Gospel Patrons 2 : Work As One
In this week's sermon, Pastor Clay emphasized the importance of teamwork and unity in fulfilling our mission as Gospel Patrons. Drawing from the story of Nehemiah, he highlighted how working together with a shared vision can lead to success and transformation. The sermon encouraged believers to serve, sacrifice, and stretch beyond their comfort zones to help one more person find what truly matters. By serving as one body, sacrificing for the greater good, and stretching ourselves in faith, we can make a significant impact in our communities and beyond.
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Today we are talking a lot about teamwork and working together as one. If you don't know me, my name is Clay and if you do know me, you know that I'm a big sports guy. I almost always talk about it. I never shut up about it. It's just a thing that I absolutely love. And I have noticed in my years of attending sporting events, there are certain things that everyone participates in when you're at a game.
So what I'm going to ask for here is a little bit of crowd participation, okay? It's been a great year for Coastal Sports. A lot of teams doing a really great job. We got baseball regionals tomorrow night. Like, it's a big time.
So I need you guys to group participate with me, okay? I'm going to lead you along. You follow my lead. Very simple, okay? I believe in you guys.
Because if you guys don't do this, I'm gonna feel very awkward, okay? So please step up and join along. All right? I appreciate that, dad. Thank you.
I never called you dad here before. That was weird. All right, Sweet Caroline, you guys nailed it. See, I hate singing that song at ballparks. Right?
Because what inevitably happens is during the bump, bump, bald part, you're always sitting next to your stooge friend who decides to punch you in the arm three times. And it makes me so annoyed. All right, how about this one? Everybody clap your hands.
That's the first time you guys have clapped on beat all night. All right?
Think I'm nervous about this one. I'm very nervous about this one. All right? Katie's saying, don't do it. Katie, My wife over there, I told her about this earlier this week, and she said, clay, it's a bad idea.
Don't do it. And I was like, I believe in our people. I believe in them. All right? This is another thing that I hate and I have never done and I never will.
And if you ever see me do this at a ball game, you know, like, the robot overlords have taken over my body and are completely controlling me. And it's the wave. We're in a circle. I'm not necessarily asking you to stand up and do it. There it is.
That's the energy we're looking for. Hey, this section right here, you guys are small but mighty. You're going to lead us off, and then we're going to kick it around this direction. Okay. Clockwise.
All right. I'm going to lead you right here. Julia, you ready?
Do it again.
Oh, you guys can stop. You guys stop. You can stop. You can stop. Love the enthusiasm. I've done a lot of dumb things on stage. That was incredible. Hey, Katie, it worked. Take that.
I'm gonna regret that statement later. All right, I appreciate that. That was teamwork, working together. And we are in this series called Gospel Patrons. In week one, we talked about how we need to have a burden for people.
Week two, we talked about how we need to have a heart that is praying for people and prepared for whatever action we are about to face. And this week, we're talking about working together. If I could summarize it in one phrase, it's we are talking about working as one for the one. Because a key part of serving as a Gospel patron is not doing it by yourself. Inevitably, if you do it by yourself, you will fail, you'll struggle.
You will not get to the point where you could have. If we want to work together, if we are willing to work together, it dramatically increases our chance for success, for growth, for winning, for victory. It drastically grows our opportunity for that. And the way you work together as one is by having a common vision. And our common vision here at the Rock is to help people and specifically help one more find what matters by connecting them to Jesus and others.
They. That's what we're trying to do here at the Rock. And we want to work together as one to help one more person find what matters, because we know when they find Jesus, it changes their life. So for the Christian here, as we're talking about this tonight, this is gonna be huge for you because we have been given a mission to help people know who Jesus is. For the non Christian, I think this messaging still plays
great for you.
Maybe this is your first time, or maybe you're just debating some stuff. Regardless of that, I still want you to have a successful life. I still want you to grow. I still want you to get better. And if you are willing to work as one in whatever facility that you are working in in life, it increases your chances at success.
And maybe through this conversation tonight, you will hear the underlying message about why all of this is possible. So we have to work as one for the one. Like I said, this goes to Nehemiah. And if you haven't been with us, the story of Nehemiah, it's a fascinating story. It's a great, great story.
It's a great thing that actually happened in history. And in Nehemiah 1, what happens is Nehemiah hears that Jerusalem, where he is from, is still in ruins after people had been allowed to go back. The walls and the gates are torn down. His heart is broken for these people. But he doesn't just jump into action right away.
