NOV 11 2018 | SPENT S1E3 | The Local Church

Sea Change Church · SPENT · "The Local Church" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · November 11, 2018
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Right on. Yeah, you heard my right on right then. Okay, we're going to read scripture and then hear the message. And this is from Genesis 14, 17 through 24. After Abram returned from defeating Kedor laomer, the kings allied with him. The king of Sodom came out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh. That is the king's valley. Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High and he blessed Abraham saying, Blessed be Abraham by God Most High, creator of heaven and earth, and praise be to God Most High who delivered your enemies into your hand.

Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. The kings of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself. But Abram said to the king of Sodom, With Ray's hand I have sworn an oath to the Lord God Most High, creator of heaven and earth, that I'll accept nothing belonging to you, not even the thread or the strap of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, I made Abram rich. I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me.

To Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre. Let them have their share. This is the word of the Lord. Oh, this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. That's a little better. It's not bad for your last one. We're going to let you keep reading scripture though. We're going to allow it. Because your pronunciations are so good. Winning. Awesome. Lord, bless this message as we talk about the collaborative power of people of God coming together to bless what you do in your work.

In Jesus' name, amen. I personally believe that the most influential organization on earth is meant to be the local church, the Christ-following church. I personally believe that it has more power than governments of nations, than armies, than any business organization, than perhaps like a Google or an Apple or news media of any other kind. I believe that if the church of God gets holiness, holy living, and sacrificial holy living together and collaborate as a team with God, to collaborate with God, that the individual local church that are all over the world, that the Bible calls each believer to be a part of, whether you work for World Vision, whether you work for Christian Surfers, that each of you, whether it be a home church, whether it be a mega church, whether it be a little church on the corner, that it is God's desire to have these organizations, now this means a cohesive unit of people all pulling for the same thing.

Now each of you have individual lives that are equally important. I'm not speaking about that today. I'm speaking about what it looks like when you gather people together like we did for the harvest party, when you gather people like we did for the Jesus Fish Fest, when you gather people together to stake a claim for the kingdom of God on earth, I believe is the most influential, powerful organization on earth. And I believe that as local churches, we often, because when we talk about the church, we seem to talk about this whole church all over the world, and I think it is important, and God has movements through the whole church, but there are individual churches that God wants each church to have an incredibly impactful counter-culture and culture-shifting group that come together to bring his kingdom to the place that they are called to be.

And so you see in the book of Revelations, where God speaks to these like seven different churches, and for each, these are actual real churches in real places. He doesn't speak to the whole church at once, and he does sometimes, generally will speak to all believers, but he regularly speaks to individual churches. And if you look at Paul, Paul oftentimes is speaking to individual churches. He writes books. He doesn't probably know he's writing the Bible at the time.

He's just writing a letter to a bunch of friends at a church, and he's saying, hey, you're doing this great. These things can be worked on. And so I believe that God has his eye on individual churches, and just because you're eight people in a living room that are meeting and functioning as a church, or you're a couple hundred people meeting on a little corner in La Jolla with 15 parking spots, or you're 50,000 people in China at one of these huge churches, or a million people showing up to some things in Africa, that God is aware of each of those churches, and he has some thoughts on the church that you attend.

Absolutely. Read the book of Revelations. He mentions seven churches. And each church he mentions by name. And I know there's a whole lot of people who want to look at each of that, and what does that mean? And this Laodicea means this, and this church means this. But ultimately, we can try to put the pieces together of what that means prophetically. Or we can also just look at the Bible saying what it says, and God giving a word to a specific church, and saying to one of the churches that, hey, you know what?

I'm so proud of you that you have not bent a knee to the culture, that you have not turned to a false doctrine. And we see churches, as part of the global church, turning to different doctrines, and some of them, it says in the scripture, are doctrines of demons. And I believe that, you know, I'm not going to call them out today from the pulpit, but I believe that there are churches that are beginning to follow things in the name of truth or love that are actually doctrines of demons.

