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Christ Community Chapel is a church in Hudson, OH, that invites people to reimagine life because of Jesus. Learn more about us at ccchapel.com.
Colossians 4:2-6
Continue steadfastly in prayer
being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
At the same time, pray also for us,
that God
may open to us a door for the word
to declare the mystery of Christ,
on account of which I am in prison.
That I may make it clear
which is how I ought to speak.
Walk in wisdom toward outsiders,
making the best use of the time.
Let your speech always be gracious,
seasoned with salt, so that you may know
how you ought to answer each person.
Ephesians 5:15-16.
Look carefully, then, when you walk.
Not as unwise, but as wise,
making the best use of the time,
because the days are evil.
Well,
good morning and welcome to the weekly
gathering of Christ Community Chapel.
My name is Zach.
I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm
so glad you're here.
I'm glad
we get to be part of your weekend.
Hey, let's just get the awkward thing
out of the way.
It's.
It's weird to be up here on a weekend
where you're voting on me.
Probably a little weirder
for me, to be honest, than it
is, for you.
It is an honor and humbling
to even be considered
the stand in the legacy of Jim Colledge
and Joe Coffey of the long
history of this incredible church.
But I just want to encourage you
with this.
The what makes this church amazing
is not the guy holding the microphone.
This church is led,
it has been led,
it will always be led by Jesus Christ.
And that's my commitment to you.
If the Lord wills for us to continue
to move in that direction
for as long as the Lord allows.
But today we're taking a little break
from a sermon series.
We're gonna start a new one.
Next week we're really excited about.
But we want to hit the pause button
just for this weekend
to do what we're calling
an Every Minute Matters refresh.
Now, if you're unfamiliar
with the language of Every Minute Matters
it's probably because you're new here,
and we're seeing so many new people
all the time.
It's one of the reasons
we want to talk about it
is because if you just started
coming in the last few months,
you don't know what that is.
But also vision leaks.
And so if you're like me,
I got a lot going on in life.
I get distracted.
It can be pretty easy to forget
what we're doing and why we're doing it.
It also makes sense to talk about it
because, believe it or not,
one week from Monday,
there will be construction equipment here,
and we'll be breaking ground
on the first of the projects.
I know it feels like it's taken forever
for learning a lot
about different committees
and commissions and building codes
and all that kind of thing.
But, it's here.
We're going to be building soon.
By the way, if you really don't know
what every minute matters means,
if you just go to our website in the upper
right hand corner as a search bar
you can type in, every minute matters.
It'll take you to a web page
is also a kiosk right here in the atrium
that you can check out
that shows you all of the projects.
It's an initiative, a resource initiative
to build some things here on campus
that we think will be vital
to reach the next generation.
I want to take a little opportunity
to remind you
of why we feel it's so important.
So if you have a Bible,
would you take it out
and open it to Colossians chapter four?
Take out your phone, your tablet.
Hey, by the way, if you're new here,
maybe you're new to church.
Didn't know to bring a Bible.
You don't know where Colossians four is.
Don't don't worry about that.
This service is as much for you
as it is for anyone.
And every time I reference some scripture,
it's going to be on the screen
behind me.
But if you want to hold something
and follow
along in the pew in front of you
or in the back of this hall,
you'll find in these Bibles,
and Colossians four is on page 926.
Thanks for being here.
But however you get to Colossians four,
let me hold out to you an outline
that I'm going to use
to guide our time together.
Three points. Very simple.
I want to talk about kingdoms, subway
stops and expectations, kingdoms,
subway stops and expectations.
Let's start with the first one.
Kingdoms.
I want you to notice
something interesting in this passage.
This is at the end of the letter
that Paul,
the apostle
Paul, writes to the church in Colossae.
This is what he says.
Chapter four, verse three.
He says at the same time, pray also for us
that God may open to us
a door for the word
to declare the mystery of Christ,
on account
of which I am in prison.
Paul writes
this letter from a Roman prison.
He is a prisoner of the Roman Empire
for preaching the message of Jesus.
Now that's interesting to me.
Here's my here's my question
why would you throw
a Christian pastor in prison?
I mean, maybe you've heard of,
treating other people
the way you want to be treated.
That's us.
Maybe you've heard it said love
your enemies.
Also us.
Maybe you've heard that hospitality
is treating strangers like their brothers.
