Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Glad you could join us for Abounding Grace. Pastor Ed Taylor will be along shortly as we continue our series, Be the Church. Open that Bible of yours to Acts chapter two. We plan on being here in this chapter for quite some time, as there is so much for us to unpack and apply.

Now, if you'll recall last time we were together, the disciples were told to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father. Well, here in chapter two, that promise arrives. Here's Pastor Ed to set the table for our discussion.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Take your Bibles with you and open them to Acts chapter two, Acts chapter two, in a Bible study that I've entitled, The Promise of the Father Arrives. This study is kind of preparatory for the whole chapter, so forgive me for the longer introduction today as we prepare for some of the future studies in this chapter.

At this point in Acts chapter two, we have seen the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and Jesus' promise to this group of about 120 that he would send the promise of the Father. He says, "Wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father." And then he ascends into heaven and leaves the disciples in a position of waiting. And that's where they are. They're waiting. And God is ready to act upon his promise in just a few moments as we see it unfold.

But as we step back, I want you to consider for a moment the room that you're sitting in. Of course, if you're listening on the radio or watching online, you have to do this as if you were here with us. But for the sake of us here today and downstairs, I want you to consider the room that you're in right now and I just want you to remember that this room is filled with incredibly gifted spiritual men and women. God in every believer here has gifted you in an amazing way.

And here we are as the body of Christ. So much diversity among us. So many diverse gifts and spiritual gifts among us. And yet at the same time, every person is unique. So you have a uniqueness about you and who God has made you and yet together we're known as the body of Christ. So much diversity, so many differing gifts, but one body and one family.

The problem that we face many times is that we have had ingrained in us in our culture this sense of independence. And so you really magnify more of your individuality than you do of the body that you're a part of. And there's this independent spirit about us. Instead of thinking about each other, we think about ourselves a lot more.

I would like you to replace the independent spirit, that word independent. I would suggest that you replace it when it comes to your relationship with the church and replace independent with the word interdependent. Because in the body of Christ, that's exactly what we are. We need each other. You are needed in the body. You are needed in this church. You are wanted and needed with the gifts that God has given to you.

You're needed, but I'm also needed. And together we are needed. I like to tell the folks that are in the school ministry, the guys and gals that take that or if we're discipling the pastors' staff meeting, whatever, from time to time I'll remind us that "we", the word "we", is the language of ministry. It's not just you and it's not just me. It's us. We.

We together in the power of the Holy Spirit, using the word of God, have the privilege of making an impact in our community and beyond. We're not independent. We need each other. And you need to know that. Now, bringing it home even closer to this particular church, you're a part of a large growing church. I'm going to use the words large and small not because one's more significant than the other, but just for illustration purposes.

Those are relative words. If we compare ourselves to a church that's 15,000, then we would be a small church. If we compare ourselves to a church just starting at 30, we would be a large church. But for the sake of our discussion today, you could say that we are a large growing church, or we are much larger than when we first started. And I believe that's God's will for us. I believe he still wants to continue to grow our church, grow our church in impact and size.

As I'm teaching or you might be talking to different people serving here, you'll hear all kinds of different things. You may hear stories of the times when we were meeting as a church down in the basement of a Baptist church, at least downstairs in a Baptist church right up here on Winston and Hampton in that community. Or you may hear of stories of the many years that we spent in good old Columbia Middle School. Seven years we spent there. And what a ride it was, what lessons we learned in the Lord there.

Perhaps you might hear the Episcopal Church referenced over on Wagon Trail and Buckley. We were looking to start a midweek Bible study and I literally called church after church after church. Nobody would rent their church to us midweek. But I finally got a hold of these guys and they said, "We won't rent the church to you either, but we have a shack in the parking lot. Do you want to use that?" And we said, "We'll take the shack."

That's where we started our midweek Bible study. Adults up top, kids on the bottom, and there were many stories there as well. You might hear stories of New Life when we met in New Life Church across from Rangeview High School. They rented to us a larger room upstairs and a few of the children's ministry rooms and we grew our midweek study there.

Perhaps you'll hear from time to time us reference the One Way Cafe. And you might think it started downstairs, but it didn't. It actually started across the street in the Seven Hills Shopping Center. We got this corner unit that nobody was using, that nobody could find, but it was perfect for us. And we signed a three-year lease and we had this idea of opening a little coffee shop, a little bookstore.

We had our offices there as God was growing our team and then we had little gatherings of men and women there for many years. But here's the thing. Many of you didn't experience any of that, except that it's your history. And so as you hear it, you kind of think about it, but you weren't there. You're actually here right now in this building.