And that what God wants to do is have a congregation that comes together and makes a difference in the name of love and truth, because love without truth is not really love. And he wants them to make a difference. And so today, what I want to talk about is our church. And I want to highlight what the sacrificial living that we see in the scripture, but especially that started with Abraham, who really didn't have to give anything to anybody.

Abraham was on his own. God was separating him. But he separated him not so he could live by himself. He separated him so that he could become a people. And when you're here today at church, you're here on Sunday, you have made a decision to become a part of a group of people that God actually has a specific understanding about our church and he has a blessing and I'm sure he has some rebukes. Absolutely, we are not a perfect church and we don't allow perfect people to come.

Maybe there are some organizations where it's perfect people, nor do we want to put this beautiful group of people on stage who, no offense, you're beautiful. That's not what I meant. But we want to create where the stage becomes the star, where when you come into a church, you know, we wow you with our lights, we wow you with our smoke machine. No offense, I like all that stuff. Well, actually I don't, but nonetheless, there's nothing wrong with it.

But if it leads to creating a production where we create something that you actually cannot replicate in your home. Like we create pastors that you can actually not relate to. You can put them on a pedestal, but you can't actually relate to them. You can't relate to your worship leader. You can't relate to the people that we put up there. That we put a product on stage that you cannot replicate in the home. And I believe the church does an incredible disservice when we try to produce perfection on the stage other than the perfection that is Christ.

And so I want to speak to us as a church. I don't have a rebuke for us, but I would encourage you that if you're not part of this family, then you listen right now and say, do I want to be part of a family like this? If you have just checking us out. And if you are part of our family, you say, man, I am in, we are fully in, we are invested, we are locking shields together, and we want to make a difference in this world, then this is the message for you because that's what I want to speak about.

And I have to say, I mean, I really mean this. I am so proud of what you're doing. I am so proud of everything from the, you know, the talk, Doris and her family making tacos all summer long, came every Tuesday, cranked out hundreds. I mean, we sold thousands of tacos this, you know, summer. People at the beach, in the schools, all the different collaborative things you're doing. It is amazing to watch you guys work, and I get to be a part of it and be along for the ride.

So, one of the things, in order to have an impactful church, is it has to be a sacrificial church. And we are not going to accomplish, I believe, all the things that God would want us to accomplish unless we're a sacrificial church. And the odd thing I found about God is he will leave us to our own devices. He will allow us not to be sacrificial. He will allow us to worship false gods. He will allow us to worship idols and to go our own way.

And he's very, very patient. Thank God he's patient, especially with me in my life, and hope maybe you feel the same. God is a patient God. Oftentimes, with Israel, he's saying, this is what you're meant to, and if you see, this is, you know, people read, it's funny, people read the Old Testament, and they read, like Isaiah, they read Jeremiah, and they say, what a mean God there is. He said he was going to do this, and he's going to do this, and he's such a mean God.

What a mean, mean God. Does anybody realize that those were prophets? And the prophetic voice says, by the way, I want to warn you, this house is going to burn down, and this is what it's going to look like. Repent, and if you repent, which is something we need to regularly ask ourselves, do we want to repent? If you repent, this is what I will do. So, we cherry pick, the, you know, our many people cherry pick these words from God, that are ultimately warnings from God.

That God is saying, I want to warn you, and maybe God has been warning you as well. And so we see, that God is speaking here, and he's speaking to a collaborative sacrificial work, and he's speaking to Abraham, because Abraham was not meant to be solo. He was meant to live in community. And so one of the first things we see, is Abraham gives a tithe to this really inquisical character named Melchizedek. Now, I encourage you, if you want a really interesting Bible study this week, read this story out of Genesis 14, and then go to Hebrews 7.

Hebrews 7, and I think it even goes on to 8, talks about Melchizedek, and it talks about him being a high priest. He's a really important figure, and he's a messianic figure, and many people, incredible Bible scholars, have said, this is actually Jesus. They say, this is Jesus, he showed up in the flesh to Abraham, because Abraham thinks he's legit enough, to give him 10% of his money. And if you're Abraham, you don't have to give to nobody, because you're straight up God's boy.

