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"Here as in Heaven."
For more information visit : garden.church
You're listening to the Garden Church podcast. We're in a series called Church on Fire, a journey through the book of Acts. This is a story of ordinary people filled with the spirit, carrying the presence of Jesus into every corner of the world. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is alive and in us today. Join us as we step into the call to be people set on fire for his mission.
Darren Rouanzoin:Hey, if you're new to our church, we're so glad you're here. We believe that Jesus lived in human history, died on a cross, raised from the dead. One two of us believe that apparently. We believe that we are called by Jesus as the church and we are not just an event. We're not a nonprofit.
Darren Rouanzoin:We are the continuation of Jesus' ministry on earth by the power of the Holy Spirit. So we are doing spiritual things in a world that's craving truth, craving meaning and purpose. We believe that all of that is found in Jesus. Sigmund Freud said people are hungry for love. Carl Jung said people are hungry for significance, security excuse me.
Darren Rouanzoin:Alfred Adler said people are hungry for significance and Jesus says I am the bread of life. So we believe that what you are made for is found only in Jesus. That there's a lot of counterfeits out there offering you a way to experience healing, but only one person provides the healing that will last for eternity and that's Jesus Christ. We also are in a series called Church on Fire. We're looking through the book of Acts.
Darren Rouanzoin:And every time I preach, I extend it an extra week because I realize there's so much good content. So so this is gonna be two parts. Here we go. So part So last week pastor Amin preached, the rest of Acts two. We have the last section of Acts chapter two which is a beautiful snapshot vision for what life, the the proclamation of Jesus looks like practically.
Darren Rouanzoin:You ready for that? 11:00 where you at? I'm like I'm here. I don't know where you are like world series week Dodgers won. Blue Jay fans, anyone need deliverance today from I'm just kidding.
Darren Rouanzoin:We'll we'll invite you to ministry at the end. Don't worry. Healing's coming. I'm so passionate about this section of scripture and you'll see at moments today. But I'm also like walking through trying to figure out how to say it right.
Darren Rouanzoin:So you're gonna get an edited version I haven't preached today, because that's what happens at the nine and eleven and one. But, when we started our church, it's seventeen seven sixteen years officially. Sixteen years officially. After my, we were learning what it means to be the church because there's a lot of books out there. And then there's one book, the bible that really should frame our imagination.
Darren Rouanzoin:But it's like we like to add on all the accessories, right? And programs and ways of making it, you know, modernized and relevant, which isn't necessarily helpful in my opinion. We should contextualize the church, but we should we should get to the source. I I remember this one moment where I realized my, what it what community really meant means. My wife, I I think I've shared this story, but Ezra, my first born, almost died of RSV.
Darren Rouanzoin:And so he got, RSV which is like a bad cold but when you're an infant it's it's deadly. And we're in we're in Chalk Hospital for a few like for six days and it was very scary And afterwards, it set my wife and I into this season of that was so dark. We were, I would say agoraphobic could be a good word but postpartum depression and anxiety kind of took over my wife and I just remember living in a house and it was just so dark. She couldn't get out of bed. I was bringing Ezra to her to feed him and then she was in such despair and sickness because of the hormones and because of the trauma of what we witnessed.
Darren Rouanzoin:We didn't sleep for days in the hospital and it was just so scary to watch your little child attached to all these machines and the doctor saying brain damage and all this stuff. And I had to take some time off and I remember like we weren't letting anyone come into my our house because we were afraid of getting sick. And people would like walk outside. My mom would show up and like park across the street and like walk outside across the street. I'm like, see you mom.
Darren Rouanzoin:But one day Zach shows up. Knocks on the door. Knows he can't come in. Hands us a bag. And it was filled with gift cards and prayer.
Darren Rouanzoin:From our church, from everyone. And I so we we closed the door and I sat with our backs against the door and we wept, my wife and I. It wasn't because of the gift cards that was helpful. It was the prayers of faith that we didn't have. Because when you're in it, don't know if you're gonna get through it.
Darren Rouanzoin:And it reminds me of Mark chapter chapter one, chapter two. Paralyzed man is paralyzed in the first century as a Jewish person means he can't go into the temple to offer sacrifices. The belief system of the day was he sinned or his parents sinned. Therefore, he's marked by shame as a paralyzed man. But his friends hear that Jesus is in town.
