each other, but with our friends that we can invite and we can share it with. These will take place number one by house church, which means number two in our homes. And guess what? Just like now, you’re going to get new media content. Now why? Well, look at your house, your city right now. Look at that. That that serving person who’s loving and giving. Well, we’ve been putting a burden on them to make them come up with lessons and things to teach. Why do they need to do that? They’ve got jobs, kids lives. They need to just be able to participate just like you and lead the way spiritually. And so we’re going to provide new media content. And some of you will be asked to be on these, and it’ll be more fun than you can imagine. And the digital team will develop it. The digital content will last for about fifteen minutes as we go on into the future. These opening ones will be different times, but as we get consistent with it, there’ll be about fifteen minutes with some things added on. Then there’ll be time for great spiritual conversations. Everyone will have a chance to talk on this one night of the week, which will replace both Bible talk and midweek. Now I know some of you are cheering right now. You’re laughing, you’re smiling. You’re saying, can I have a Cinnabon? No, we only eat those on Sundays. But you can have a Snickers. Over the next two weeks, our podcast will focus on helping us successfully launch our new and inspiring Let’s Talk nights. Now, what I want to do is I want to first get in our guest today and Christian Michelle, Jaren Martin, Jeannette og. And I want to ask them a question before we dig in and discuss what we’ve just been talking about a little bit. What’s been the most interesting part of the pandemic for you guys? What’s been the most interesting part? It could be good. It could be bad. It could be hard. What’s the most interesting part of the of the pandemic? Okay, Martin, you look like you got something going. Since San Antonio’s out of the playoffs. You’re good to go. Oh, you got time to think? Yes, I do. You know what most interesting would be? Teaching my daughter when she had to be at home and in kindergarten and on Zoom. Oh, man, that was rough. He told me several times, daddy, you’re not nice like my kindergarten teacher. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. You gotta be more patient. So let’s get out of the pandemic. All right, all right, I’m going for Michelle now. One thing I feel like a couple things. The biggest thing is like, I think realizing how little control I have. I think when this all happened, I just could never imagine that this could even be possible. Um, so it made me realize how little control I had and how much I relied on all my activities and seeing my family. Like I think all the little things that you rely on throughout your week, the schedule. Um, yeah, that’s probably the biggest thing. And then we were newly married, locked in an apartment, tiny five hundred square foot apartment together. Well, the good the good news is you’re still married, at least as far as I know. So far, so good. All right, let’s go to Jeanette. Okay. The thing that I would say is I am an introvert. So at first I was like, cool kid, stay home. And then, I don’t know, maybe a month into it, I was like, um, Martin, I cannot watch church with you by myself anymore. Like, I need to see some other people. I cannot do this. So realizing like, no, I actually value relationships more than I thought. Either that or you just. Martin was on your nerves so much you had to get out. No, no, no, no need to say that. No need to say that. I’ll just I’ll just do that for you. All right. Christian. Yeah. Similar to Jeanette, I think the one of the most interesting things about that pandemic is like just how much I’m a people person. So I like people, but I think I’ve just learned a lot about myself and just also, so yeah, just how important, how much I value the relationships and how when we don’t have them, when I don’t have the people like the, you know, in person contact, even be able to see people now, you know, with things opening up and stuff. Like I was like, wow, like I how important it is to have connection with people face to face and how difficult it was to like during the pandemic. I think I learned a lot about myself and who I am. I can relate it to my basketball experiences, good and bad. And, um, how those still are prevalent now, like the one I think of is like, I crack under pressure, right? I think that’s one thing that I’ve learned. I was like, okay, that doesn’t go away, but like, I can learn how to take that on with God. And, um, it just shows like really my heart and like where I’m at, you know, the pandemic has exposed things. So it’s a good thing and a bad thing, but more of a, a positive thing. I’d say it’s positive. I mean, whether we’re in a pandemic or not, we have things about our lives that we become aware of, which is interesting because, uh, what was your first reaction, folks, when we, uh, when you heard that we were going to start doing let’s talk nights, uh, and we’re going to come, I know everybody’s listening and saying, hey, are you going to tie it in to what you talked about? Sure, we’ll get that done. But there’s going to be plenty of time. We’re going to do three or four episodes, so you’d be good. But it’s just good to talk about how the pandemic has affected us. What was your first reaction, Michelle? What was your first reaction when you heard the concept of let’s talk nights, you know, and, and replacing midweek and Bible talk and doing it on one night and doing it in homes by House church. What was your first reaction? I was really, really excited personally. Um, I like the idea of the smaller