No, he pauses, he prays, he weeps, he mourns, he fast for days and days and days. His first instinct is to go to God. His first instinct isn't to go and try to fix it.
So he does that. And then four months later, an opportunity arises. He's the cupbearer to the king. And the king looks at him and goes, why are you so sad? Why are you down?
What's the problem going on right now? And in that moment, Nehemiah prays again. And as he prays, he asks the king for a favor. He lays out this detailed plan. He's already thought about what he'll need.
And he's not just emotionally moved about what's going on in his life. He's spiritually prepared and strategically ready. God opens this door and then Nehemiah walks through it, which is extremely exciting for him. But that means once he actually gets to Jerusalem, he has work to do. He has to get after it.
He has to rally the people together to actually rebuild the wall and rebuild the gates. He has to get them to work as one. He got them to work as one in three different ways. If you're a note taker, these are your three takeaways for tonight. Super easy.
And these same things that apply to them apply to us today. If you want to work as one for the One, the first thing you have to do is serve as one. You have to serve as a body of people. You have to serve together. You have to come together to have these moments.
And if you look at Nehemiah 3, what you'll find is that it seems like a pretty boring section of scripture where it's easy to skim over, or it's easy to kind of forget about it for a moment. There's just a bunch of names of people that you can't pronounce their names, and it's a list of gates and walls and all these different things. And you're kind of like, what am I getting out of this. But what you'll see if you read it is you'll see that people didn't wait for someone else to do the job that needed to be done. They got off their donkey and did it.
And many of them were repairing the sections that were right outside of their homes. There was ownership. There was a feeling like, man, I have to get after this. Hey, I have to do this. This is protecting my family.
Some people built big sections, other very small sections, but it didn't matter, because every portion of that wall did matter. Because if there was a weak link in the wall, the enemies would find it and they would come in and destroy the city again. So they had to build it back stronger and better than ever. At every single portion of the wall, you'll see in chapter three, as you look at it, you'll see all sorts of different people that worked on different jobs. You had rulers and priests, men and women, professional craftsmen, willing servants, people from all around.
They were all willing to come together. And all the citizens of Jerusalem did their part of the job to make a difference. They worked as one. Similarly, the church needs to do the same. The body needs to come together to serve as one, come together to fight as one, Come together and make a difference that way.
We need the teacher and the student. We need the coach and the athlete. We need the parent and the child. We need the white collar and the blue collar. We need the white person and the black person.
We need every single person to come together to serve as one, to make a difference. What's crazy about this and where I think a lot of people struggle is at this point, there were 45 sections of construction mentioned, including 10 gates. But the end goal was the same. They all had a shared vision. Because I think sports teams are fantastic at this.
I really do. They do a great job of creating a shared vision of something. Football teams are awesome. You get 100 plus players and they're all shooting for the same goal. Different positions, different play styles, all these different things.
And if you go into a football facility, you will see that vision shared everywhere. You can't miss it when you walk in. For example, Coastal's football vision is one family. That is what everyone is rallying around and trying to get to so that they can become victorious, so that they can work together. Successful teams understand that you have to work together, serve together under a singular vision.
Jesus knew this when he taught his disciples. He prayed for them to be one. In John 17, he gave them a mission to make disciples. In Matthew 28. And he did that because the vision that you operate your life with really matters.
The vision that you operate, your organization really matters, your business really matters, your team really matters. It drives so much. Because when you have vision, when things get hard, it keeps you fighting. When you have vision, when things are good, it keeps you going. When you have vision, when things are confusing, it keeps you focused.
It reminds me of great way with us as Christ followers. There's a psalm that says, your words are a light to my path, says your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. In Psalm 119, 105, we have this vision of how we're supposed to live.
But there's this question I think hangs over the head when you're talking about vision. And it's this, do you actually believe in the vision?
Do you actually believe in the vision?
Here are two ways to know if you are or not. The first is this. If someone else is the reason that your team, organization, family, whatever you are in. If someone else is the reason that you guys win, are you celebrating the victory as a team or are you jealous that you weren't the reason? Because if you are
jealous that you weren't the reason there was success, chances are you're not really bought into the vision.
The other side of it is this. If you see an opportunity to help the team succeed, but you aren't willing to step up and do something about it, chances are you're not really bought into the vision.
