Vision 2023 - 100 Churches Principles

Acts 18:1-21 September 3, 2023 Pastor Ricky Alcantar

Thesis The mission of planting 100 churches over 100 years will only be sustained if Crossroads Grace builds a culture—not merely a strategy—defined by collaborative mission, continuous leadership recruitment, radical hospitality, sacrificial open-handedness, and the uncompromising priority of the gospel above all else.

Series

Vision 2023

Type

Expository

Tone

pastoraldidacticcelebratory

Method

grammatical-historicalapplicatory

What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

36 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Pastoral correction · unit #11

"The preacher applies the Aaron Jones illustration to two common church problems: spectators who think the gifted people do all the real ministry while they cheer from the sidelines, and hyper-engaged individuals who judge everyone else for not matching their intensity. Both postures violate the collaborative mission principle."

Doctrinal loci· 8 surfaced

Ecclesiology · 28 Soteriology · 5 Ethics / Moral Theology · 3 Christology · 1 Doxology / Worship · 1 Eschatology · 1 Providence / Sovereignty · 1 Sanctification · 1

Bible citations· 12

Illustrations· 4

historical example · unit #10 — The preacher uses Aaron Jones's record-breaking 2016 UTEP football season to illustrate the insufficiency of individual excellence apart from team performance—despite Jones's lights-out individual stats, the team went 4-8 because one person cannot carry the whole mission alone.
analogy · unit #17 — The preacher introduces a visual prop—a "Now Hiring" sign listing church ministry positions from greeters to senior pastors—to symbolize the church's commitment to continuous recruitment at every level. The sign will remain visible for the rest of the sermon as a reminder.
historical example · unit #21 — The preacher introduces a physical chair from 1979 as a tangible symbol of the church's hospitality culture. These chairs, originally purchased for church events, are now distributed across the entire congregation and even found outside the church because they were used to make room for guests in members' homes for decades.
analogy · unit #25 — The preacher introduces a visual illustration of closed-handed living: worshiping with hands open but secretly keeping some things hidden behind our backs, unavailable to the Lord's purposes. He sets up the metaphor before revealing specific examples of what people hold with closed hands.

Theological claims· 7

The local church is the most powerful movement in human history, despite its simple and unassuming appearance. unit #1
Culture is superior to strategy for sustaining long-term mission because culture can be passed across generations and exported across contexts while strategies are tied to specific times and places. unit #7
The New Testament pattern is that mission is always collaborative—no one in the New Testament does ministry alone. unit #8
Paul's pattern is continuous recruitment of new workers into gospel ministry—hiring never stops, and the work is not restricted to paid professionals. unit #13
Despite the Corinthian church's remarkable diversity and apparent sufficiency, Paul never declared the mission complete—he continuously made room for more people, never settling into a closed circle. unit #19
The early church's mission was powered by sacrifice—everything from meeting locations to social structures to beloved relationships had to be held with an open hand and surrendered when the mission required it. unit #24
Despite Corinth's many urgent social problems, Paul remained laser-focused on preaching the gospel because he knew the gospel was the best answer to all the city's needs. unit #30

Quotations· 2

"I saw a recent social media thread from Pastor Josh Howardson where he gathered some statistics of the difference that local churches are making in their communities that many people aren't even aware of." — Pastor Josh Howardson (unit #2)

"And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." — Paul (unit #14)

Read it

Full transcript

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0 · The preacher introduces himself with self-deprecating humor about a video and his technology habits, then transitions to the sermon's subject by referencing the previous week's Vision Sunday and the church's 100-year, 100-church vision

My name is Ricky. I'm one of the pastors here at the church, and I do understand after seeing that video that I need to take a drawing class and that I need to charge my iPad. I did eventually charge it. I love to— I like to live dangerously. I like to live in the 10% range on my iPad.

If you have a Bible, I want to encourage you to open your Bible to Acts chapter 18. Last week on Vision Sunday, we kind of laid out a vision, a prayerful vision for for the future, and that vision and hope for the future is that we see this local church last for another 100 years, and in that 100-year time, plant or see established another 100 churches.