This building probably had its own story too. This was a vacant lot of land for a long time that we had a sign up and said one day we'll have a building here. And basically, it was just tumbleweeds and trash. Because you guys know this road over here on Hampton, it dead ends to the dump and it heads, we are on the road to the— how do you find Calvary? Take the road to the dump and we're right on the right-hand side, almost there.

As the trucks go down Hampton, they share what's in their truck with us and it comes on the property all the time. So we would have all these gatherings from time to time we would come out, clean the property up, pick up the trash. And then the Lord just led us to this place where we had to make a decision and we started the process of building this building.

But if you just walked in today, when we built this building, it stopped at this wall right here. This wall used to have windows on them and you could see the Rocky Mountains and everybody on this side used to be completely mesmerized by the view because it is an amazing view. I was like, "Man, that was a mistake putting those there," so we got rid of all those windows.

No, it's the only place we could build. And so the first building was right here and it ended here and then we quickly outgrew that. And then we built all that on the other side. And then once we had that, then more people were coming then we needed more parking. Then the Grace Church up there were very gracious to us and they sold us an acre and a half of their land, so we extended the parking lot.

But then extending the parking lot opened the door for us to build the little playground for the Calvary Christian Academy and take all those parking spaces. And so you can see that we have a history and you are a part of it. Whether you were here or not, that's your history. But today you're going to learn that your history goes far back beyond the little basement down the street or Columbia Middle School. Your history goes back to the Day of Pentecost.

What we're learning today is your past. Yeah, we have our own little story. We're coming up on 22 years now in December. December 26 is our 22-year birthday as a church. But our history goes far back beyond that. The work of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost is you. But here's the thing about our church. Our church is large and growing because that's God's will. It's large and growing not because we adopted some program or we read some book.

Oh, look, this is how you grow a church. That's not what we're interested in. When my family and I moved to Colorado, we weren't interested in growing a church, we were interested in serving the Lord. Whatever he had for us. And it's been an up and down, left and right journey for us for sure, but we're grateful to be a part of what he wants us to be a part of and it's this church.

This church is much larger than when we first started. And I'm grateful that God has helped me to mature and grow with it and God has also for many of you who've been around for a long time, you've matured and wherever you drop in on the life of this church, God is going to bless you through it. He's going to use it in your life and you're going to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

For me as a pastor, I love large churches. I do. I love large churches. I was saved in one, one that's much larger than this. I was discipled in a large church, I was trained in ministry in a larger church, and I just love the diversity that comes with a large gathering of God's people in a large city that has just so many differences, so many cultural influences. It's a beautiful thing.

I think it's just a taste of what heaven's going to be like with every tongue, tribe, and nation worshiping God at the throne. It's just going to be glorious and we get a very small taste of it. But there are a few problems with large churches. And I think you may be aware of some of them. Our fellowship church, our church grew and continued to grow larger because everyone at some point thought and believed that they were important and they wanted to be used of God.

You could say in a very real way every generation of a church, we're standing on the shoulders of those that came before us. We're standing on the faithfulness. I mean, we're in a building that the people at Columbia Middle School and some of you were there, but we're sitting in a building that people at Columbia Middle School, that version of the church, they funded it all through their giving, their faithful giving. And we get to enjoy it.

Then many of you, as you're giving, you get to be a part of all these types of— we're really interconnected, interdependent in the church. By the way, we're also interconnected and interdependent with every real good church in our city. We're not in competition with anyone. Anybody that's doing a great work in our city, preaching the real true gospel, lives are being changed, families being changed, that's a good thing for us, not a bad thing.

That's a wonderful thing. That's a kingdom mindset that God is doing what he wants to do and we get to be a part of it. But for our church, for us individually, you have to understand that there's a long line of faithfulness in the men and women that's called this church their home. There are many along the way that have believed they had a place to serve and grow in the family of God.

So you step out in faith, committed. And then the Lord adds to the church daily such as being saved, building upon what he wants to accomplish in and through us. But then there's a subtle transition that takes place. And I've witnessed it through the different phases of this fellowship. You'll start to hear people say, "Oh, I'm not needed anymore."

And it's just a spiritual attack of the enemy, that's all it is. What do you mean you're not needed anymore? You're probably needed more now than you ever have been in a growing church. Yes, you're needed. But a lot of times that's when that fresh wind of change takes place and you know how you don't respond to change very well. You say, "Oh, they don't need me anymore because some significant change." No, not at all.

We've just got to go with the flow with whatever God's doing with the changes. But of course you're needed. And also a statement that goes along with that is people start to think, "Oh, I'm not important anymore." You know, I live in a big city, I work for a big company, I live in a big neighborhood and nobody knows me. That's not true.