groups. Um, like our Bible talk was getting really, really large and it made it hard to have like conversations because I was like, okay, five people have already responded and then they’re still, you know, fifteen plus people, you know, that not engaged in the conversation. Right. Um, so I was excited about that and being smaller. Um, and I also just think it really focusing on like the one night, like really focusing on inviting friends out to, um, I think it was really helpful. So I’m excited about that part of it too. But also personally, I just let down more and talk more when I’m in a smaller group versus a large setting. Um, I’m not so I’m a people person, but I’m not someone that’s just going to talk to a large group. Um, I’d rather it be small and um, people that I know. Awesome. Great great great great. Martin, what are your thoughts? What was your first reaction? I loved it, I thought it was fresh, new, innovative. Um, I think gives us so many opportunities to do new things, uh, do creative things for the house churches to really own it. So I think it’s, yeah, I’m very excited about it. All right. Christian, what was your first thought? Well, my first reaction was, Thank God. I was like, I was so excited. I was like, I didn’t show it. But internally I was like jumping for joy mainly because I was like, yeah, just thinking of the pandemic and like, you know, it’s already turned our lives upside down. But like, you know, I was thinking we have to find, I mean, I, it wasn’t my idea, but like, you know, it’s great that we have because we have to do something different as well, You know, also adjust and find a new creative ways to like inspire people about God and not stick to what we know. So personally, just to answer that question, I was very excited because, uh, yeah, it just even for like the, you know, the discussion parts, right? Like I went to Saint Mary’s, um, and guided the guild, by the way, but I went to Saint Mary’s and the classroom sizes were really small. Like there was ten to fifteen people in most of my classes. And it was great because everyone had the chance to talk and participate. Um, we got to really know each other and everyone contributed to, you know, so I think it was harder to get away with silence when there’s only, you know, nine, ten other people in the room and you got to know each other and you got to talk and, um, actually, yeah, really, it wasn’t just like we just sat around and talked about we’re learning, but get to know each other as well. So I think thinking about that with the talk nights, it’s personally, I was excited. I was like, just more engagement, you know? Um, that sounds good. You know, I. you know, Jeanette and, uh, and Michelle both have a lot of, uh, I guess, experience and investment in education. So they probably can say even more about that as we talk about let’s talk nights in the small groups and how easy to learn. But Jeanette, what was your first reaction when you heard so excited? Let’s talk nights. I was so excited and it was evident physically. I was like, yes, popping my fist. Um, for those who can’t see, Jeanette is trying to dance right now. For those who are wondering what is she doing? She’s trying to dance and she may be drinking. I have no idea. I can’t see, but there, there may be spirits involved here, but I’m not. I don’t judge, I don’t judge, just shows the level of excitement. The pandemic has given you some new habits. No. It’s great. Okay, so the biggest thing I love about it is that if you are not into God, if you are a little, you know, skeptical if this is a, you know, an Unintimidating environment. Like to say, I’m going to your house or I’m going to go hang out somewhere. It’s just kind of like, all right, I’ll give it a chance. So I really like that aspect of it. It sounds great. So let me just ask you guys, in closing out today’s, um, let’s talk not our first inaugural one. Um, and let me just close out by asking you, when I tried to lead out by giving us all a sense of how powerful God’s people can be when they’re one in in sense of relationship and togetherness, and they’re one in the commonality of their language. And then I tried to delineate, you know, four principles. They’re not meant to be a creed. As I mentioned, they’re not some doctrinal statement. They’re just for good, solid principles about, you know, how we can stay focused and stay unified. But when you were listening, maybe just in your own way, and I’m just going to let you guys run with it for a little bit, maybe you can talk about what’s important to you, what impacted you, what you want those listening and the house churches all around the Bay area. And quite frankly, they’ll be house churches listening all around the world who’ve been listening to our live stream on Sunday. Just tell me, you know, what’s your view is about the possibilities of, of developing those types of relationships with God, that type of unity and that type of ability to influence and inspire those outside the church population. You know, I thought, uh, number one, I was pretty inspired by the, the way you broke down the, the, the concept of unity and how that leads to God doing impossible things. But when we’re disunified, uh, that we fail to do the, we fail to reach our impossible dreams. And, uh, it made me think a number of things. I’m like, wow, it’s incredibly important that we raise up a new generation that believes what the Bible teaches. Yeah, I thought that. I thought we got to stay unified. And even when you shared the story about the older guy who I think it was eighty And by the time, you know, from time he was young till it was eighty, he had already experienced multiple, uh, splits within his, his church. So it just made me think about