1 · The preacher asserts the church's core conviction that the local church is the most powerful movement in human history, framing this claim against the church's ordinary, unassuming appearance to set up the argument that follows

Now, if you've been around Crossroads Grace for any length of time, we hope you're picking up something. We hope you're picking up that— in addition to picking up a doughnut, we hope that you are picking up our love for the local church. We really do believe that the local church is the most powerful movement in human history.

And this simple, unassuming thing, this thing we drive by probably a bunch every day, we see, we're used to, we're in one right now, doesn't at first seem as powerful and impactful as it truly is.

2 · The preacher provides three lines of evidence for the local church's power: its 2,000-year endurance and global spread, its present-day societal impact measured in adoption rates, mental health, generosity, crime reduction, and other statistical markers, and Jesus' promise in Matthew 16 that the church will endure until the end of history

The local church— and here's 3 reasons why I believe it's the most powerful organization and movement in human history. First, the local church The church has been the most powerful force in human history for the last 2,000 years. I mean, we saw in the book of Acts the gospel going from place to place to place to place, from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the heart of Rome by the end of Acts, and it keeps spreading from there. And in the 2,000 years since, it has spread into the Middle East, into Europe, into Africa and North America.

There's a huge explosion in the global South right now local churches. It has proven more powerful, more long-lasting, more enduring than empires and kings. Second, the local church is even right now the most powerful movement on the earth today. Now, the local church and the church in general does receive criticism, and rightly so, for when it hurts people or messes up or falls short of Jesus' vision for the church, but despite all of its flaws and shortcomings, it is still deceptively powerful. Jesus uses the parable of the mustard seed to illustrate that this tiny seed, when planted, grows into the largest plant in the garden.

And similarly, the local church, even though it seems small and unassuming, becomes something powerful and world and community changing. I saw a recent social media thread from Pastor Josh Howardson where he gathered some statistics of the difference that local churches are making in their communities that many people aren't even aware of. For example, in the area of adoption and care for the fatherless, churchgoing Christians adopt more children than any other population segment by double. Local church participation dramatically reduces mental health crises. And in fact, Christian— churchgoing Christians, not just Christians, churchgoing Christians— were the only population segment to improve their mental health in the year 2020.

Where everyone else is like, "Well, Christians are— we're okay. We had some challenges, but we actually improved, grew probably in our trust in the Lord." Churchgoing Christians give exponentially more time and more money to the poor, to the needy, than the rest of the population. Church— and sometimes you hear, "Well, the church is bad for women. The church is not good for women. It's down on women." No.

In fact, the stats are that churchgoing women are in the happiest relationships and their risk of abuse drops 50%. Churchgoing participation dramatically reduces crime in its members and in the community, which I'm glad to hear that. Like homicide, robbery, all those things, aggravated assault, they should be down, God willing. And church participation dramatically reduces the 3 big dangers for teens that educators have identified. Those 3 dangers are depression, substance abuse, and promiscuity.

And the church makes a dramatic impact on those. And last, maybe you're like, okay, whatever, whatever, whatever. Listen to this. This is actually statistically true. The church participation has proven to increase your lifespan by 7 years on average, meaning you just, you feel better and you have a support and a community.

And so even though from the outside the local church may seem unassuming, all of these ripple effects are being felt by local churches in communities around them. And I'm not saying every local church is perfect, but I am saying the local church is powerful. And these are just temporal benefits. I'm not even talking about people's eternal destinies being changed forever with the power of the gospel. This is just what we can see.

And last, the local church is the only movement guaranteed to last until the end of history. In Matthew 16, Jesus said, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." There is no other thing in this world today that is backed by the promise of the resurrected King Jesus Christ behind it in that way. No company, no culture, no country, none of it. Jesus backs the church.

3 · The preacher issues a direct call grounded in the theological claims just established: because time is short and the local church is Jesus' chosen vehicle, the church's mission must be to establish healthy gospel-bearing local churches throughout El Paso, the region, and beyond

So, here's our call. Time is short, eternity is long, and the local church is the vehicle Jesus is working through to reach the world. Now, this has been our conviction, by God's grace, since the very beginning of our church in the late '70s, early '80s. And in the last 40-something years, we have not wavered in our belief in the local church. And so, as we look out at the almost million El Paso residents around us or the million and a half in our region or in the millions and millions in the United States, we believe And what our church— what our world and our country and our city need most are healthy local churches carrying forward the gospel of Jesus Christ.