Darren Rouanzoin:So his friends don't run to see Jesus. They run to their friend who's paralyzed. They grab him on a mat, probably against his will. Could you imagine growing up not being able to play soccer with your friends? Not being able to walk to the store?
Darren Rouanzoin:Not being able to be helpful in a in a physical environment where you have to physically work to earn money? They drag him to Jesus. There's no room. They don't care. They dig a hole in the roof.
Darren Rouanzoin:And when he he's lowered Jesus says, their faith. He sees their faith. The friend's faith. And he says to the guy, your sins are forgiven. Which is not something that a paralyzed guy wants to hear.
Darren Rouanzoin:He wants to hear the other part, pick up your mat and walk. But what you have to understand in the first century is Jesus is healing the deeper thing. The narrative. The deep loneliness. The deep question mark.
Darren Rouanzoin:God are you good? Why? He is good. He is in a good mood. He is happy.
Darren Rouanzoin:And it doesn't answer all of the questions but what he gets is the deeper healing. And when my my son got out of the hospital he lived, what my wife and I were stuck in were all of the questions we couldn't answer. All of the fears of the future but in a moment not because of our faith but because of y'all's faith. We got up and light came into the home and we continued on. That's real community.
Darren Rouanzoin:That is what we're after here. And what I have to say is you're all bringing in a kind of Christianity that needs to be repented from. Can I say that? Like you don't wanna hear from the pastor, repent. Today I wanna say repent.
Darren Rouanzoin:Because what we're trying to build right now is what Jesus was trying to build. And I want to give you an imagination for what's possible in the book of acts. Alright. Because what I'm hoping for is this kind of community. The kind of community that reflects heaven on earth.
Darren Rouanzoin:Now, with me church? Lord, would you just give us a vision for what you have? May we become good soil as we open your word. Bless the word today God that it would come into our hearts. I pray for a softness from the spirit even if the message is sharp because it says the word of God cuts through like a double edged sword.
Darren Rouanzoin:Lord, may you pierce our hearts. May we be open to receive what you have for us so that the future is bright in Jesus name. Amen? Alright. Go ahead and stand up.
Darren Rouanzoin:Let me see your bibles. Put them up. Let's go. Let me see. Hold them up.
Darren Rouanzoin:You're standing. Let me see. Keep them up. Can we put overflow? Keep them up.
Darren Rouanzoin:Let's just see how overflow does. I don't know what overflow looks like. They might be winning. Oh yeah. They're beating you.
Darren Rouanzoin:Okay. Overflow. We're good. Acts two verse 42. We're standing for the reading of the word.
Darren Rouanzoin:We believe the word of God is authoritative so we're gonna submit to the authority of scripture today as we read. Yeah? Acts two. Here we go. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Darren Rouanzoin:Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they committed I'm sorry. They continued to meet together in temple courts.
Darren Rouanzoin:They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who are being saved. The word of the Lord. Alright. Go ahead and grab a seat.
Darren Rouanzoin:This is this this is a snapshot of what the church looked like. So you have Acts two, the spirit fills the church. Peter proclaims the fulfillment of the old testament. The fulfillment of all of scriptures happen when the holy spirit comes. God dwells with the new people, with his people making a new covenant with them as a sign of the spirit dwelling.
Darren Rouanzoin:You all become mini mobile temples. And he proclaims to the crowd, you killed the author of life. Believe in Jesus. Repent and believe. Be baptized.
Darren Rouanzoin:3,000 people are saved day one of the church. So anyone that's like, don't like the mega church. Well that's how it started. So one of my problems of church planting was how many people were like I love church planting. All 20 of us we're living it out.
Darren Rouanzoin:And then as soon as someone else comes like oh things are changing here. It's growing. I can't talk to the pastor anymore not with 20 but like, you all carry expectations. Do you not realize that God is adding to the number? Yeah.
Darren Rouanzoin:But when you look at Acts two verse 42 to 47, it's it's a vision that, Luke gives us for the fulfillment of of Jesus's ministry being put into practice. So in in Luke chapter four, which is part one of a two part series. Part one is the gospel of Luke. Part two is the book of Acts. We're in the book of Acts.
