REZ CHURCH Podcast

There's something you've brought up more than once. Something at work that's broken, somebody getting skipped, a thing everyone walks past like it's fine. You've said it to a friend, nothing changed, and by now you figure that's just how it is. Here's what almost nobody considers: the reason it won't leave you alone may be that it's pointed at you. Not as a complaint. As an assignment. There's a way to tell the difference before you say it out loud again.

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(0:10) Years ago at my last church

(0:41) Everyone heard it except the people who could fix it

(0:53) Starbucks with Jason

(1:17) Mid-complaint, I stopped

(1:39) I'm a natural fixer

(2:08) Irritation isn't always the enemy

(2:29) Is the world actually getting more negative

(2:41) Negative headlines have doubled

(3:04) Two billion Reddit comments

(3:19) Sixty countries, seventy years

(3:48) If you're skeptical about all this

(4:36) Nothing has slowed this church down

(5:28) Until something inside it

(5:46) Acts 6:1-7

(7:21) Take the grumble out of the irritation

(7:58) Gongusmos

(8:50) Numbers 11

(9:24) Everybody say murmur five times

(10:19) Pastor taught us to complain better

(10:52) A tough church merger

(11:09) The widows who had no one

(12:19) What a grumble actually is

(13:01) It comes down to direction

(13:38) Complaining to people who can't fix it

(14:00) Jesus loves the overlooked

(14:32) Then Moses complains

(15:35) Drama queen much, Moses

(15:50) God doesn't rebuke him at all

(16:29) A complaint to God is a lament

(16:44) Seventy elders and seven men

(17:29) Even Jesus lamented

(18:16) Where God refines our irritations

(18:33) Vulnerability before God

(19:53) There will always be distractions

(20:27) What you're distracted by

(21:18) We think the call is for pastors

(21:49) Pick seven. You figure it out.

(23:00) Christ in you is the hope of glory

(23:50) Ninety-two percent of this county

(24:24) The thing that changes how you read this

(24:55) The seven names

(25:25) Who would have cared the most

(25:51) What if the complaint was the preparation

(26:24) You haven't started it yet

(27:05) It terrified me

(27:48) Complaint to conviction to calling

(28:18) The association I couldn't stand

(28:35) Have you prayed about that yet

(29:03) What changed first

(29:40) Verse 7

(30:23) Ordinary people, extraordinary God

(30:43) Before you voice it

(31:23) Bring it, don't brew it

(32:02) If it's a lament

(32:56) Ten minutes of silence

(33:44) If it's a calling, pick up the towel

(34:19) Strip the negativity out of it

(34:59) White hot conviction

(35:19) Why God uses irritation to move us

(35:58) Swindoll

(37:15) The power of prayer

(38:01) What if the thing that bothered you today

(38:49) Write it down this morning

(39:55) If you don't believe any of this

(41:27) You have a calling

(42:11) The prayer

(43:35) Baptism today

Somebody you care about gets a phone call from a doctor. A friend loses a job. A coworker comes apart in front of you at work. And you stand there running sentences in your head and throwing out every one of them, because none of them are any good and you know it. So you say something clumsy, or you say nothing, and then you keep your distance for a while because that's easier than getting it wrong again. You're never going to find the right words for that room. Nobody does. There's a better thing to bring, and a fifth grader at this church already figured out how to do it in three words.

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(0:00) Middle school is the best, but I'm biased

(0:16) Flat under a car in Tehachapi

(0:43) One hour into the trip

(1:08) Linda, what's the plan

(1:28) That's great, but that's not a plan

(2:14) God had already worked it out

(2:45) Moving is my least favorite thing

(2:59) Two dogs, four cats, nine hours

(3:19) We didn't make it out of the county

(3:46) The scenic route in the pitch black

(4:16) Shoes at the front door

(4:44) A hotel room after midnight

(5:00) The work God had for me was a cat carrier

(5:31) Acts 6

(6:10) Today's question is simpler. Who serves?