4 · The preacher signals the sermon's structural plan: first, examine Acts 18 to see how the Corinthian church was planted and extract principles for mission, then apply those principles to Crossroads Grace's future

So, we're going to do two things today. First, we're going to look at how— we're going to get a snapshot of how mission advances through the local church and learn some principles about it. And we're going to learn those things looking at how the church in Corinth in particular is planted. For the fall, we're going to be walking through the letter to the— the first letter to the Corinthians. So, we're going to see how that church is planted, and then I'm going to highlight some particular areas that will help us continue advancing the gospel by God's grace for the years to come.

5 · The preacher reads the full Acts 18:1-21 passage aloud, presenting the narrative of Paul's arrival in Corinth, his partnership with Priscilla and Aquila, his ministry in the synagogue, his turn to the Gentiles after Jewish opposition, the conversion of Crispus and many Corinthians, God's vision promising protection and success, the failed attack before Gallio, and Paul's eventual departure with Priscilla and Aquila to Ephesus

So, let's see what the Lord uses in this particular case to establish the mission and advance the mission of the church. Acts 18, we're going to begin reading in verse 1. This is God's Word. "After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.

And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. And when Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said, 'Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.' And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God.

His house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, 'Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are 'My people.' And he stayed a year and 6 months teaching the word of God among them. But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying, 'This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.' But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, 'If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint.

But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves.' 'I refuse to be a judge of these things.' And he drove them from the tribunal. And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this. And after this Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchrea he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow.

And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. On taking leave of them, he said, "I will return to you if God wills." And he set sail from Ephesus. This is God's Word.

6 · The preacher explains his methodological approach: instead of verse-by-verse exposition, he will extract five cultural principles from Acts 18 that appear throughout the New Testament

Now, in Acts 18, normally we would walk through this passage kind of section by section expositing the text in particular, but I'm going to highlight 5 principles in particular of gospel culture that propels mission. So, we're going to look at 5 cultural markers that this specific instance shows us, but really are present throughout the whole book of Acts and throughout the New Testament.

7 · The preacher distinguishes between strategy and culture, arguing that culture is superior for long-term mission because strategies are context-bound and time-bound while culture is transferable across generations and geographies

And the reason we're focused on culture this week and next week is this: when we're building a culture, we're doing something better than coming up with a strategy, right? A strategy is useful and helpful, and you should have a strategy every year for your life or for your church, but strategy is not going to last 100 years. I mean, think about how different the world of 1923 is than than 2023, right? There is a massive gap. We can't predict what's going to happen, so our strategy is not going to help our kids and grandkids.

Neither is our strategy going to be able to be exported to South America or India or even more kind of dangerous and strange Albuquerque, New Mexico, something like that. Like, you know, you can't necessarily say, well, this is what we're doing, so we're just going to do it there. Strategy won't carry, but culture can carry. Culture can last. Culture can be passed down from generation to generation, and culture can be carried out across our region and across the world.

8 · The preacher introduces the first cultural principle—never go alone—and demonstrates it from Acts 18 by showing Paul's partnership with Timothy, Silas, Priscilla, and Aquila, then broadening the observation to the whole New Testament pattern where mission is always collaborative, never individual

And so, we're going to look at 5 marks of mission culture in the New Testament using this text, and the first mark of culture is this: never go alone. What you notice about mission in the New Testament is that no one ever goes alone. Paul goes, but very quickly Timothy and Silas join him. And along the way Paul adds more people, and there are people going back and forth throughout the book of Acts. In fact, Paul starts his whole missionary journey because in Acts 13 he's sent out, but he's not sent alone.

He's sent with another man to go with him, and no one in the New Testament is doing ministry alone.