Darren Rouanzoin:Part one, Jesus begins his ministry in a synagogue and he proclaims the spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good news to the poor, cast out demons, heal the sick, give sight to the blind, set the captives free. The announcement of the year of the Lord's favor, he he quotes Isaiah 61 and he brings in Isaiah 58. So those two passages, Isaiah 58, Isaiah 51 are like the mission statement of Jesus's ministry. And Luke is gonna show you in the gospel of Luke how Jesus fulfills the jubilee. The day of the Lord, the year of Lord's favor, he's fulfilling the old testament.
Darren Rouanzoin:And you see it. So what do you see in the book of, gospel of Luke? See people that are blind or healed. They can see. People who are set who are held captive by demons and false beliefs are set free from oppression.
Darren Rouanzoin:People who are lost are found. People who are excluded are included. The outsiders come in and he does this a variety of ways. You get to the last bit of Jesus' ministry chapter 18. This wealthy guy who's got all his possessions, who's following the law says, what must I do to enter it, to inherit eternal life?
Darren Rouanzoin:Well, and and Jesus talks about the commands and he says give up everything and follow me but the wealthy guy walks away from Jesus. And the next guy is a blind guy who sees blind Bartimaeus and the next story is a tax collector. A chief tax collector who shouldn't get Jesus at all gets a meal with Jesus. And as Jesus is having a meal, the guy gets up and he says, half of my possessions I give to the poor. Anyone that I've wronged, I pay back fourfold.
Darren Rouanzoin:Which is a fulfillment of the old testament. It's a fulfillment of the law of of the Jubilee being manifest through Zacchaeus. And what you see is this progression of Jubilee happening in Jesus' ministry. Then the church comes and everyone's filled with the Holy Spirit. We get to Acts two forty two and you see Jubilee put into practice.
Darren Rouanzoin:How are we doing? This is this is not history. This is an invitation for us to live in a way right now. And can I tell you what's confront being confronted is consumer Christianity? You see we've made church in the image of American culture.
Darren Rouanzoin:We've made church to be convenient. To be comfortable. To be safe. To be an event. But what Jesus is after is for your minds to be baptized and reimagined in Lordship Lordship to Jesus Christ.
Darren Rouanzoin:So Rodney Stark says in his book, The Rise of Christianity. Rodney Stark was not a Christian before he wrote this book. He's a sociologist who studied sociological movements throughout history. And he does this research. How on earth did the church become the largest movement in history when it was under oppression, when it had no formal education, no books written down, when it was an outlawed religion.
Darren Rouanzoin:How did it go from like 20,000 people at a 100 AD to nearly 20,000,000 people in two hundred and fifty years? He he traces that as a historian and in the process of doing history, he became a Christian. And he says this, Christians lived radically. People looking in from the outside wanted to be like them. They didn't have a marketing budget.
Darren Rouanzoin:They didn't have Instagram, TikTok, Twitter. They didn't have an email service. They didn't get no know, they couldn't text people. They didn't have flyers to pass out to neighbors. They had lives put on display.
Darren Rouanzoin:And what we'll see in a second, in his book which I'm gonna use as a framework for the early church. It's called The Patient Ferment. And it's another historian's, it's the patient ferment of the early church. It's it's a it's this beautiful book that traces the first four hundred years of the church in the in the wild growth that we experienced as a community of faith in the first four hundred years. Just so you know, if you don't know this, Christianity is the greatest human movement in history.
Darren Rouanzoin:We can trace all of the major significant things that have been done to Christian worldview. Universities, orphanages, hospitals, the end of slavery, women's rights, caring for children, the end of human trafficking that we're working towards, all comes back to the dignity of humanity based on the Judeo Christian worldview and values. We believe every person has dignity because they're made in the image of God. That is our our our history. Are you with me church?
Darren Rouanzoin:So I came back to faith because of history. Like I I I I studied Islam and Buddhism, Mormonism. I studied news new age spirituality and you have to have more faith and uncertainty in those religions than you do Christianity. Just like that's the beauty of our of our of our faith. Like this book, the New Testament is the most integris ancient documents we have in all of ancient documents.
Darren Rouanzoin:Are you guys alright? Yes. Is this just for me? Is there six of you? That was I need Give me 12.