We need to be a church that is bought into the vision. We need to be a body of believers that is bought into the vision, willing to do anything and everything, but also be willing to celebrate when someone else does anything and everything. Because we're trying to help one more person find what matters by connecting them to Jesus and others. That's our goal. And that's not just our goal here at the Conway campus.
That's our goal at the A campus, the South Strand campus, at the J. Rubin campus. We have this goal. Every single ministry, every single campus, every single opportunity, we have that goal as a church. It is a shared vision.
So will you serve as one underneath that vision? If the answer is yes, then I think we really lean into the second part, which is we need to sacrifice as one. Nehemiah 3:14. It says this says the dung gate was repaired by Malkjah, son of Rechab, the leader of Beth Hakaram district. He rebuilt it, set up its doors, and installed its bolts and bars.
I think those three words are really important. The dung gate. That means someone literally had to have the crappiest job. All right, like, awful job, terrible job. Are you willing to sacrifice?
Someone has to step up and do it. Someone has to step up and attack it. Someone has to be willing to sacrifice. That's why we're doing what we're doing here at the Rock. Like, we have all these building projects going on.
We have this Gospel Patience initiative going on. And it's taking a lot of sacrifices of time, of energy, of money. I mean, this room right now is a perfect example of this. Guys, there's enough space over there right now to play basketball on. Right?
Right. Like, this has been wide open this week. It's exciting. Things are happening. That's coming soon.
We've got the parking lot that got done, the ainter. This gen space is so close to being finished. We're trying to get a South Strand property. I was down there this past weekend and. And it was an amazing experience.
And that campus is only going to increase in numbers over the time, but we need to get them a permanent location. And to do that, it's going to take sacrifice. And we wouldn't be where we are today without people sacrificing. You know, when the church was in its infancy, there was people that gave when they had no idea if this church would be successful or not. There are people that opened their homes when this church didn't have a place to meet.
There are people that have served for hours and hours and hours. There have been people that have stuck around for 20 years. There have been people that have given, people have served, people who have led because they believed in the mission and it didn't matter what it took. They were willing to sacrifice so that one more person would find what matters. I love how our early childhood director here at the Conway campus says it.
She said, I love the fact that we get to hold babies, that we get to rock babies, because when I'm rocking a baby and that mom knows that their child is in good hands, that's a moment where she can get filled up after being poured out for so much. She says, whatever it takes for us to help that mom out, we are willing
to do it. And that's just a great mindset. Yeah, we're gonna sacrifice. We're gonna hold babies, we're gonna change diapers, we're gonna deal with crying kids.
Like, it's gonna happen. Because we want people to experience the gospel. Everyone must make sacrifices for us to help one more because that one more is someone's son. That One more is someone's daughter, someone's coach, someone's athlete, someone's teacher, someone's grandparent, grandchild. What are you willing to sacrifice for that one more?
And it might be your one more, but it might be the person that's down the aisle from you. They're one more. And it could be the thing that changes their life, but more importantly, their eternity. So if we want to work as one for the One, we have to serve as one. We have to sacrifice as one, and then we need to stretch as one.
You have to be willing to do things you are uncomfortable with. Nehemiah 3, 9, 12. It says this in verse 9 to start heart. Rapha, son of Hur, the leader of half the district of Jerusalem, was next to them on the wall. This was a guy who was a leader in the community, and he's getting after it, he's working hard.
Then it says this in verse 12, says, Shalem, son of Haloshesh and his daughters repaired the next section. He was the leader of the other half of the district of Jerusalem. These are two leaders who are getting after. They're stretching themselves outside of their comfort zone so that the walls could be rebuilt.
When it comes to being a gospel patron, being a gospel patron is not found in your comfort zone. It's just not. If you really want to make a difference with your faith and say, God, what do you want to do through me? It's not going to be comfortable. It's not gonna be the easy route, it's not gonna be the comforting route.
It's gonna be hard work, and it's gonna make sacrifices, and it's gonna stretch you to do things that you never thought possible. When you do it, you're gonna go, God, you're really doing something. Through this stretching of my life, I think about people who have been coming to the Rock for a long time, or maybe it's a short time even, that haven't taken that step to start serving. Maybe the way that you need to stretch yourself is to start serving and making a difference. Because right now, on this Thursday night, we have a middle school ministry happening right over there.