9 · The preacher explains the body metaphor from Ephesians 4, arguing that the collaborative pattern applies both to internal edification and external mission—the church functions as a body in both directions, requiring all members for both worship and witness

And this is exactly what we see in the book of Ephesians. Last year, as we studied that, Paul in Ephesians 4 uses the metaphor of a body. And often we think of the body metaphor in Ephesus— in Ephesians as, okay, this is the way the church builds itself up and kind of ministers to one another. We are the body and we minister through Bible studies and through groups and things like that. That's true. But we also are on mission together as a body, meaning that the way we take the gospel to the world around us is the same way that we are built up within the body. The mission inside and outside are both the same in that they both take all of us together.

10 · The preacher uses Aaron Jones's record-breaking 2016 UTEP football season to illustrate the insufficiency of individual excellence apart from team performance—despite Jones's lights-out individual stats, the team went 4-8 because one person cannot carry the whole mission alone

Now, yesterday I was at the UTEP football game, the Harvard of the Borderland, a great victory over a school I have never heard of before. And one of the guys in attendance was Aaron Jones, our hometown hero, right? Maybe one of the best known, probably I think at this point, the best known UTEP player that's gone on to play in the NFL. And I was remembering his last season at UTEP. I looked some statistics up. In 2016, his last year at UTEP, he became the all-time leading rusher for the University of Texas at El Paso.

And that season he rushed for 1,773 yards, scoring 17 touchdowns. And I didn't look the stats up, but I'm assuming we only scored 18 touchdowns and he was probably 17 of them. If you remember that season, he had this absolutely lights-out year, but the team's record that year was 4-8, right? We're, we're not playing in the Sugar Bowl. This is like, this is a, it was a rough year.

And it was basically like we all just tuned in to watch Aaron Jones run over people and then we're sad and turn the TV off in the fourth quarter eventually. Because there's only, one guy can only do so much. It's the team that matters. It's the team that wins together.

11 · The preacher applies the Aaron Jones illustration to two common church problems: spectators who think the gifted people do all the real ministry while they cheer from the sidelines, and hyper-engaged individuals who judge everyone else for not matching their intensity

And in a similar way, no one person at the church, often we think, okay, this gifted person at the church, they're the one doing the real ministry. And I'm just back here and I'm like, good job, go get 'em, Alec, go do ministry, you know? And he's Aaron Jones and he's rushing. Meanwhile, the team's 4-8 because the rest of us are just like, oh, that's great, good job, right? It takes all of us together. Or maybe, this would be a little worse, maybe you think you're the Aaron Jones of Christianity.

And you're like, man, Why aren't people doing ministry the way I am? Why aren't people out there? I remember I talked to one guy one time who was like, I just don't understand why it's unreasonable that everybody on their way home from work would stop and share the gospel for an hour in the park or the mall. I'm like, man, that's okay. That's a little intense.

He's like, yeah, it's just easy. Just you get off work, you go to the mall, you share the gospel for an hour and you go home. I was like, okay, but not everyone is you. You're in for that. You're excited about that.

You're ready to do that. We need all of us, right?

12 · The preacher steps outside the argument to address the congregation personally about a danger he sees in church culture: the unhealthy separation of mission-focused parachurch ministries from community-focused local churches

And let me just say this. I think it was one of the sad realities of our church is that— thankfully, as we just saw today, this isn't the case in our church, but it can become— things can become disconnected to the point where parachurch ministries carry the mission and the local church does the, "Well, we're just going to stay here and pray and have potlucks." You separate out the community and the mission into different entities even. We're in the local church where we all need one another. We need the fire of the evangelists to drive us forward, just like they need the help, sanctification, and encouragement of the rest of us. Where do they turn when their marriage is broken?

Where do they turn when their kid's in the hospital, right? It takes all of us. So, we never go alone.

13 · The preacher introduces the second cultural principle—never stop hiring—by showing Paul's pattern of recruiting Priscilla, Aquila, Timothy, and Silas into gospel work

Second mark of culture: we never stop hiring. Now notice that Paul meets these believers, it seems as though they're believers, Priscilla and Aquila, and essentially he recruits them into gospel work. Now notice none of these guys, not even Paul, is getting paid full-time. So oftentimes we think, okay, gospel ministry is really done by the people getting paid. Not so in this church. Paul, Priscilla, Aquila, the founding members of the church, if you could say it that way, are all working on the side and all sharing the gospel. And Paul has this pattern of wherever he goes, he's grabbing people, he's hiring people.