All that big stuff might be true, but God knows you. And when you begin to step into people's lives, people will know you. When you start showing up at hospitals and visiting people when they're sick, they'll know you. When you start introducing yourself and praying for one another, they'll know you. You just have to be careful that there's a spiritual battle going on as God continues to add to his church.

We'll learn that in the book of Acts. Just in the simple distribution of clothing and food to the widows, there was all kinds of drama over that. Because growing churches deal with drama. It's messy, it's dirty, it's difficult. That's the way church is and it's normal. But of course you're needed. And then when the church grows, people get tired.

People get tired. You might be tired today because you serve in the church. There's nothing wrong with being tired. As a matter of fact, if you're tired, you're probably doing ministry right. Because the Bible describes ministry as a labor of love. I mean, if you're up all night praying for people, you're going to wake up tired.

If you have a late night time, you get done with church but you're in the parking lot for two hours, you're going to be tired. If you're dealing with the difficulties of people's lives, you're going to be tired. Tired is not bad. And by the way, you can serve God and be tired at the same time. It's okay. There's no problem with that. But then tiredness is different than people going, "Well, I'm burned out. I'm burned out."

Can I just say, it's not God's will for you to be burned out. So if you're burned out, you should really consider resting. You should really consider, hey, whatever I'm doing, I'm not doing it right because I ended up being burned out. Being burned out speaks of doing things in your own flesh. Maybe you feel pressure or guilted to do something.

That's not God's heart. Or you're doing too much, you don't know how to say no. Then you get to a place— listen, if you're burned out, not only do you need a rest, but let me suggest to you something else. You should take responsibility for being burned out. Personal responsibility. You should look at your life and say, "Okay, Lord, this is not where you want me, but this is where I'm at. So how do I not get here again?"

Because I want to serve you and I love you and I love serving God's people. But burned out is not where God wants you to be. And then they get bummed out and you just forget that it's the spirit of God using you. That it's a privilege to serve the Lord. And then we forget the reason why people in this fellowship are so blessed, why the community is blessed by this little church that God had in his heart so many years ago.

We forget that this church was an answer to man's prayer. God gave this church this community as an answer to prayer, the prayer of many saints wanting a fellowship family like Calvary Chapel on this side of town. It's literally an answer to prayer that God would reach this city with a ministry like ours and many other great churches. Because God loves this city.

It doesn't matter what people think about this city or the bad reputation. It doesn't matter. God loves this city. He loves you and your family and the children. He loves the refugees that are here. He loves everything about this city. When Jesus would look out if he was up on the hill on Hampton looking out over the city all the way into Denver, all the way into the foothills, he would weep over the city.

He would weep over the lostness and what sin has done to destroy people's families, what it's done to destroy lives, what it's done to cut life short because of the sin that has entered in and the rejection of Jesus. That's it, isn't it? Somewhere along the way, we forget the reason why churches grow. It's not because I read a book and brought it back to the staff, "Hey, check this out, guys. This guy's church grew and let's apply all his principles."

We don't do that. That's great that his church grew, but his deal's not my deal. I don't need some program to tell me how. Just read the Bible, pray, teach it, and let the Lord do what he wants to do with his church. That's our heart. Jesus said he would build the church. I trust him. It's his church. I get to serve in his church. Imagine that.

You get to be a part of his church. That's how much he loves you. He says, come on in. Come into the family. Yeah, but Lord, you don't understand. I'm so messed up. Yeah, I know. Messed up people are the only ones that get in. That's all there is. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God is so good to us.

Somewhere along the way, we forget that we start in the spirit, but then try to perfect things in our flesh, in our wisdom. And let me just say this. Not only do I love large churches, not only do I love our large church, but I don't want to shrink as a church. I don't want our church to shrink. I don't want our church to quit giving faithfully. I don't want our church to quit caring.

I don't want our church to quit praying. I mean, if you think about it to the end, I don't want our church to disappear, as many churches have over the years. I don't want it to disappear. I thought of it this way, this came to me last night, where Calvary one day would shrivel up. Can you imagine driving through town, coming through Hampton and Biscay here, coming Hampton and Tower, and on the right-hand side, instead of a church, it's a marijuana dispensary?

Is that what you want to see happen to this building? That's not what I want to see. God did not give this building to the church of Jesus Christ so you can sell pot from it. That's not his deal. That's not his will. But you know, churches do get to a place where they shrivel up and die. I think that we should buy more property for Jesus, not less.

I think more property should be dedicated to the gospel of Jesus Christ. But one day we'll vacate this property. But as a leadership team, we've made a commitment. We will only sell to another church. This is going to stay in the family until Jesus returns. As long as I'm the leader, this is going to stay in the family. That's the way it's going to be.