(6:25) Acts 6:1-6

(7:45) The widows who were getting skipped

(8:25) When you bring people together you get problems

(8:45) You can only hand out what's been handed to you

(9:07) They're never actually called deacons

(9:30) The same word for waiting tables and preaching

(9:50) Thirty years later everybody knows the name

(10:36) The job came before the title

(11:00) A deacon is not a board of directors

(11:40) A deacon is not a rank

(12:04) Nobody works their way up in the kingdom

(12:20) The title is servant

(12:40) Men and women, same role, same calling

(13:38) The qualifications we would have written

(14:00) Full of the Spirit and wisdom

(14:27) No category of work that doesn't require God

(14:50) The questions we ask instead

(15:18) Am I full of anything worth handing out

(15:50) If you're thinking you've got nothing

(16:14) Why service is holy work

(16:30) Mark 10

(17:03) Stacking chairs and the two-year-old room

(17:54) The seven names

(18:20) What happened to Stephen and Philip

(18:38) Five names you never hear again

(19:32) Nobody has ever said your name

(19:50) Twenty-five years and nobody writes it down

(20:19) Is he enough when nobody claps

(21:00) So why do we need deacons at all

(21:21) The most generous people on earth

(21:57) More than good intentions

(22:10) I'm terrible at handing it off

(22:53) How Jesus fed the five thousand

(23:20) Everybody would have helped. Nobody had the list.

(23:46) This is a commissioning

(24:23) The phone call from the doctor

(24:50) You're not supposed to have the words

(25:16) Pray, care, share

(25:50) Seven words before you walk in

(26:13) 2 Corinthians 1

(27:07) I didn't generate that peace

(27:30) Jesus brings the calm

(27:53) He washed the feet of men about to run out

(28:14) He served you first

(28:40) Surrounded by people and still alone

(29:24) He went first

(30:23) He isn't asking for a resume

(31:13) If you've been serving on empty

(32:00) The prayer

(33:11) When nobody notices

At some point you did the math and came up with one name. Your own. You handle your problems, you make your calls, you carry your own weight, and the only person tracking whether any of it is going well is you. Most people don't say that out loud. Daniel talks about the day he got handed responsibility he didn't ask for and didn't understand, what he found when he went looking for what it actually meant, and why he's convinced you were never supposed to be on your own with this.

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(0:00) Two weeks of travel

(0:46) The surprise ordination

(2:43) I'd heard of surprise flash mobs

(3:11) Where we are in Acts

(3:56) What is an elder

(4:33) Your soul is worth watching over

(4:58) Acts 6:1-7

(6:17) Elder, overseer, shepherd

(8:36) The elders don't own the church

(9:19) Where the word pastor came from

(9:55) Done with Greek, I promise

(10:28) The standard is character, not your birthday

(11:14) The youth went to the bluffs

(11:51) Why we don't send you somewhere else

(12:10) If you're not a Christian, or you're just curious

(12:40) People are sinful and leaders are people

(12:59) The qualifications are a fence, not a resume

(13:39) What an elder isn't

(13:46) The priest who stood in between

(14:52) Jesus is the final high priest

(15:50) The Savannah Bananas

(16:57) Building a ticket system so fans keep access

(17:48) I'm not a professional Christian

(18:27) The problem isn't access, it's whether we use it

(18:35) Thinking about praying instead of praying

(18:57) What an elder actually does

(19:43) The rowing marathon

(20:15) Shepherding and watching

(20:44) Five things shepherding means

(21:14) The rod and the staff

(22:14) What the predators are

(23:49) Doctrinal guardrails for the flock

(24:46) Why we submit our notes to each other

(25:40) Miss Sharon and the best sermon she ever heard

(26:40) Most preachers think they're better than they are

(27:56) The night I repented in a hotel room

(28:20) Watching this preaching team work

(28:57) What watching means

(29:30) The word means to be sleepless over you

(29:54) Why prayer gets called out

(31:07) The elder with the small prayer closet

(31:49) 7:15 every Sunday morning

(32:15) Praying through the list by name

(33:19) I'm going to answer for you

(34:14) Close your eyes, you're an elder now

(35:11) You're not asking them to do, you're asking them to be

(36:10) The church isn't the point, you are

(36:35) Be all that He can be

(37:04) Three ways to step in

(37:31) Serve

(38:54) Give

(40:26) Share

(40:52) Hey, got any good stories

(41:22) So what's your plan

(42:38) I'll sound like a salesman if it works

(43:03) I don't want you to miss him

(43:36) The losses of the last few weeks

(44:26) When it's turned into duty instead of delight

(44:46) When the only one looking out for your soul is you

(45:10) We make lousy gods

(45:27) There is a good shepherd

(46:06) The prayer

Somebody you know gets the thing you wanted. The promotion, the marriage that's working, the grades. And you say the right words back to them while something turns over in your stomach. You know it isn't really about them. You've known that for a while. Richard tells the story of the day someone else got handed what he'd been asking for, and what he found out about himself when a mango fell on him in Colombia. Whatever your joy is sitting on, it will show itself eventually.