Timothy, this guy in the text, he was scooped up by Paul and Paul recruits him to the cause. Same with Silas. Paul is constantly hiring people saying, listen, what about gospel ministry? What about coming with me? And at the end of the text, I read that little bit at the end so you could see Aquila and Priscilla, They leave with Paul.

Paul brings them with him to the next city and then leaves them there to help the church.

14 · The preacher expounds 2 Timothy 2:2 to show that the recruitment pattern extends across generations—Paul to Timothy to faithful men to others also—demonstrating that hiring is not just Paul's personal style but a commanded multiplication strategy

Later Paul will write to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, "And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." Do you see the pattern here? Paul recruits Timothy and then instructs Timothy, "You need to pass this on, but you need to pass this on to to men who will be able to then pass it on to others after them.

15 · The preacher extends the recruitment principle to Titus 2, showing that the older-to-younger discipleship pattern appears in multiple New Testament contexts, not just in Paul's instructions to Timothy

Similarly, in Titus 2, you see this pattern of older women are called to help, encourage, strengthen younger women who are having probably a ton of kids at home, and then those kids will grow up and disciple their kids, and so on and so on. We are— the way I'm saying it is we are always hiring. We never stop hiring.

16 · The preacher warns that mission stops as soon as the church stops recruiting new leaders or starts comparing new workers unfavorably to previous ones

And as soon as the church— stops recruiting, stops hiring, stops bringing new leaders, stops giving people chances, then mission just stops. Mission calcifies as soon as we start to say, well, they don't do as well as the other person, you know. Well, this guy's starting a community group. Well, he's not as good as my old community group leader, let me be honest with you there, right? Or we got a new pastor.

Well, But he's not as good as our other pastor. You know, like, as soon as we begin to say, no, no, we're going to be hesitant, we're going to stop hiring.

17 · The preacher introduces a visual prop—a "Now Hiring" sign listing church ministry positions from greeters to senior pastors—to symbolize the church's commitment to continuous recruitment at every level

So I know this is super cheesy, but this is what I've done. At Cross of Grace Church, we— I've made— hang on, hang on, you'll see this. Okay, here we go. We've made a now hiring sign. Okay? Job positions: greeters, group leaders, Bible teachers, senior pastors. Okay. I didn't put that there.

I did. I did put that there.

And here's what we do. We hang this over everything we do at the church. So for the rest of the message, I'm just going to put this right here. If anybody wants this job after the service, come talk to me.

18 · The preacher provides a concrete example of continuous hiring from the kids' ministry where a helper is being developed into a teacher, then generalizes the principle: every person in every ministry should be viewed as a potential future leader, not just a permanent role-occupant

Because I think it's important that every level of the church, we're always going, "Well, who's next?" Right? I heard of two of our— one of our kind of longtime teachers in kids' ministry have a brother that's helping them in the class now. And they came and we're talking to John and we're like, hey, we would love to see our helper, even though he's not assigned to teach, we'd love to help him learn how to teach and give him some rope and opportunities to teach. And I love that. So it's not just, okay, these people are the teachers, these people are the helpers. No, we have teachers and we have future teachers, right?

Or these people are attendees of this small group, but they're probably future small group leaders as well. Everything we're doing, we're looking to replicate. We're looking to recruit the next person into gospel ministry. All right, third principle now: we never run out of chairs.

19 · The preacher introduces the third cultural principle—never run out of chairs—by cataloging the diversity of the Corinthian church (business owners, rabbis, prominent citizens, synagogue leaders, rich and poor, Jews and Gentiles, mystical and skeptical types) and noting that Paul never declared the church complete

And I'll explain what I mean by that. Now, this is a very unique church in Corinth. Imagine going to this church. It has these two business owners, Priscilla and Aquila, who kind of bring Paul. They have this former Jewish rabbi lawyer in Paul. It has a prominent citizen, Titius, with what sounds like a pretty big house if the church is meeting in his house.

It's a pretty prominent citizen. And then the leader of the synagogue gets saved, and all these people are there together. And we read in 1 Corinthians there are rich people and poor people in the church. There are Jews and Gentiles in the church. There are super kind of mystical spiritual people and people that are like, I don't like any of that stuff.