That's us.
Christianity is a message of mercy
and forgiveness,
of reconciliation and grace.
Why would you ever take
someone who's preaching that message
and throw them in jail?
Well, to understand that,
you need to understand that Christianity
is about love and mercy
and grace and forgiveness,
but it's also subversive
and competitive.
Here's what I mean.
Two words get thrown around in the church
and in the Bible.
A lot to explain Christianity.
Those words are gospel and kingdom.
Now, I might even use those
in this message.
Gospel and kingdom.
Those are two really important words.
The word gospel is used to describe
the message of Jesus.
We'll talk about the gospel
of Jesus, the gospel message.
We talk a lot about the word, the gospel.
Gospel just means good news.
That's all it means.
So when we say the gospel of Jesus, we're
just saying the good news about Jesus.
The good news
that Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth,
he lived obediently in our place.
He died sacrificially on the cross,
carrying our sin,
coming up under the judgment of God
that was exhausted on him.
He died and three days
later was rose risen from the dead,
so that we might know that he's king,
so that we might know
that God accepted his sacrifice,
that we can be forgiven and included
in the kingdom that God is building
that will last forever.
It's the good news of the life
we're looking
for, the good news of the life
that will not end.
Now, the reason I say
that is because Christianity
is not the only worldview or religion
that talks about gospel and kingdom.
In fact, I've spent much of my academic
career studying
other religions and other worldviews,
and I can tell you
that every single religion,
every single worldview,
every single person has a gospel
and a kingdom.
They're looking to some good news
to bring them to the life
that they want,
some good news to bring them
to a life that will last.
Now, the old way of teaching
this would have been to tell you to walk
down, go to a Barnes and Noble.
Remember those poor won out Barnes Noble.
But you would
go to Barnes and Noble, and you would
walk down the magazine aisle.
And when you walked down
the magazine aisle,
what you would see on the cover of all
the different magazines are different
gospels that if you want life, real life,
if you want a life
that really will last,
then you need muscles like that guy.
You need to cook like her.
You need to drive that car.
Buy this shotgun. You need to get married.
You need to get unmarried.
Depends on the magazine.
Now no one reads magazines anymore.
And no one goes to Barnes
and Noble anymore.
So instead, think about this.
Is this not
what social media influencers do?
Aren't they selling different ways?
Different?
Good news of how you can really live.
Maybe they're telling you
you should eat more or eat less.
It depends on if you follow
chef, Instagram or fitness Instagram.
You see, our world is full of gospels.
It's full of kingdoms.
Whether that gospel is Islam or Buddhism
or Hinduism, or whether it's materialism
or conservatism or liberalism,
all of them are selling a message.
Here's the good news
if you listen to us, you will really live.
And you might say, well, big deal.
So we all have our own gospel.
We all have our own kingdom.
Live and let live.
But here's the problem.
What the Bible also tells us, and this is
what got Paul in prison, is it?
Only Christianity is actually true?
Does make sense if you think about it.
Because God made us.
God knows what it means
for us to really live.
God knows what paths lead to life.
God knows what leads to his forgiveness.
God knows what leads
to his eternal kingdom.
So Paul doesn't just show up saying,
hey, maybe you follow this on Instagram,
or that maybe you read that magazine
or this, maybe you vote this way or that.
But let me add now he's not adding, he's
saying all of those are selling you a lie.
Here's the good news of Jesus,
of how you can actually be included
in God's kingdom.
Because you see,
what the Bible is telling us
is that each of us must find a way
out of the Gospels.
We're believing out of the kingdoms
we're seeking,
and into the kingdom of Jesus.
That actually leads me to my second point,
which is, say, not just kingdoms,
but subway stops.
Early on in my career,
I lived in Washington, DC.
It was before I worked in ministry.
I lived there by myself
and I didn't have a car.
So to get around I use the subway system,
which in DC is called the Metro.
And I learned this lesson the hard way.
The Metro doesn't run 24 hours,
so if you get
there late enough,
you are on the last train.
And speaking here purely hypothetically
for a friend, not me.
If you fall asleep and missed your stop,
then you end up in northern,
I mean, Northern Virginia
or Southern Maryland, and they don't care.
They're not going back.
You're going to have to figure it out.
Now, I say that
because what the Bible says
is that that's a great metaphor
for actually our lives.