Darren Rouanzoin:Lord, give me 12. I'm not using notes. Acts two forty two is a vision of what happens when the spirit fill people, fills the people, and forms a community that looks like heaven on earth. You see, this is possible today. I've seen glimpses of it.
Darren Rouanzoin:We've experienced the at the garden. These moments where it's like heaven is here in how we're living amongst each other. We have seen generosity poured out in a way where there are no needs among us. Could you imagine if that happened with all this growth? It's not gonna happen because our staff got really good at excel spreadsheet and emails.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's gonna happen because something happened in your heart. And here's the key for all the talk today. It's this one phrase. They devoted themselves. Which is such a punch in the face to consumer Christianity.
Darren Rouanzoin:There's no devotion in consumerism. There's you at the center of the story of God consuming goods and needs and then wondering why your witness is powerless. Why your prayers are anemic. Why nobody wants to be like you. It's because you've been following the wrong way.
Darren Rouanzoin:May I say an idol of the age. So the call is this first line. They devoted themselves which I was talking to pastor Amin in that that shares a root word of giving yourself over to. Laying down your life to. Offering your bodies as a living sacrifice.
Darren Rouanzoin:That idea. And and the the Greek word is there but I I I like to translate it to be stubborn sustained ongoing commitment. The early church covenanted not just to God, not just to Jesus and the Holy Spirit, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, but to one another. And how frustrating would that be if you had to do that? Now, I wanna say that's what you're called to.
Darren Rouanzoin:But how frustrating is relationships? I always say ministry would be easy if it weren't for all the people. Because we're all so different. We all have our perspectives. Everyone has an expectation like you've been discipled by Yelp.
Darren Rouanzoin:So like you come here with a contract. Right? Like some people have an expected like what is church? Well church is where you go and there's a hour service, an hour and ten if you're long here. It's like an hour forty five.
Darren Rouanzoin:Sorry about that. The pastor's gotta be funny. He's gotta be smart. Can't be too serious. Can't really call me to repent.
Darren Rouanzoin:Worship has to be We have preferences of worship styles. If it's too hot, we need iced coffee. There's got There shouldn't be a parking problem. Of course not. There's gotta be a place for my kids.
Darren Rouanzoin:They have to like it too. There's gotta be a ministry for my life stage. At my other church I was the minister of cats you know and so I wanna bring that ministry here you don't have it. Church of Satan. Just kidding.
Darren Rouanzoin:Just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding. I know you got cat people here. I don't wanna Now you're not gonna hear anything.
Darren Rouanzoin:Pastor hates cats. He's gotta love cats. I gotta put that on the list. But then you get to the New Testament and there's 59 commands for one another. And I've never received an email from someone going, Darren, how are you gonna teach me as a lead pastor how to die to myself?
Darren Rouanzoin:Hey, Darren. Would you teach me what it means to take up my cross daily? No. I get the other emails. You don't have time for me.
Darren Rouanzoin:What are we doing? This is this is my heart's crying. In the first service, I couldn't say it. I'm like, I'm done. I'm gonna say what I want.
Darren Rouanzoin:So because if you find some other church, great. I'm okay with it. I want you here. I believe we're building something beautiful. I want you here.
Darren Rouanzoin:But if you're not gonna be fully in, don't be here. In a world where you're consuming church services, don't be at this church. Commit or not. And you can be here for a while and like, I don't know if I'm following church. I could figure it out.
Darren Rouanzoin:But once you're in, be in. Although, and if it's If this is not the place for you, be Go to another church and be all in. Because that's what discipleship is. They devoted themselves. They devoted themselves.
Darren Rouanzoin:It wasn't like a casual, I'll figure it out. I'll feast at when Darren's here and not when someone else. He'll go to another church when so and so is in town. Forget that. That's not Christianity.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's the American mall. And for some reason we think, oh revival's gonna come. It's not gonna come because someone emailed you or put it on Instagram. It's gonna become a revival when your heart is, I'm all in. I'm done playing with the world's idols.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm all in to Jesus. And in the first century church, they were all in and reordered their schedules, their finances, their life, their worldview. There were kids and youth all in. And it was like one day I'll be a leader. Be a leader now.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's what Jesus is after. So it says, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the breaking of bread, to prayer, to fellowship. These are significant markers of the church. You can't leave them out. You can't be like, oh, we're a praying church.