And there might be a middle school boy without a father figure in his life. And you can think back to when you were a middle schooler and how desperately you needed a man in your life that poured into you. You could be that person. Maybe, you know, you love holding babies. Maybe that's the job for you.
Maybe you stand at our doors when people walk in and you smile at them. That might be the only smile that they get all week.
Your job matters, your skills matter. Your willingness to do something matters. So will you stretch yourself and do it? I could also talk about this financially.
People don't like to talk about money.
We know that. At the same time, everybody always thinks about money. And because everybody always thinks about money, Jesus talked about money a lot. And you could be in here and going, okay, Clay, here's the money pitch. Here we go.
I get. I have found myself getting increasingly frustrated in the current state of some things that I'm seeing in the world. And one of the things that I'm seeing in the world is this complaining, arguing, pushing this narrative that the church, and I'm not even saying our specific. I'm not talking about any specific post, only wants more money to have a bigger building so that the pastors can have more fame, so they can have
more influence and all this stuff. And it's just like, man, if only you knew what the purpose behind all this is, because we could care less about how much notoriety we get.
We're building a new auditorium. And here's the secret thing about our auditorium, Fink. You know this. Our auditorium is not going to look any different than it did. It's just going to be flipped horizontally, and we're just going to be able to add more seats.
This isn't about us. This isn't about us trying to get something out of people. This isn't us trying to put money in our pockets. No, what this is about is helping someone else find Jesus.
I said it a second ago, but that money isn't for me. That money isn't for him. That money isn't for our staff members. No, that money goes to helping one more person find what matters. So are you willing to stretch yourself that way and say, God, I'm gonna honor you with my finances?
Because when you give, you are making a direct impact into someone's life. We see that through baptism, like people are giving their life to Jesus and getting baptized. And part of that is due to people giving because we're able to do things like this and to grow and expand. And people are coming from all over the area, and it's amazing. This isn't about us getting.
It's about us giving and changing people's lives through the work of God.
There's a really cool story happening right now that's kind of been underlying for the past month. About a month ago, the Aentor campus was doing some announcements, and they're announcing Kids Rock Camp and saying, oh, we're so excited for it. It's this date. It's $20. Each kid come sign up.
It's gonna be a fantastic time. And they finished the announcement and service went on. And someone came up to one of our staff members at the A campus and said, hey, I know you said it cost $20 for each kid to go. I want to be a gospel patron, and I want to pay for every kid to go.
An unbelievable sign of generosity for that campus. Really cool thing.
So they work through that process. A couple weeks later, our Aener kids director, Paola, sends out an email to all the the A Kid's Rock parents, says, hey, guess what? Because of a gospel patron, this is free now. Well, then there was a VIP and a pair of kids from the Conway campus who had taken their kids to Anner a few times and gotten that email and said, hey, I saw that this happened in Anor. How can we make this in Conway?
One of our staff members said, hey, well, this. And she says, done, I'll bring a check this afternoon. So now, because someone was a gospel patron in ain or someone was a gospel patron in common, and guess what? The same thing happened in our South Strand campus.
These are people who decided to stretch themselves for the good of the gospel. And that is what we need. We need people who will say, yeah, we're going to work as one for the One by stretching ourselves and doing what God is calling us to do. That's an incredible story, but it's not the only story of something like that ever happening. I mean, the ultimate example of this is Jesus, is that Jesus worked as one for the One while he was here on this earth.
Because if you look at his life, when he came down from heaven to earth, Jesus served. He went and talked to people. He went to heal people, he had conversations with people. He was willing to get his hands dirty. He brought people alongside him, say, hey, work with me.
Let's serve together. Let's do something together. Let's make something happen. They did that. But to do that, Jesus had to make some sacrifices, right?
Jesus could have had any kind of life he wanted while he was here on earth, said, no, I'm going to push away all human temptation and I'm going to sacrifice that for the good of the people. So he lived while he was here on earth a perfect, sinless life. He sacrificed, he gave things up. And of course, he stretched himself by dying on the cross. And he did that because he loves us.
And yes, I'm sure the physical pain of being hung on A cross was horrific.
But stretching himself to feel the emotional pain of the world, sins on his shoulder, I can't even imagine that.
And he did that because you matter to him. He loves you. He cares about you. He wants to spend eternity with you. And you might be saying, why me?