He is like, he doesn't have to give to anybody, but he gives money, to this guy Melchizedek, this priest that shows up from Salem, which wasn't even, you know, perhaps at the time, known, you know, as perhaps like Jerusalem would be known. We'll find out a little bit, what Salem becomes here in a moment. But he gives it to him, and if you want an amazing study this week, read the Genesis 14 passage, and then read Hebrews 7 and 8, and it talks about this Christ-like figure.

Now, I was meeting with Jim this week, and I tend to think, that Melchizedek is not Jesus. I tend to think that Melchizedek was a godly king, and a godly priest, which is interesting, because when Israel gets its kingship, they don't allow you to be a priest and a king. This is why Saul had a problem. He went and made sacrifices, and God wanted a separation of church and king. And so he had this separation. What is interesting is that Melchizedek doesn't have that separation.

It is before Israel has a kingship though. And it doesn't have this, and Abraham still gives unto him. So he's a special figure. He's a priest and a king. What is so interesting is today in our society, we often, Christians often want their, and it's not a bad idea, but they want their kings to be priests. And for some reason, and you can do your own study, why would God want to separate those two things? But he gives to this very influential figure, and you can read into it to see who it is.

But he is a Christ-like figure. We can say that. And as I was having breakfast, circle back, with Pastor Jim this week, I said, Jim, do you think that Melchizedek is Jesus? Because a lot of people would say he is. And I love Jim's theology, because Jim says, you know, I just want to not try to figure out what the Bible's saying, as much as I just want to be aware of what the Bible's saying. And he says, it doesn't say he's Jesus.

It alludes that he's a type of a high priest like Jesus, but he's not wearing the name tag. And if Melchizedek didn't wear a name tag, like we do here at church, that said Jesus, I'm not going to say he's Jesus. That is such good theology. Because one of the things I struggle with the most is when we try to just tie all these ends together that the Bible doesn't really say. And we oftentimes try to see people do that.

And so here's the key point that we start this message with, looking at how Abraham gives the first fruits to what would become Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem, because Salem, spoiler alert, becomes Jerusalem. He gives a tithe unto Jerusalem to a city that would become the city of David. The most influential organization in the world is meant to be the local church. I fully believe that. When the church gets holiness and sacrificial living right, there is nothing on earth that can stop it.

I believe that. We want to talk about money and sacrificial giving. And one of the most important things, instead of giving our time, is really, and I don't know why God did this, but God has asked that we support his collaborative work on earth as a people. That we support something where all of us come together and work to make a difference. And so under your understanding money, as it is in the church, because I want to preach the scripture, I would say it's impossible to extricate, to remove material sacrifice from biblical spirituality.

Now, as I've said over and over again, that Jesus paid the debt on the cross, and you no longer have to give. There is no debt. There needs to be no tithe. God is not a fan of you having to give. And I had a pastor friend of mine say, don't say that to your church. That's like giving suicide. I actually said, no, I think it's actually giving freedom, and I think it's biblical. Because now that Jesus paid the debt, you never have to give under compulsion.

But for the first time ever, although there were free will offerings in the Old Testament, you can give to God just because you love him, out of thanks, and to give him honor, as we spoke about in the last week. And so as you discern each week, each month, what do I want to give unto God? It is a free will offering, no longer under compulsion. So if you don't give, you do not need to feel guilt. There is no guilt, because Jesus died to kill guilt and shame.

But you can also now give generously, and to see the benefits. And I got to tell you, I do believe, I totally believe this, that $8,000 grant that wasn't given to me, it was given to our church, was a blessing because of how you have responded to the giving campaign, and how you have given as this church. I fully believe that. Somebody came up to me last week, and said, I believe that when the church is like a person, and when it gives sacrificially, and the church lives sacrificially, God will bless the church more.