Every one of us is born
a rebel in a world in rebellion to God.
We are born on a train that is going
the opposite direction from God.
And the problem with that,
the Bible tells us,
is that every time we move away from God,
we move to less life, not more.
We move away from God.
Your marriage withers.
It doesn't get better.
You move away from God.
Your parenting withers.
Your career withers, of course,
because God knows how life works.
God is the source of life. He's
our creator.
When we run away from him, we wither.
If you don't believe me, consider this
we have never been freer in society.
We've never been more anxious,
never been more depressed,
never been more conflicted
because we're moving away from God.
And when you move away from God,
you wither.
But here's the other problem.
When you move away from God, you
not only wither,
but you're headed towards death.
And the Bible says,
after death comes judgment.
After judgment
comes eternal separation from God.
We're on a train
and the last stop is not one we want.
But the Bible also
tells us that so great is God's love,
so great is his mercy.
So great is his kindness,
that from time to time he will stop
the train we're on, the doors will open,
and he will say to us,
do you want to get off?
Do you want to get out of this gospel,
out of this kingdom and step into mercy,
step into forgiveness.
Step in to love. Step in to grace.
Maybe for some of you, that's
what he's doing this weekend.
That's why you're here,
is God is saying, don't
you see if your career
was going to fix your life,
it would have done it.
If getting married
was going to fix your life.
If getting unmarried was going
to fix your life, it would have done it.
Don't you see you're on a train going
the wrong direction.
God invites us off of that train
and into the one that is led
by Jesus, headed towards eternity
with God, not away from him.
And Paul says, this is the Christian
message, this is the Christian mission.
And he also says is urgent.
Look with me. Colossians chapter four.
He says, verse
five, walk in wisdom towards outsiders,
those believing other gospels, those
on other trains going the wrong direction.
Here's what he says
making the best use of the time
in Ephesians, the passage that was read,
he'll say, make the most of the time
because the days are evil.
What is he saying
every day our friends and family members
and neighbors are on a train.
Going away from God is another day further
into withering and closer to judgment.
Every day.
What Paul is
saying is he says he's in prison
for preaching, and he's saying,
pray for me, that I can get out
so I can do this right back again.
It's like, Paul,
don't tell your parole officer that. Why?
Because they're on a train
and it's going the wrong direction.
Listen, everything this church does,
everything that we're doing
and every minute matters,
is designed to create as many subway stops
as possible
for our friends and family members
and neighbors.
Why turf a soccer field
so that we can do soccer camps?
Why put in a walking track
so that you can walk with your friends?
Why do an indoor playground?
Why do a preschool? Why why why why why?
To create as many opportunities as we can
for the doors to open
and for God to whisper.
Do you want to get off?
People say,
Zach,
why are you targeting the next generation?
Why not everybody?
Well, first of all,
we are targeting everyone.
We want every single person
to come to faith in Jesus.
But here's why
we're targeting the next generation.
Two reasons. Very simple.
Number one,
everyone here in this room loves a child.
The best way to build a relationship
with them, the best way
to build commonality with them,
the best way even to invite them
to hear about Jesus is to love the kid
they love
to bless the kid.
They love to serve the kid they love.
Do you remember? Of course you remember.
If you're here for the outdoor service,
we had 4000 people.
I had to write a lot of apology
notes for you.
Driving through people's yards.
I appreciate that.
You know why we had so many people?
Because the week before was kids camp.
You love the kid they love.
They want to know why.
Here's the second reason.
Did you know that 72% of people
that become Christians become Christians
before the age of 18?
That's not accidental, because actually,
as children were more open than we ever.
You get the older we get, we get more
stubborn, more set in our ways.
And we be honest.
We get more guilty, more ashamed.
It's harder
to believe that God could forgive
us, harder
to believe that God could love us.
We carry a lot of baggage.
By the way, if you're here and you're
older than 18, God will take you.
That's not what I'm saying.
I'm just
saying, on average, 72% of people.
Can I tell you that last year,
within a ten mile radius of this church,
last year, 2383
kids graduated from high school.
Most of them to this church are gone.
They're going to move away.
They're going to go to college.
They're going to take jobs.
We miss them.
This year, another 2300,
then another 2300, then another 2300.
And what we're saying is we need to create
as many subway stops as possible
before we list, before we lose them.