How could it be me? There's no way Jesus could love someone like me. But he does. And you could be saying, clay, you don't know what I've done. Jesus does and he still died for you.
You could be saying, how is this? How do I even do that? Like, what kind of steps do I gotta do? What kind of things do I have to make sure to make this happen? All you gotta do is say you follow him.
Jesus was the one who went to work. He served, he sacrificed, and he stretched for each and every single one of us. Now the question is, if you've made that decision, will you do that as well? Will you work as one for the One? Will you bond together with the people that you are around?
Will you be with the people around? Will you get on a team? Will you serve? Will you look for opportunity to make a difference? Because there's someone out there that needs to know who Jesus is, that needs to know the difference that he can make on their life.
So will you do that? Serve? Maybe today is a day that you go, man, I need to get on team. I need to start serving somewhere. Our Connect team would love to help you with that.
Maybe today is the day you needed a sacrifice. Maybe that's sacrificing a sin habit that you have. Maybe that's sacrificing some efforts that you have. Maybe that's sacrificing some money, saying, God, okay, I'm start giving to you for the very first time. Maybe that's just going, God, you sacrificed your life for me.
I'm going to sacrifice my life for you, and I'm going to give my life to you right now in this moment. Or maybe you need to stretch yourself because maybe you've been a Christ follower for a while, you've gotten comfortable, and it feels kind of easy right now. I'll let you know that Easy Place is a dangerous place.
That's how you become complacent. So fight against that. Push yourself, ask God, what do you want to do in my life? And then have the courage for the One to do whatever he calls you to do. So that's my challenge for you today.
Work as one for the One. We're about to go into a time where we sing a little bit and during this time, we have communion available by the doors. You can come grab some. Maybe today's you want to give your life to Jesus. You're wrestling with that.
Come talk to one of us at our connect corner or our prayer corner over there. Maybe today is the day that you want to get baptized and give your life to him and show that you've given your life to him. Symbolically, going from death to life, just like Jesus did today could be a lot of things.
I think I want to wrap up with this phrase, and I think it's pretty simple.
Let's get to work. Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to get to work? Stand with me. Let's pray.
Jesus, right now, I'm asking you to challenge us to work, to serve, to sacrifice, to stretch for the one Lord. Thank you. Amen.
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Small Group Curriculum: Working as One for the One
Connect:
Objective: To foster a sense of unity and connection among group members.
1. Connect Activity: "Common Ground"
- Have each group member share one unique fact about themselves that others might not know.
- After everyone has shared, discuss any commonalities or connections that arise from these facts. Reflect on how these connections can help us work together as one, just as the sermon emphasized teamwork and unity.
Discover: Breaking Down the Sermon
Objective: To delve deeper into the sermon’s message and explore its biblical foundation. 1. Discussion Questions:
- Teamwork and Vision:
- What does it mean to "work as one for the One"? How does this concept apply to our lives as Christians?
- How does having a common vision, like the one mentioned in the sermon, help us in our spiritual journey and in our church community?
- Nehemiah’s Example: Read Nehemiah 3 or talk through it.
- Reflect on Nehemiah’s story. What can we learn from his approach to rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem?
- How did Nehemiah demonstrate serving, sacrificing, and stretching? How can we apply these principles in our own lives?
- Serving and Sacrificing:
- Why is it important for the church to serve and sacrifice as one body? - Share examples of how you have seen or experienced this in your own life or community.
- Stretching Beyond Comfort:
- What does it mean to stretch beyond our comfort zones for the sake of the Gospel? - Can you think of a time when you had to stretch yourself in your faith journey? What was the outcome?
Respond: Practical Steps
1. Serve as One:
- Identify one area in your church or community where you can start serving. Commit to taking the first step this week, whether it’s volunteering, joining a ministry, or helping a neighbor.
2. Sacrifice as One:
- Reflect on what you might need to sacrifice to help one more person find what matters. This could be time, finances, resources, or personal comfort. Share your commitment with the group for accountability.
3. Stretch as One:
- Challenge yourself to step out of your comfort zone in one specific way this week. It could be sharing your faith with someone, leading a prayer, increase your giving, or taking on a new responsibility. Discuss your plan with the group and pray for courage and guidance.
4. Prayer and Commitment:
- Close the session with a group prayer, asking God to help each member serve, sacrifice, and stretch for the sake of the Gospel. Encourage each person to write down their commitments and pray over them throughout the week.
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coming soon