We have all kinds of people, but at no point in this narrative does Paul say, I think we're good. I think we got enough people now. Okay. He's always going, no, no, no. Well, let's bring them in.

Let's bring them in. I'm gonna keep sharing. I'm gonna keep going. I'm gonna keep recruiting people. I'm gonna keep making room in our hearts and lives for more people.

20 · The preacher defines the third principle—never running out of chairs—as the biblical value of hospitality, tracing it from Old Testament commands to welcome strangers to 1 Peter 4:9's instruction to show hospitality without grumbling

Which is why I've tried to sum that up with, "We never run out of chairs." This is the biblical value of hospitality. In the Old Testament, when God's people are commanded to show hospitality, what they're commanded to do is take strangers, even people who are passing through, and show them hospitality and say, "You can eat at our table. You can stay with us. We'll extend our protection to you." 1 Peter 4:9, Peter encourages the church, "Show hospitality, comma, without grumbling." Just 'cause Peter knows us, or maybe he knows himself, right?

Meaning it is hard work sometimes to take strangers and make them friends and take those friends and make them into family in Christ. And yet that is the momentum of the New Testament.

21 · The preacher introduces a physical chair from 1979 as a tangible symbol of the church's hospitality culture

So this is the best illustration I could come up with for this is this chair. Now, does anybody recognize this kind of chair? Raise your hand if you've seen one of these chairs before. Anybody seen one of these chairs? Okay, we got a lot of people. Has anybody seen one of these chairs and wondered, why do we have such weird, old, beaten-up chairs? Yeah, Lenny does. Yeah, I was just like— these chairs have been around.

I was talking to Chuck about this after the first service. We acquired these chairs in 1979. And you're like, I don't know if I want to sit on that anymore. Yeah, they're sturdy. They're tried and true.

44 years, man. And the reason so many of us are familiar with these chairs is not primarily, I don't think, because we use them for church events. It's because anytime somebody in the church moves that's been part of the church for a long time, they have these chairs somewhere in their garage. Has anybody experienced this? Like you're moving somebody and you're like, wait a minute, how did you get these 4 chairs?

But here's how. So I think Chuck said we bought like 500 chairs or something and they are now spread. Somebody told me one time that they saw one of these chairs at a garage sale from somebody that wasn't even part of the church. And they're like, how did you get this chair? And they're like, I don't know.

So these chairs are all over El Paso. They have a hilarious story about them I want to tell you after the service, but I can't. I got to stay focused.

22 · The preacher explains why the chairs were distributed: members hosting community groups always planned for more people than were signed up, physically preparing extra chairs so newcomers would never be turned away

So the chair itself, here's why I'm bringing it up. The chairs were distributed across the entire church because primarily people were having church meetings in their homes and didn't have enough chairs. Meaning you in your living room might have seating for 8, But you know your community group's not 8 people, right? Anybody who's ever led a community group, if you have like 8 people signed up for your group, how many chairs do you need? 20. Yeah, 20. Yeah, that's a little high.

But if you have 8 people coming, 8 people signed up at the beginning of the semester, you always want to have 10 chairs, right? If you have 10 people signed up, you always want to have 12. Because when somebody shows up, you don't ever want to be like, uh, sorry, we don't have a chair for you. So you're planning, you're planning that people will come and become part of your life that you don't know yet. And that's why these chairs are spread throughout the entire church.

Because from the beginning of our church, we have planned for people who are not part of our church family yet to become part of our church family, to be welcomed into our lives.

23 · The preacher personalizes the hospitality principle, addressing the congregation's internal resistance to welcoming strangers on Sunday mornings

Because this isn't just about meeting spaces. This is really about your life. It's do you have room for new people in your life, a new person on Sunday that you're like, Listen, if you're new, just let me talk about you for a second. You won't be weird, but everybody will try to shake your hand at the end. When you come in on Sunday and you can see somebody going like this, like this, and your temptation in that moment is to go, "I don't have room in my life for that person. I don't know what they are. They look weird. I don't like that shirt. I'm gonna move on." Instead of going, "Hey, how are you?