Darren Rouanzoin:We're not a community church. You've gotta be all of it. And in the early I gotta get some notes. In the early church, forget the notes. Who cares?
Darren Rouanzoin:It's great. There's like in the West, what's happened is two out of three American Christians say they can grow spiritually without being a part of a local church. And less than 30% of those that go to church attend church weekly. This is what sociologists called the Mcdonaldization of faith. Quick custom mile customizable convenient spirituality on demand.
Darren Rouanzoin:Community without commitment. Formation without friction. The church is lacking because we've replaced acts two commitment with Amazon prime. Someone's like, you had all these sound bites. I'm like, I gotta find those again.
Darren Rouanzoin:I don't know what which ones are. That was one of them. Their church was never meant for consumers. It was for covenant people devoted, sacrificial, joyfully inconvenience for one another. Joyfully inconvenience for one another.
Darren Rouanzoin:Can we dream of being that kind of church? Yeah. We've disciple people into consuming content rather than carrying the cross. And acts two is the invitation back to the heart of what Jesus was after. A kingdom architecture.
Darren Rouanzoin:So consumer Christianity is church is an event we attend, not a family we belong to. Jesus is an accessory to my life, not Lord and Savior. Faith is private, not a communal experience. Worship is about our experience, not surrender together to Christ. The new testament envisions never envisioned Christianity to be a lonely isolated journey.
Darren Rouanzoin:We are disciples and a family. People being formed together in the image of Christ for the sake of others. But we have to repent from our consumer Christianity that shaped our expectations as a church. So, what's going on in Acts two is it's giving you a snapshot of what's possible. Not just history but an invitation for us to live now.
Darren Rouanzoin:This worldview. How would that be? Imagine what it would look like if God did signs and wonders here. If we chose to be devoted to one another in a way that we share the burdens where if you're in pain, we carry it with you. We don't wait for the email for the Christmas drive.
Darren Rouanzoin:We're living it. New Life Beginnings is a is a ministry in Downtown Long Beach supporting families, women who are who are in homeless crisis right now that have more than two kids because in Long Beach, you can't go to a shelter with more than two kids. Put one of them in CPS. You choose which one goes to child protective services. So she built this home and it's just waiting there.
Darren Rouanzoin:And it's waiting on what? Emails and strategy? No. It's waiting on devoted disciples to go, I'm in. I'll give up my Saturday.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'll bring the needs. I don't need to be told by a leader. I am on mission. Oh Lord help me. I don't wanna play church.
Darren Rouanzoin:I don't wanna do this. We need to wake up. I I I've preached this sermon enough. I don't know what to do. We're growing like crazy and I don't know how to get I don't know how to get it into the hearts.
Darren Rouanzoin:I want it to be in the longings of our church. Where it's not like, okay, I'm attending. This is a cool thing. No. I'm all in.
Darren Rouanzoin:I don't need to be told. It's it's time. The time is now. I've never seen so many people getting saved. It's so easy to talk about Jesus right now.
Darren Rouanzoin:Every coffee shop I go to is surrounded by bibles and people are longing. They are so hungry. You see Ashley doing flags up here? I know her testimony. She was an Ayahuasca guide, a yoga guide and now she's guiding us in worship and prayer.
Darren Rouanzoin:There are so many of those stories here And what are we waiting on? We're waiting on you. You and you and you. To stop worrying about the insecurity that you have. Stop feeling, am I enough?
Darren Rouanzoin:Do I have what it takes? Yes. Go. Be church. Youth, you're in this service and I'm so grateful this is the kind of preaching you're learning.
Darren Rouanzoin:Because ninety something percent of kids that grow up in the church leave the faith by the time they're 18. Because you go from fun and games to this and you're like, I don't know what to do I'm out. But you're getting it now. You're getting good theology sometimes. It's good.
Darren Rouanzoin:You're all wrong otherwise. No, I'm just kidding. Paul is like believe this. Anyone that doesn't know they'll figure it out eventually. You know what I'm talking about?
Darren Rouanzoin:Philippines? Is it Philippines? Yeah. Someone's like, I don't know what that's from. You should read your bible.