An indoor playground
is not about your kids having a good time
in the winter, unless your kids are having
a good time with a friend
and you're sitting next to the mom
or the dad, that's a subway stop.
Can you see that?
That's a subway stop.
And Paul says it's urgent
because every train
that is not driven
by Jesus is headed in the wrong direction.
That leads me, though, to my third point,
which is to talk about expectations.
Listen,
I don't want you to be pessimistic.
That's not my goal, okay?
It's bleak.
People are on a train borne on a train
headed away from God.
I was born on a train
headed away from God.
That's bleak.
But the Bible is not pessimistic.
Some of you Christians need to hear that.
If you're feeling cynical,
if you're feeling pessimistic,
you're not reading the Bible.
You're listening to the wrong news source
because the Bible tells us,
no matter how bleak the world
get, God is doing something incredible.
God is on a mission to reach people.
And by the way,
if you think that isn't true, consider
this Paul wrote
this letter from a prison in Rome.
We're reading it
2000 years later in a part of the world
he didn't even know existed.
And there is no more Rome.
There's a city, not an empire.
It's.
Because that's what God does.
Listen, our hope here at the church
is not that somehow
we might be so incredible
that God would say, hey,
I like what's going on there.
I think I'll partner with them.
Everything we're doing,
we're doing because the Bible tells us
that God is on a mission to reach people.
He's more passionate about it
than we will ever be.
He he's more driven towards it
than we will ever be.
All of our enthusiasm,
all of our excitement, all of our dreaming
comes from him.
We're doing all of this
because God is a God of reaching people.
That's who he is.
By the way, that's not just who
he was in history, in the Bible.
That's who he is. Here.
We launched the reimagined vision in 2021.
In January
and four and a half years since launching
that vision, we've baptized 817 people,
all of them over the age of 12.
All of them, having met with a staff
member,
shared their story, articulated faith 817
if we keep that rate, that in 30 years
we'll have baptized
5500 people.
Does that surprise you?
It shouldn't.
It shouldn't listen.
When you read the New Testament,
the church, the local church
is supposed to be the most exciting place
on earth.
It's supposed to be the very center
of what God is doing.
Read the book of acts,
miracles, life change, families restored.
All of that.
By the way, if you don't believe that,
consider the guy writing
this letter was not a good dude
before he met Jesus.
That's what the church is supposed to be.
But let me tell you this it's not just
about having expectations for God.
It's about God
having expectations for you.
He wants you to be part of it.
Look at what Paul says here in Colossians
two different times.
He urges the colossian church,
not him them, to get involved.
Here's what he says.
Verse two continue steadfastly in prayer,
being watchful, and it with thanksgiving.
Verse six, let your speech always be
gracious, seasoned with salt,
so that you may know
how you ought to answer each person.
Paul says, look, I'm
a professional Christian.
Paul is like me.
He does this for a living, but he says,
But God's expectations
are that every Christian participates.
Listen, let me put it to you this way.
I coach junior high football.
You know, I talk about it
probably too much.
And every year
I have about 40 kids on the football team.
And I think football.
I got to tell you, I think football is
the greatest game ever invented.
I think it teaches toughness.
Moms, listen, listen to me.
It teaches toughness.
It teaches how to handle adversity.
It teaches teamwork.
It teaches trust.
It's a great, great game.
And every year there are a group of kids
on our team that don't participate.
They don't get in drills in practice,
they don't get in in the game.
And I hate it for them
because I know at the end of the season,
what they're going to say is
football is boring,
football is lame, football is not fun.
And I want to say to them,
how would you know?
You never played it.
You wore the jersey, you
put on the pads, you put on the helmet,
you stood on the sideline.
But the adventure of football
is not on the sideline.
It's on the field.
I cannot think of a better metaphor
for the American church
friends, if you feel like church is
boring, church is lame, church is stale.
It's because you're on the sideline.
The action is on the field.
We're reaching so many people here.
All glory to God, reaching so many people
here at Christ in the chapel.
In fact,
one of the things I'm supposed to tell you
in this sermon is we have so many people
coming on the weekend, we can't fit them.
So on November 9th, we're going from
three Sunday services to four
8:00, 915, 1030 and 1145.
We just got to make room, look around.
There's nowhere for people to sit.
That's awesome.
But it also means there's incredible
opportunity
for you to participate.