My name's Ricky." I'd love to meet you. Oh, we— our community group meets on Friday. We'd love to have you. Right? That is what it means to never run out of chairs.

24 · The preacher introduces the fourth cultural principle—never close our hands—by cataloging the rapid changes and sacrifices in the Corinthian church: meeting locations shifted, social barriers broke down, and beloved founding members like Priscilla and Aquila left for the next mission field

All right, next. Fourth. Last two will be brief. Fourth, we never close our hands. And this is what I mean by that.

In the early church, the mission is powered by sacrifice. Everyone has to be willing to sacrifice for the mission to continue. Everything the early church does has to be held with an open hand. Notice that all of a sudden, from one week to the next, the meeting location of the church changes. All of a sudden, the Gentile contingent have the Jewish synagogue head sitting next to them on Sundays.

All of a sudden, like, it just keeps happening. These changes keep happening to the church. And even the relationships of the church. If you've grown to love Paul and Priscilla and Aquila, and you're like, "Oh, they're our founding members. They were the people here first.

I remember Priscilla and Aquila had me over for dinner." By the end of the passage, Priscilla and Aquila, they're gone. They're in the next city. And if I'm in that church, I'm thinking, "No, these people sound awesome. They're business owners. They're probably helpful to have around.

They're probably helping fund the mission." And Paul's like, "Nope, I need them with me." "Hey, I need you to come with me on my next missionary endeavor." And so they go with Paul. In fact, these folks end up moving all over the place in the Mediterranean because they keep their life with an open hand.

25 · The preacher introduces a visual illustration of closed-handed living: worshiping with hands open but secretly keeping some things hidden behind our backs, unavailable to the Lord's purposes

Now, this is, again, these are the cheesiest illustrations I could come up with to torture you with, but this is the way I could think to encapsulate this. Sometimes in the church, we have these things that we're like, "Yes, Lord. Amen." We have our hands open in worship, but we really have our hands closed around some things in our life. And when it comes to mission, pushing on those things, we're like, "Well, the Lord—" Have you ever done this? "The Lord, you can have anything you want in my life except for this. But you can have 90%— well, maybe 85% of anything you want in my life." Right? But we have some things we keep hidden Behind our back. And so I've got some things here.

26 · The preacher reveals the first closed-hand item—service times and favorite seats—and illustrates it with a story of a couple who left the church over a service time change that conflicted with their baby's nap schedule

So what do we got here? I'm gonna, actually don't remember what I wrote on these, so we're gonna find out live together. Oh, okay, here we go. Here's something we can hold with a closed hand. My service and favorite seat.

I still remember when we, oh man, when we changed service times. We had a dear couple with some young children, and we had to change our service times. We were trying to accommodate more people, and they said, you know, I hadn't seen them since we started the new service times. So I reached out and I was like, are you guys okay? And they said, yeah, it's not going to work out for us at the church.

And we were like, oh man, are you— is there a conflict? What happened? They're like, yeah, our baby's nap schedule, the new service times, just, they do not, they do not work. "with the nap schedule, I'm sorry." And I'm like, "Wait, what?" Like, they're like, "Yeah, the extra half hour, it just throws everything off." And you're like, "Oh man." But how many of us can be like that, right? How many of us, okay, well listen, I'm no longer excited.

I don't see the band, where's the drummer? I'm not excited anymore. I'm not gonna be able to worship the Lord today. My service has to be like this. Or if that person's preaching, I don't know about that.

I don't like that guy, I like the other guy. We have to hold all of this with an open hand.

27 · The preacher reveals the second closed-hand item—my city—and applies Priscilla and Aquila's geographic flexibility to the congregation

Okay, let me do maybe one more. What is this one? Oh, my city. Oh man, this is Priscilla and Aquila did not keep this in a closed hand, right? They said, we're willing to be here or we're willing to be there for the sake of the gospel. Rather than being like, I never want to stay in El Paso long-term, maybe you got to put that in an open hand.

Or maybe, "I'm only going to be in El Paso forever." You got to put that in an open hand. Whatever it is.