They told me that last Sunday, we've had some great response to our giving campaign, and then I got this email, hey, you got this $8,000 grant from this organization. I fully believe that those are interconnected. And just because he removed the compulsion, doesn't mean God removed the blessing. And are you receiving that blessing yourself? I believe it's impossible to extricate material sacrifice from biblical spirituality.

You see biblical examples of it. You see the tithe, and we'll talk about the tithe in a moment, because the tithe is not an offering. A tithe is what we give collaboratively, as a group, to establish the kingdom of God, in a city, in a nation, in a world, together. A tithe is what I'm giving that this church, not this church, but the local church that I'm a part of, that I believe every believer should be part of a local church.

This is what we do collaboratively. Offerings were beyond that. Offerings were come and given for different reasons, but that is what the tithe is. You see a tithe, and this is really, really interesting. We'll talk about it in a second. The first tithe is in Genesis 4. Offerings, that you can see given. It was actually an offering. It was given in Genesis 4, 1 through 5. You talk about how it's impossible to extricate financial sacrifice from your spirituality.

I do think it's impossible. I think that if you are not giving financially to some organization, in the name of Jesus, it doesn't have to be here, some organization, or to the poor, or you are not sacrificially giving finances to somewhere in the name of Jesus, you are going to be missing out. And I think you're missing out on a huge component of what Christ wants to do in the world to collaboratively work with him, and also the blessing that comes along with it.

I believe the scripture shows us it's impossible to extricate it. And the more sacrificially you live, I believe the more you will experience the joy of the Lord, and perhaps the abundance of blessing that comes with it, maybe not always financial. But we see an offering right away. Abraham and Moses in Exodus 25, you can look these up. We expect you to, don't expect you, we'd ask you to go home and look these up and follow the notes as a study guide this week.

Jesus and the widow's might, we see giving in Luke 21, this poor woman, gives everything she has. All these rich people coming, and Jesus says, yeah, but look at that. Nehemiah takes a collection to rebuild the wall. And we talked about Isaiah 61. The rebuilding of the wall, and I will say in the last five years, we have begun to rebuild the wall. People were holding it together. There was a remnant that was in this church that we like to call the originals.

They were doing everything they could to stay together, but budgets were just being made. And they said, we're waiting for a day, for a new season, that we can rebuild the wall. And if you look around, the new season has come. And you were part of it. Thank God, and thank God for what they have done. But it was a time to rebuild the wall. And you have come in alongside of their faith and along their hope. And for 90 years, this church has been on this corner.

And I think it matters. Especially in La Jolla that likes tradition. You know, there has not been a successful church plant in La Jolla that has stayed more than 10 years since 1955 in La Jolla. Not one. We had works come and go, but there has not been one since. We were the second to the last in 1927, and then the Lutheran church, and I believe 1955. Most will come, stay for a while, you know, for numerous reasons. But La Jolla loves tradition.

And one of the things about ministering to this area is to be able to say, hey, I'm the pastor of that church. They go, oh, I know that church. That's been there forever. That's just something La Jolla likes. Now, not all San Diego likes that. But it's one of the influences and the blessings that we get to have and then to reach out beyond here. But this church might have been sold off for some apartment buildings if it wasn't for a remnant that said, we're willing to give sacrificially.

Yeah, right. Absolutely. I think that's a big deal. That's a solid hallelujah, mom. I like that. You can always count a mom for a hallelujah. And the way you say it too, it's like hallelujah. It's just like, boom. It's got a little extra something, something to it. Nehemiah's collection, Paul takes a collection for the church and helping other churches. This week, we got an appeal from another group of churches that said, hey, could you help us out?

And we had some missions collaborative money that we, at the missions organization, we can give if we want. It's up to our committee initiative. And so we sent them a little bit of cash just to help other churches out that we believe in. We give 10%, as you'll see the members that are in the meeting today, 10% of all the money that comes in, probably beyond, we give that here because we want to set that example, although 10% is not a New Testament mandate.