the importance of unity, but the importance of teaching the next generation how to really have that depth with God, that desire for God, you know, under the four things you talk about it, uh, commit to become like Jesus and staying hungry to change and grow. I personally love that. Uh, well, it’s hard to practice, but the. Love it. You love it. For others, it’s challenging, but that’s something I want to personally take on and be able to experience that with my house, church and my group in Alameda North. Yeah. A couple of things that you were saying, um, passing it on to future generations. Uh, that’s kind of what I thought as far as unity. Um, the convictions, like I was talking to someone who is like a recent college grad and we just had different convictions. It wasn’t a bad thing, but I just thought, oh man, you don’t know this and you should know this because you’re younger than me and you’re going to help keep the church moving. So you need to develop this conviction. And that’s like not passing that on creates disunity. So made me think of that. And unity is harder than I thought. It’s also what I thought, like you actually really have to fight for it and have the, I guess, uncomfortable, uncomfortable conversations that happen sometimes because you don’t agree to get back to the scriptures. So I’m excited to have more conversations. I guess that it’s okay and you just get back to the Bible. Yeah, I like the, the thing I think about with unity is, um, I think of culture. That’s like the word that comes to my mind and even what we’re doing now, how we’re changing the culture of church as we know it or we’ve known it, you know, and I think always helps me to think of basketball. So I was thinking of like the Warriors and how their culture went from me going to the game for five dollars to them being a dynasty. You know, I was like, how did that happen? Five dollars. Yeah, that’s yeah, it was, it was cheap. We were hurting. But like to go from that to, uh, you know, one of the best ever, in my opinion. I think what I think when I think of the words, I think about sacrifice, you know, and I think for unity and for things to change, like, I think sacrifice to our own, our, our own desires for the greater good. Like thinking of where’s God taking us? Um, the plan and the vision. That’s how I connected it with the warriors. Like, you know, like they like Iggy was a, you know, all star and he’s like, I’ll still, I’ll come off the bench, you know, I’ll come off the bench, I’ll sacrifice my own pride and I’ll for the greater good and for the, for the vision, you know, which was to win championships. And so, um, hopefully, I mean, I was kind of going off a little basketball tangent. No it’s good. It gives a role player is always good. Yeah. He’s a role player and he’s he’s been on a few teams. But everybody wants him because he’s willing to do whatever it takes to help the team win. Yeah, yeah. I yeah, I also think that teamwork not basketball because I didn’t play basketball. But Christian has me watching it now. Um, but I did cheer and dance and it was crazy. I was actually reading the scripture in first Corinthians and it talked about choreography. Um, and how that’s how we should be unified. And it made me think about, you know, dance and how part of how you won or cheer, how you won was you being unified and being on the exact move at the exact same time you were marked down if you weren’t. Um, and it made me think, you know, what Jeanette was sharing about, um, where it’s important that we’re all, we’re working together and all on the same page and sharing the same convictions. Um, because that’s where it leads to the success is being unified, um, being on the same page, believing in it. And that’s part of the fun too, I think is being on the same page, like your team, like you become close because you have a goal in mind. And so it’s worth it. The sacrifice. Um, but yeah, I’ve thought of teamwork too. Let’s talk nights every week. You’ll be able to come together in the home that you’re in. Or maybe you’re going to switch homes and move them around. But however you do it, really trust that this is going to be one of the most successful innovations we have because it’s going to bring us closer to each other. In smaller groups, we’ll be able to have better relationships. We’ll be able to have more fun and remember this. We’ll still come together for midweek sometimes, but there will be a purpose to it. And I want to thank Rich because the last conversation I had with Rich was a lot of you guys know Rich. We were talking about a bunch of things that had to do with making a bigger impact on the world, and I asked him for any advice or any thoughts he had, and he says, the only thing I’d say is we got to do something about midweek, man. We just got to do something about midweek. Well, Rich, thanks a lot. That was a it’s not like I hadn’t heard that before, but that was the tip. I don’t run the day to day operations of the Christian church, but I can give a few suggestions. We’ve been working with the lead minister team. And so folks, this is from listening to a lot of you who have been saying, we got to do something and we’re going to do this. We’re going to experiment, it’s going to work and it’s going to work, because all of you are willing to innovate and believe, and let’s keep on keeping on. Don’t forget, keep the Bible as our standard. Commit to becoming like Jesus. Sustain our passion for doing and evangelizing good. Sustain our passion for loving and evangelizing God. Hopefully you can get the handout that’ll be online that you got an email if you subscriber. We’ll be back next week with the same guest for our continued series on getting our Let’s Talk Nights launched.