Darren Rouanzoin:You'll know. I'm quoting Paul. It wasn't a joke. He's like, this is all true. If you don't realize that you'll figure it out eventually.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm right. Darren's paraphrased version way better than The Passion. Anyways, keep going. I'm a get to this. I got fourteen minutes.
Darren Rouanzoin:Here we go. Here's some notes. How about that? You ready? So there are things that are historically true of what makes us a biblical church.
Darren Rouanzoin:Eight markers. I'm gonna give you eight markers of the early church that defined it. This is from, analysis of obviously scripture but also the history of the church. So there are eight markers of the early church. The first thing, so this is what marks the church is Eucharist.
Darren Rouanzoin:At the center of every gathering whether in the home or in the temple courts and I just wanna say, they gathered in temple courts which was about public witness. They gathered in the homes which is about formation to Jesus Christ. It's not one or the other, they're both. We're gonna do both. You can't follow Jesus just on Sundays.
Darren Rouanzoin:You can't follow Jesus just in worship events. Gen Z can I say this? Ready? You need to find community and stick with it even when you don't like them. Hey millennials if Gen Z says one more time six seven you still have to be covenanted to them.
Darren Rouanzoin:The Lord's teaching me patience. I drove some kids back from our youth group on Thursday. I needed an interpreter. You know what I'm talking about. I just get from chat, give me all the words and I just say all the words.
Darren Rouanzoin:I don't know what I'm saying. Unc. I was saying all this stuff out of context. Who knows? Maybe Gen z is a tongue.
Darren Rouanzoin:I don't know. Right? Who knows, bro? So at the center of our gatherings is the the Lord's Supper. We spend a ridiculous amount of money with all y'all coming to our church for a little stale wafer and 20 grams of sugar juice in that tiny vial.
Darren Rouanzoin:It is absolutely worth every penny and we'll do it every Sunday, every service because that's what unites us. It's Jesus' Lordship. It is the confession that he is Lord, that he died on a cross and he raised from the dead. And that he's resurrected from the dead and he he he ascended into heaven and he will return. And when we gather, that's what unites us.
Darren Rouanzoin:Not your politics, not your justice cause, not your favorite pastor or preacher with sneakers, or props, whatever it is that you're into, podcast. Not your lists of statements. Notice that when we come together, it's not here's all the things we believe that's why we belong. It's Jesus at the center. And when you take that meal, you're saying to the person who votes differently than you, I belong to you.
Darren Rouanzoin:So subversive. Number two, formation. We are devoted to the apostles teaching which for us, we have the holy scriptures. Yes? Amen?
Darren Rouanzoin:Amen. Back then they had the apostles teaching the old testament. They read, they studied, They they began within the life of Paul. Peter's writings were already being called scripture. The stories of Jesus and Mark are being passed around.
Darren Rouanzoin:The writings of the apostles are equal to the old testament because they saw that as spirit anointing and authoritative for the life of the church. It's still spirit anointed and it's authoritative for the life of the church and everyone who believes Jesus is Lord. That means when we're devoted to scripture, our emotions submit to the scriptures. Our bodies biological desires submit to the scriptures. Oh preach that Dee.
Darren Rouanzoin:Yes I will. Your mind and worldview is not being formed by put your phone away real quick. I'm just kidding. That was you. I didn't see it.
Darren Rouanzoin:Your your mind and worldview, Pat, is like, a teacher all of sudden. I see. We're gonna take attendance and roll call right now. It's being shaped by the word, not by the world. But what we've done is we've been we've been shaped by algorithms, not the book of acts.
Darren Rouanzoin:And so we as a church, if we want this thing, which I know we want. Gen z, all the college students from Vanguard and Biola and all the schools around here, you want the real thing. You're waiting for it to be given to you. It's in here. It's in the word.
Darren Rouanzoin:So we're shaped by the word. We're we're devoted to the word. We also are devoted to fellowship. It's not a clever word for doing potlucks. Fellowship is this word invented by Luke about spirit empowered community on mission.