Continuing on, and hopefully, you're getting excited about being part of a collaborative work that changes the world. Hopefully, you are. And there is a lot of fervor. You know, I look around and I don't talk about politics at our church. You know, it's not a thing I bring up because I believe this should be a sanctuary where you guys can get away from that for a little bit and just breathe God in. But I see more political fervor than I see religious church fervor at the moment.

Man, if we could just match some of the political fervor with love for Jesus and wanting to share them, that would be amazing. And I know it's happening in pockets, but it's something that we want to do. Now looking, it says, the corporate tithe, as you see here, is to be a collaborative work of God's people to financially support a local church and the establishment of the kingdom of God in a community. I just thought this was interesting.

In Genesis 4, 1 through 5, this is right after the fall. The first two things that happen is one, Adam gets his family on, so he gets the family going. So we have a creation of family in the New Testament. And then the next thing that it says is that Cain and Abel brought offerings to the Lord. I just think it's interesting. The first two things that happen after the fall, one is the creation of the family. It's the first things that's mentioned.

The fall happens and then what happens? You have the creation of family, you have Cain and Abel being born and then you have offerings and then a few steps down the road you have a murder. Which is really interesting in how that goes. But just how immediately, right after the fall, there is an offering unto the Lord which I think is so exciting. And hopefully you enjoy giving an offering unto the Lord. I told you that it's one of my wife and I's favorite things to do whether we go here or not.

So we see that and you can read through that scripture and read and I think that's just an interesting study that I want to keep serving back to you. That was more of a forehand than a serve. I want to give you a forehand back as in tennis so that you can keep studying on your own. But if you ever look what happens immediately after events chronologically in the Bible, I think there's something to be said for that. So go read through Genesis 4 and see what happens and see if you can see those outworkings in the world today.

You'll see a note the first two events mentioned directly after the fall of mankind or the creation of family and the offerings given unto the Lord. The Genesis 4 passage also shows that you can do things right and do them in the wrong way. You know, God, it says over and over again, he says this to Saul after Saul comes and Saul in the Old Testament gives this sacrifice. He sacrifices all these bulls but God had said you're not supposed to do that.

That's not your job. You're the king. I have people to do this and I want things done in an order. And you know what I desire more than sacrifice? Anybody know what the word is? Obedience. That is not a popular word these days. Obedience. I desire obedience over sacrifice and let's set the financial piece aside because I think God can still accomplish what he wants in the world whether we're faithful or not. The sacrifice God's looking for you is you.

You are the sacrifice and he showed that when he wanted to tithe, he tithed himself to you. He tithed himself to pay your debt. This is the whole system and that when we actually talk about finances which you're not going to have financial transactions in heaven. Financial transactions aren't because there's abundance in heaven. You don't need it. Everyone has, you have equality. Everyone's going to have that. Money is meant to be a metaphor for a greater work that was done and you'll see this in scripture.

The transaction that took place was a transaction for your heart. The transaction that took place was a transaction for your soul, for the souls of the world and Jesus says I will sacrifice myself. Hey, a tithe is due. Not only a tithe, an offering is due to pay for sin, to pay the debt of sin and I will send my son and you know what I want in return? I want you. God, you know, he doesn't really need your money but what, I would even say he needs because he loves but he's willing to let us make our own decisions.

Unfortunately, sometimes it feels. Let me just say wants. He wants your heart. He wants you to tithe and sacrifice yourself. You know, if you said God, you know what, if you never gave a penny but you gave yourself, I think God would be pleased because he wants you and so what we see over and over again is Israel, he said, you know what he says if you read the Old Testament? I am sick and tired of all the money you give me.

I'm sick of the smell of the blood of goats. I am sick of the smell and sickened by your offerings and your fragrance that you send up as your offerings that are pleasing to the Lord are like a stench to me. He said it's disgusting because ultimately what God wants is you and secondarily to the transaction that happened of human hearts and human lives and the life of Jesus on the cross, secondarily that is supposed to reflect that transaction is how we live sacrificially, giving our time, our treasure and our talent.