I don't want some pot dispensary here. I don't want this building shut down. I don't even want a gas station on this corner. This corner belongs to Jesus and the gospel needs to come from it all day every day until he returns. I want to be able to say, "Hey, you know what? You gave a turkey to some guy, he got saved." That turkey, yeah. That turkey, that gift card.

You gave a gift card to someone? Yeah, he got saved. Wow, that's crazy, man. I give gift cards all the time, they don't get saved. Sometimes they do. For the sake of Jesus. I don't want to see everything just shrivel up. But if you don't protect yourself, you'll shrivel up. If you don't watch out for the warfare, you'll just start complaining and murmuring. "Oh, church is too big."

Yeah, it's supposed to get big. Today you're going to see in one moment, with a message that is far less long than my introduction, 3,000 people are going to get added to the church. 3,000. Now, I've never seen that in our church. God has always done ones and twos in our church for the complete history of our church.

We've never seen this massive thousands, hundreds of people. It's always been one at a time, which is the way I think God wants us to grow. That's his desire. But here, 3,000. 120 believers are going to be 3,120 in just a matter of moments. But I can say this. We in our church, I am more committed today than the day in which I moved here.

And that's a pretty big statement to make because I was thinking about it. On Saturday nights, I say a lot of things. I'm like, where did that come from? And then I get to repeat them to you today. And it's just like, yeah, I'm more committed. It took a lot of commitment to come here. We left everybody and everything. It wasn't that far. It's about a thousand miles.

But as I was thinking back, man, I was pretty committed when I got here. How can I be more committed? And the only answer I can say is that the Lord continues to grow my heart. That's it. I don't know. But I am more committed. I mean, I can think too, in the early days I wanted to go home. I can tell you that. It just wasn't working out the way I wanted and I was committed, but I was ready to go home too.

I was actually on the phone with my boss at one point in time saying, "Hey man, it's not working out here. Work's not working out, church isn't happening the way I thought it would be. Is my job still available?" "Oh yeah, come on back, Eddie boy." That's what he called me. "Come on back, Eddie boy. Sure." And Marie's in the background, "We're not going home. Hang up the phone. We haven't even been here six weeks. You're already wanting to go."

And it's like, "I'm sorry Ron, I gotta go," click. We're here 22 years later. Marie was right again. Don't tell her I said that. Just keep it between us. I am committed. I'm more committed than ever before. Some of the most enjoyable, highest things I've ever experienced have been in this church and some of the most deep, searing pains have been experienced in this church.

And I think it's all God's will for us to grow and learn. What he's not even really interested, God, I think at the way we are, growing a church. He just loves you. He wants you to grow. And when you grow, the church grows. And when the church grows, the community is impacted and changed by your faithfulness.

It's not some pulpit minister or radio— all of that are just tools so that God can use you, so that God can build you up, so that you can be the man, the woman that he wants you to be, so that we can be a church with the best love, best cared for, best spiritually fed sheep in all of our community. We picked that up from Pastor Chuck Smith as he laid that before us. God wants to pour his spirit out on you so that you use your spiritual gifts.

Guest (Male): Hey, thanks for listening to Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. You can hear this message again online at AboundingGraceRadio.com or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen through our app. Search for Ed Taylor in the App Store or Google Play.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Hey, this is Pastor Ed here at Calvary and Abounding Grace Media, and I'd like to let you know about our brand new book. It's only a few months old. It's titled Letting Go of Your Past. It was written during a time where in our church a lot of the issues we were dealing with had to do with unforgiveness, feeling stuck, dealing with church hurt, family hurt.

I began to teach a series of Bible studies for our church that we edited into book form that will help you greatly. The neat thing about this book is not only will it help you move forward and get unstuck, but all the net proceeds go to our missionaries. And so it's kind of a double win. If you're looking for a resource like this for yourself or for a friend or a family member, the title Letting Go of Your Past by Ed Taylor.

You can get it on our store at CalvaryStore.com. That's CalvaryStore.com or you really you can pick it up anywhere. It's available wherever you get books. There's even an audio version, so if you like audiobooks, I'm really happy of the way that came out. Thank you for supporting the ministry. I just know the Lord's going to use this book. He already is. And so be sure to get a copy or two.

Guest (Male): We'll send you a copy when you support Abounding Grace with a gift of $25 or more. Our number 877-30-GRACE. That's 877-30-GRACE. You can also order online at CalvaryCO.store. That's CalvaryCO.store. Abounding Grace is made possible through the generous support of our listeners. And as we continue delivering God's word one verse at a time, we're looking to our listeners for help. Together we can reach people with the love and truth of Christ and make a difference in these last days. To make a secure donation, drop by AboundingGraceRadio.com or call 877-30-GRACE. Thank you for listening today.