Let me give you three ways that I think
you can go from the sideline to the field.
Here's the first one. Invite someone.
Invite someone.
Listen, you and I, we're a team. Here's
how it's going to work.
You ready?
You invite people close to you here.
I will tell them that
God loves them in Jesus.
Do you know how weird it would be
if I invited them?
Just see me at the grocery store and say,
hey, Pastor Zach, you buy bananas.
You know what?
You know what else is bananas? God's love.
See you on Sunday.
It's weird right?
Smooth but weird.
When you invite him,
I'll tell him about Jesus.
And then you buy lunch afterwards.
And here's how it works.
That works pretty simple. You just me?
What you think? What do you think?
What do you think?
8:00. Now what? We're trying so hard.
Is it church?
If you can't come on the weekend?
We got Thursday night.
If Thursday night doesn't work,
how about 8:00?
8:00 to early?
How about 915? 915? Too early?
How about 1030?
1030 doesn't work.
How about 1145? 1145? Does it work?
What do you do? It?
We're not a church.
It makes people feel guilty
about their schedule.
We're a church that says whenever you are
free, we want to tell you about Jesus.
Invite them second, second,
give,
give.
Those pastors are uncomfortable
talking about money.
I probably shouldn't tell you this
on a weekend.
You're voting on me,
but I'm not.
And here's why we tell you why
I just told you.
I believe God is more passionate
about reaching people than I will ever be,
than you will ever be if you don't give,
God will bring it from somewhere else.
I really believe that this is God's
mission.
It's God's church. It's God's bill.
I believe that asking you to give isn't
about supplying our need.
Here's what it's about.
It's about you being on the field.
A week from Monday, there's going to be
construction equipment in the parking lot.
And if you've partnered with us
in every minute Matters.
I hope you get your kids in the car.
You drive by.
That equipment is
everybody. Look, that's our equipment.
That's
part of what we're doing as a family.
We get to be a part of what God is doing.
That's the adventure.
And then here's the third one
you can serve.
You can serve.
I know we have incredible volunteers here,
so it's tempting to see what's going on
and go, man, there, do such a good job.
They don't need anyone.
Listen,
we do such a good job, but it's a mirage.
We need people.
We need people.
Listen, I just told you,
we go from three Sunday services to four.
That means we have a whole nother service.
We need.
I need some of you
to serve in two services.
I need some of you to serve all day.
I need some of you to start serving.
But here's what I want to tell you.
If you serve, you are on the field.
Listen, every one of those 817 people
we baptized,
if you ever held them in the nursery,
you were part of that.
If you taught them in children's ministry,
you were part of it.
You greeted them at the door.
If you told them where to park,
you were part of that.
That's the adventure of the Christian life
is you're experiencing
what God is doing in people's lives.
Why would you want to be on the sideline?
In fact, take out your phone
if you don't already have it out.
Most of you do.
Take your phone out
if you're not serving currently, it's easy
for him to throw this on the slide.
Here you go.
You text, serve, seek.
This is is easy.
If you're like me, I don't. I'm just.
Full disclosure I don't do the QR codes.
I don't know about you.
Here it is five five text text to 55498.
Just text serve
seek. We're going to do the rest.
That's all you have to do.
We're going to work with you
to find a time, your available talent
that you have a slot that works.
You only got once a month,
once a quarter, twice a year.
We'll find you a place.
But I want you to know it's
because we believe the excitement
God has wired you for is found in the
ministry of the local church.
Friends, I want you to
know that I think God
is going to blow our minds
with what he's going to do here
for the next 30 years.
It has nothing to do with me.
It has everything to do with him.
But I don't want you
to be part of it on the sideline.
I don't want you to miss
the incredible role that God has for you
in his mission to reach people
before it's too late.
Let me pray for us.
Father God, thank you so much
for the mission you have given us here
at KCC that every minute matters.
It's your mission to your church.
It's your kingdom.
It's your gospel
God, would you raise our expectations
of who you are and what you want to do?
Would you?
Would you show us the unique role
that you have for us to play?
And even right now,
I pray for someone sitting here who does
not yet know how much you love them in
Jesus for them to meet you right now.
God, would you
make this local church for your glory,
not for ours.
For your glory?
Would you make it the single most
exciting thing that any of us do
for your glory, for the good of Northeast
Ohio and the world, and for our joy?
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.