That is meant to be a mirror for how you understand the transaction of Jesus dying on the cross and you giving your life to him in all areas and that's the harder sacrifice. Is it harder to give a thousand bucks or to give away your addiction? Is it harder to give, you know, five thousand dollars away or to give away the relationship that you know that you shouldn't be in? Which is harder? He understands which is harder and he's saying I want sacrifice and we want to give sacrificially and so once we understand how much God loves you, once you understand how much that he removed guilt and shame so that he could have you and he paid the tithe of his life, all of a sudden giving becomes like this second, it's not even a big deal.

It is a big deal because you're saying I want how I surrender my finances to reflect my understanding of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. That's the deal and that is the starting place in the building block coming in for a landing here. Genesis 14.10 says that Abraham gave a tenth of everything. This is the first instance we see of a tithe and I call it a tithe because it's being given unto a priest for the work of a city and if you understand Melchizedek, biblical historians tell us that Melchizedek was a king and a high priest of Salem.

Salem then is believed to be the name of the city that would eventually become Jerusalem. That's cool. that Abraham didn't know that but he recognized God in a moment because here comes Melchizedek who you can study about please go and study he comes and he recognizes there's something about where I am going to give money that I believe God has given me and so Abraham takes these things very seriously because he believes that everything he has and all the riches he has, everything and he was legit.

Everything came from God and then this other king comes to him not Melchizedek and says I want to give you some money too. He says I don't want it dude. How many people turn down money because it's not the right kind of money? It's not the money they want to get that you know God doesn't want to take money from places like robbing and stealing the poor. He's not into things like that obviously. Abraham was really clear about who he would take money from how he would earn money and then at the same time how he would give money and what it meant and he sensed God in the mix and so one of the things I ask to do whether you're driving past people on the street that are homeless or there's an opportunity to give whether it be World Vision and support orphans or Unity for Orphans or one of our missions partners or this church as a whole whenever you give that you would try and take a moment that's why we give these cards and we ask you not to sign them to say what is God calling me to do collaboratively to change and to sacrifice for the work of God and that's what Abraham did.

It was the first tithe that we see that was given unto a priest for the building of a city on earth. If you go down Hebrews 7 takes a deep dive into Melchizedek who he truly was. One argument for this is that God did not allow a king I already mentioned that. Here's the key point. God, Abraham was giving directly to God and the work that was to be accomplished in this holy city and his church to close up as family members in this community and whether you're a voting member or not and you consider this your home you're a family member.

We're all family. Some of us have a responsibility. We've decided that you know just like we take out the trash clean the dishes by house some of you have decided to be voting members. There is no difference in regard to you being a family member and as family members in this community will we do the same to see God establish the kingdom of God on earth. I'm going to say I have myself and the elders and not just elders I don't just take opinions from elders.

I talk to the congregation I listen I make collaborative decisions listen to you I hear what I'm hearing from the congregation I believe the world is desperate right now for a word of hope and love and I believe that we are strategic this church let's just talk about us we are strategically placed to make a massive difference in the decade if not decades ahead at this congregation and we would love you to be a part of it and consider how you're going to be a part of it sacrificially so we will end on our three weeks on that and I'll just leave it at you we're a congregational church to look at what we do if you would stand and have Chris come forward Lord Jesus want to bless you today and we ask the prayer team to come forward if you need prayer today come forward if you extend your hands I want to bless you today Chris is just going to play a little bit of music on the way out and we have a hot dog Sunday today it is 4th of July in November it's what happens when you have 500 hot dogs left over from a harvest no 200 or whatever it was hot dogs are good we got some chicken ones too let me just bless you in the name of Jesus I bless you with faith hope and courage understand that you're God's beloved I bless you with peace I bless you with mental margin the ability to go to the beach and forget your worries and experience God that you'll see him in a butterfly you'll see him in the sun the love of God will just fall upon you return to your first love sacrifice yourself bless these people God we send them out now as an army to be a force of love in the world thank you for what you've done this year what a year we are so thankful we are so grateful and we bless you now in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit Amen