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(0:00) The new guy at my old church

(1:09) He wasn't doing anything wrong

(1:55) Week two of Unstoppable

(2:22) Who you glorify shows what you treasure

(2:49) What's happening in Acts 5

(4:22) They walked out of a beating rejoicing

(4:59) Point one, glorify self

(5:11) Luke tells us it was jealousy

(5:52) What actually changed

(6:34) This is an us problem

(6:59) The coworker, the marriage, the grades

(7:47) You don't have to believe in God to feel this

(8:14) Why do we serve

(8:37) Would you do it if nobody knew

(8:44) Five years of watching other people get up here

(9:28) Josh got up here and I was glad this time

(10:21) How far a man will go to protect his glory

(11:07) Gamaliel's wise counsel

(11:49) Wait and see isn't wisdom

(12:18) Why they chose a whip

(12:43) Not against Jesus, not for him either

(13:33) Reach out to the person you can't be happy for

(13:53) God told me to go help him

(14:40) Point two, glorify God

(15:04) Everybody is obeying something

(15:53) The hardest thing I've ever done

(16:31) I wanted to quit what it was costing me

(17:01) If you're new to this, that feeling is normal

(17:25) God is not disappointed in you

(18:08) Affliction produces endurance

(18:44) Maybe your pressure isn't marriage or kids

(19:41) Where Peter's boldness came from

(20:58) They beat them for the name

(21:54) Their suffering became worship

(22:32) Their treasure was Christ

(23:20) What causes your joy to disappear

(23:49) Colombia

(25:01) The mango

(25:26) My joy was gone

(25:51) A treasure that couldn't be beaten out of them

(26:56) What it looks like for me every day

(28:14) This text isn't about them

(28:37) What does your life say your treasure is

(29:12) None of that disqualifies you

(29:41) Why the series is called Unstoppable

(30:10) Single, older, young

(31:47) Choose joy this week

(32:51) You can't glorify a God you never surrendered to

(33:27) The gospel

(34:35) The prayer

You show up. You do your part. And somewhere underneath it you're not sure anything would look different if you weren't there. Somebody else would cover it. Somebody else already is. So you keep whatever you've got to yourself, figuring it's too small to be worth offering. Most people never find out they were wrong about that. This message is about a group of people two thousand years ago who had no money, no power, and no reason to expect any of it to last, and about what happened in the room where every one of them stopped sitting out.

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(0:00) Good morning, family

(0:45) What I've noticed about this church

(2:53) The quilt they made while I was out

(3:41) 150 people in two years

(4:19) Kicking off Unstoppable

(4:45) Why are you standing there looking up

(6:07) Three thousand from one sermon

(7:06) The healing that got them in trouble

(7:12) How most of us answer a threat

(8:05) They lied and it cost them

(8:39) A united church is an unstoppable force

(9:03) Acts 5:12-16

(10:05) Six months sober and looking for a church

(11:20) I tried to evangelize a pastor

(11:49) Who changed your life

(12:43) They were all together

(13:41) Presbyterians love their meetings

(14:23) What was actually holding them together

(14:42) You have to follow the rules to be in

(15:59) Or do whatever you want

(16:27) There's a third way

(17:32) People are watching you now

(18:05) Nobody dared to join them

(19:24) It's the clear parts that bother me

(19:39) They watched, and they came anyway

(20:01) It was never the shadow

(20:50) It spread past Jerusalem

(21:28) If it's of God you can't stop it

(22:09) Two things that break a church

(22:41) The hive that empties quietly

(23:24) I see the ones who are tired

(23:51) Using your gift for yourself

(24:34) My kingdom of one

(24:47) Joshua, you're not ready

(25:16) The job I didn't want

(26:32) Edging God out

(26:41) The six years I almost missed

(28:10) You have something

(28:35) Ask what you can do

(28:47) Find out your why

(29:30) This is your invitation

(30:06) Why any of this is possible

(31:04) The prayer

There is a person you have decided is not getting your forgiveness, and you have good reasons. What they did was real. Nobody would blame you for holding onto it. This message makes an uncomfortable case that the holding is doing more damage to you than to them, and that letting go was never going to start with feeling ready. It also asks the harder second question. Once you forgive them, can you actually sit next to them?

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(0:50) A schoolhouse in Pennsylvania

(2:34) Thirty of them went to his funeral

(3:56) The gospel upends our expectations

(7:40) Two things he is being asked to do

(8:31) What a runaway could expect under Roman law

(10:09) A beautiful idea until you have to do it

(10:56) You do not need more faith

(12:40) It is obedience, not feeling

(13:32) Pushing a door marked pull

(14:22) Remember the debt you could never repay

(16:53) Just as the Lord has forgiven you

(17:48) The class I taught for twenty years

(19:28) I told the pastor this is stupid

(20:19) Those memories don't bother me now

(21:08) The side of the room you sit on

(21:58) Forgiveness was only half of it

(23:45) How this letter blows up injustice

(25:20) I still hate rap

(26:13) The doorbell I ignored on Thursday

(28:44) The fresh start he had no right to

(31:17) Charge that to my account

Church has a reputation for telling people what to do. Rules, expectations, a list you are already failing. That reputation is why plenty of people never walk in. This message argues the opposite, and it does it by pulling back the curtain on how this church talks to people on purpose. Nobody is going to make you believe anything. That turns out to be the entire point.