Darren Rouanzoin:All those three things together is really what we have to recognize is fellowship. It's it's this framework that Jesus talks about like if you don't, if you you love your father and mother more than me, you're not worthy of me. Discipleship to Jesus redefines covenant community and bloodline. The early church was like the the same care we have for mom whose husband died is what we have. Our biological mom is now what we have for our brothers and sisters that confess Jesus as Lord.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's fellowship. We don't we have no we barely scratched the surface on that in consumer culture because we're so casual with our commitments. We have no idea what covenant is. Even in marriages today, we don't know what covenant is. Covenant is you can mess up all day long.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm still holding you together. It's not contract. If I do this and you do this, then it's good. It's covenant. You you can do all these things.
Darren Rouanzoin:You can even step out of the bounds of this covenant. But I'm held I'm holding on. We want least common denominator. We want to know how am I in, how am I out. Jesus is like wide open.
Darren Rouanzoin:Fourth is they're committed to prayer and worship. Devoted. Wait, wait, wait. Not convinced by a time. They reorganize their schedule in the first century.
Darren Rouanzoin:Their prayer hours in the temple, 9AM, twelve, three. The church is following that rhythm in the New Testament. They're devoted to prayer. Prayer was not something where they get to receive. Prayer was calling out, allowing the longings and desires of your life to be the longings and desires of God's through you.
Darren Rouanzoin:Prayer wasn't about an experiential environment. It was about devotion to the way of Jesus who was partnering with Jesus. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. Everywhere here that it's not yet realized.
Darren Rouanzoin:We're praying into those spaces. And I love the These stories, this this snapshot is is a marker for future life with Jesus and and how we live in the church. This is like our origin story. I love a good origin story. Yeah?
Darren Rouanzoin:Like for Garden when we launched our church, it was fifteen years, sixteen years ago. Was 02/2016. 10/11/2009. Officially launched in a nightclub and the twenty four hours before we launched, we did a twenty four hour prayer service in the nightclub. It was still an operating nightclub.
Darren Rouanzoin:So to be a part of the twenty four hour prayer, you had to be 21 and over because you had to go to a live nightclub where there was dancing and cigars and alcohol. A DJ and John and pastor John and I showed up at late in the night and we were like get carded and we go inside and we're praying that space for Jesus. Because the next day we were gonna be preaching Jesus in the nightclub. We played some pool and prayed. We did both at the same time.
Darren Rouanzoin:But that's our origin story. We're not hiding from the darkness. We're going in. Guess what? That nightclub shut shut down.
Darren Rouanzoin:There are spaces right now that need to be redeemed because of your prayerful presence. But you know what? You're not showing up to prayer room. Oh yeah. Prayers are good.
Darren Rouanzoin:Yes. They're devoted. That's for other people. Has he touched your schedule yet? Oh, I love him to touch me on Sunday with great worship.
Darren Rouanzoin:Oh, we're gonna be at our encounter live. We're gonna release a live album as Garden Church. How insane. Seventeen years in the making. Songs that we wrote.
Darren Rouanzoin:Faith and the team's practicing. I wanna be at that but I won't come at 07:30 to pray. Is that all right? Can I say that? God I'm going to say it.
Darren Rouanzoin:The fifth is spirit empowered witness. Their life was their evangelism. Oh could you imagine? Imagine your coworker going, what happened John? Like what happened John?
Darren Rouanzoin:You were living so differently and now all of a sudden like you're kind, you're generous, you're not mopey all the time like you're you're you're like hanging out with people that don't look like you. What what There must be a God because John, you've been transformed. That was the early church evangelism strategy. Not you as an individual but us as a corporate community. People were drawn to the early church.
Darren Rouanzoin:Alan Creeder in this book, The Patient From Meant, he says that by the second century, outsiders were not allowed into the worship gatherings. Outsiders couldn't see the Eucharist, formation, teaching, fellowship, prayer and worship. They couldn't see those things because they were they were kept from outsiders because otherwise they would have been persecuted and slaughtered it says. So he says, they couldn't see the invisible characteristics of the Lord's Supper, of prayer, worship, but they could see the visible characteristics of lifestyle habits of compassion and generosity and hospitality. And it was those characteristics fueled by the invisible characteristics in the church that empowered evangelism to the world.
Darren Rouanzoin:May it be today. May it be today not because you posted something on Facebook that's politically charged but because your life is oozing with the character of Christ. Couple more. Number six. Generosity and hospitality.