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(0:48) They burned it in the street at 2 a.m.

(1:39) I don't. But the church does.

(4:08) A runaway who crossed an empire

(4:57) The worst place to land

(7:20) How does this guy have any authority

(8:08) The first authority he doesn't use

(9:45) The second authority he doesn't use

(12:08) The third authority he doesn't use

(12:58) Command is outside. Appeal is inside.

(13:47) Isn't naming it the same as using it

(15:23) Why he doesn't just free him

(17:00) Nobody took his life from him

(17:51) Narrow, and you still have to choose

(19:29) Have to eat dinner, or get to

(20:16) Pulling back the curtain

(21:53) The verse that terrifies pastors

(24:18) Why nobody up here commands you

(26:49) The only thing that changes anyone

(28:27) Wait until the Holy Spirit asks

(29:50) The complaint that became an assignment

(30:53) I was so unqualified

(35:01) One sentence about nutrition

(36:40) I can't teach you by removing your choices

(38:19) Thirty-nine hours a week

(40:46) Leave here with a name

You know the tank is empty. What you have never worked out is what actually fills it. So you try the usual things. More sleep, a weekend off, pushing through until the season lightens up. None of it puts anything back. What fills it was never something you produce on your own, and it isn't a matter of trying harder. It comes from knowing the one who actually fills it, and from getting close enough to people to see him doing it.

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(2:22) Two weeks at UCLA

(3:19) The seizure nobody could stop

(6:40) A letter written under house arrest

(8:55) Not a personality, a fruit

(12:27) I wrote this sermon three times

(14:57) What are you known for

(15:37) Full tanks overflow

(17:37) Sitting alone in that room

(19:03) Thank you for the fourteen years

(22:07) What outweighs everything on the scale

(22:56) When it falls apart, who do you call

(26:40) The guy in the golf section

(27:50) Why people never actually serve

(28:38) You can't give away what you don't have

(29:45) The ship looking for the lighthouse

(32:08) A lighthouse doesn't make its own light

(33:52) We almost skipped small group

(34:58) Six months sober tells the guy at one week

(35:36) Before you leave today

Most weeks you get a message. This one is different. The whole room prays together instead, out loud, through one passage of Acts, in five movements. Praise. Thanksgiving. Surrender. Boldness. Expectancy. Communion in the middle of it. If you have ever wondered what a church sounds like when it stops performing and just talks to God, this is that.---(0:00) Call To Worship(1:12) It Really Is Amazing Grace(5:05) Welcome & Intro(9:20) Grace Alone(12:48) Movement 1 - Awe & Praise(20:48) Who Else(25:31) Giving Section(28:18) Lord I Need You(31:57) Explain Open Mics(33:41) Movement 2 - Thanksgiving(46:40) Communion Teaching(53:08) Movement 3 - Surrender(56:42) Congregation Invited To Get The Elements(58:46) Communion(59:55) Movement 4 - Requests / Boldness(72:32) Movement 5 - Expectancy(81:28) Need To Know(83:46) Prayer Of Benediction

Somebody asks how you're doing and you say fine before you've even thought about it. Not a lie exactly. You just left the part out. There's a version of you other people are carrying around that's a little better than the real one, you've stopped correcting it, and now you're the one keeping it alive. Nobody made you do that.

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(0:00) Is America a Christian nation

(1:38) Congress is more Christian than us

(2:13) Are you one because you say so

(2:48) Start in the church, not the Capitol

(6:19) That's an awkward story

(7:22) We fail when we fake it

(8:16) You're right, we are hypocrites

(12:18) Whatever you count you'll chase

(12:25) The number on your phone

(19:22) Nobody made you do this

(20:09) Pretending to be more spiritual than you are

(22:57) One degree off course

(23:45) Checking attendance like a scorecard

(30:50) I'm not really lying

(33:31) God doesn't have shelves

(33:53) Everything's fine. That was a lie.

(37:00) The Titan and the Titanic

(39:21) Dreaming about being famous for it

(41:34) Who Isaiah was actually looking at

(45:06) Putting on the church clothes