Darren Rouanzoin:I wanna talk about that next week. I'm gonna talk about extravagant generosity. Not because I want your money because I want your heart after Jesus. Number seven. One of the early markers of the church was this idea of servant leadership, holy humble leadership.
Darren Rouanzoin:Where the authority was rooted in character, not the charisma of the leader. That the early church was marked, we should expect leaders to be holy. Read the qualifications for eldership. The list is ridiculous if you study it in first Timothy, if you look in Titus, If you look at what Hebrews talks about. That you don't want to be platformed in the church because the qualifications are going to be heavy.
Darren Rouanzoin:Hebrews chapter 13, I think we have the text for that. If not, let me pull it up. Do you have that one? No I didn't give you that. No that's my bad.
Darren Rouanzoin:Hebrews 13 let me find it real quick. It says this. Holy. There's verse 17. Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account.
Darren Rouanzoin:All these elders on the stage, they know this that they will have to give an account to Jesus for how they manage the church which is his bride. My prayer is that there's so many young people like I want that in the future. I'm willing to serve the house of God with my life. I didn't know what it would cost to plant a church. If you People always ask me, would you plant a church again?
Darren Rouanzoin:Absolutely not. It's when you don't know that you do it. It's so it's so costly. I'm with a bunch of leaders this last week I was at a church in Boise and out there you know, these church plant residents were there and they're like, you know, what do I need to know? I'm like, you need to know that church leadership is death to self.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's a slow dying every day and that's how it's supposed to be. So if you get good at picking up your cross and dying to yourself early, it will be less harmful to you in the future. Especially in this climate of cultural garbage. Number eight is probably the what the sociologists discovered is that martyrdom was the fuel that made the church a movement. A sacrifice where they lived in suffering and they didn't seek death but their faithfulness preached louder than their words.
Darren Rouanzoin:I, I had a bunch of other notes but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna do it. I just wanna invite you to be all in. You see there's something about what God's doing right now in the Western church that is is fueling this resurgence of faith. Right? 30,000,000 people going to church that weren't going to church in the last couple of months in the West.
Darren Rouanzoin:More bible sales than ever before. Gen z which three years ago the least church generation since civil war are now going to be the most church generation. It's a move of God. Yeah. But what what what are they being discipled into?
Darren Rouanzoin:We have the opportunity to build the future right now. We have a we have an opportunity but it's not gonna become, it's not gonna be there because there's really good preaching or good worship or we got really good at strategy and programs and we conference stuff. It's gonna be your heart devoted. Your heart on fire. Your heart with Jesus together on fire makes a church on fire.
Darren Rouanzoin:And a church on fire is what the world wants to see. You see because in the book of acts we'll get there next year sometime. Acts 19 which is years away. The gospel gets to Ephesus. This little church that starts in Jerusalem, Acts two forty two makes its way 650 miles away.
Darren Rouanzoin:Three weeks of of walking to the second most populated city diverse culturally pluralistic. Their their god is is Artemis, the goddess of fertility and wealth and pleasure. Sound familiar? And to be Ephesian is to worship Artemis and the gospel takes root. The spirit fills 12 people and the church is formed and the church begins to say, we can no longer participate in the idols of our age.
Darren Rouanzoin:We can no longer consume the idolatry we were consuming. We can no longer partake in the cultural norms that marked us as Ephesians. We must submit our Ephesians allegiance to Christ. And as a result, stopped buying idols and the economy of Ephesus shifts and they riot. They riot because of the church's holiness.
Darren Rouanzoin:They riot because of the church's devotion. And they have a bonfire and they burn up their idols. Few hundred years later after that moment, 90% of Ephesus is Christian. It becomes the epicenter of the Christian move for hundreds of years. It's so significant they burned down the Temple Of Artemis.
Darren Rouanzoin:This is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Another bonfire of commitment to Christ. It's crazy. But I think the problem right now is that you, have made peace with Babylon. And you've baptized your idols and you call them blessings.
Darren Rouanzoin:And the Lord is after your heart. In a world that has taught you half hearted devotion, we say Christianity has only one kind and that's devotion to Jesus.
Intro/Outro:For more information, visit us at garden.church.