28 · The preacher reveals the third closed-hand item—my church location—and addresses resistance to church planting or relocation

Okay, one more, one more. Just because I'm curious what I wrote on Thursday, which I don't remember. Oh, my church location. Oh man, what if we plant churches? What if we outgrow this location completely and have to move?

I remember talking to somebody when we did our first offsite service at another location. They were like, "But why?" I was like, "Well, so we can all be together." But why? You know, it's just like, I get it. I understand. We can hold these things in our hands.

29 · The preacher grounds the open-handed principle in Jesus' discipleship demands from Luke 9:23 and 14:33—following Jesus requires self-denial, cross-bearing, and renouncing all possessions

And here's the point. Jesus tells us, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. So therefore, any of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." Brothers and sisters, as soon as we close our hands around things, mission of the church grinds to a halt.

30 · The preacher introduces the fifth cultural principle—never confuse first and second—by cataloging Corinth's social problems (sexual perversion, economic animosity, religious charlatanism, broken marriages) and noting that Paul could have addressed any of them directly

All right, last, fifth and last, we never confuse first and second. Now, imagine Paul coming to Corinth and seeing all the needs of this city. It is a sexually perverse place. It is a broken place. It is a place with major animosity between rich and poor. It is a place where charlatans are defrauding people with mystical promises. It is a place full of broken marriages.

And Paul sees all these needs on coming to Corinth, and he could have interjected himself into any one of these areas of the city trying to make a difference. But what Acts 18 shows Paul laser-focused on is preaching the message of the gospel of Jesus. It says over and over, you could trace that thread through the whole passage, he starts speaking, He won't stop speaking. God encourages him, "Don't stop speaking," because Paul knows this: the best thing for all the needs of the city of Corinth is starting with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

31 · The preacher explains how the gospel's priority works: the gospel addresses all of Corinth's social problems, but it addresses them as gospel-transformed people live out gospel implications in marriage, sexuality, economics, and relationships

The gospel of Jesus Christ is what gives people hope and healing and a future, not just now, but in eternity. The gospel of Jesus works its way into all these other topics. Paul in 1 Corinthians will talk about marriage. He'll talk about sexuality. He'll talk about— income inequality and animosity between the rich and poor. He gets to all these things, but he uses the gospel working its way into the details of life to begin to transform marriages and relationships and all of that.

And here's the danger, church. As soon as we began to put things that are biblically second in the first place, when other things begin to crowd out or relocate the gospel from first to second, we lose the mission. Because here's the reality, it does no eternal good for us to feed every homeless person without the gospel of Jesus Christ, to fix every marriage, to do every good thing we can in the city around us. And by God's grace, I hope we do those things. By God's grace, I hope we're known for people who, who love to help broken marriages, who love to help addicts, who feed the homeless, who care about the fatherless.

I pray that we become a church that is that. And I thank God that we are becoming a church that is that. But if we do all those things and lose the gospel of Jesus Christ, we have lost the mission.

32 · The preacher cites 1 Corinthians 2:2 and 15:3 to show Paul's deliberate prioritization of the gospel—he decided to know nothing but Christ crucified and delivered what was of first importance: Christ's death and resurrection

And so Paul gives us the example of never confusing first and second. 1 Corinthians 2, he says, "I decided when I came to you," to know nothing among you but Christ and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 15, he says, "For I delivered to you what was of first importance, that Christ lived, that Christ died, that Christ rose again." And here's the reality. We can put the gospel in first in our statement of faith. We can put it first even in our messages.

But if the gospel is not first in our church, in our relationships, in our groups, in our ministries, Well, eventually the gospel will slip from first to second.

33 · The preacher returns to the strategy-vs-culture distinction from the sermon's beginning, now applying it as a call to the whole congregation

This is where we need all of us. And so as we close, let me just make a plea on behalf of our team and pastors and just say this: this building of a culture is not something any 1 or 2 or 5 people can do in our church. See, strategy in some ways is easier because somebody can come up with a strategy and make a map and then say, "Okay, everybody go do it." But a culture takes everyone. The culture works its way down into our individual relationships and groups.

And that, right, that's what you see in Acts 18 threaded throughout the New Testament.

34 · The preacher expounds God's vision to Paul in Acts 18:9-10, emphasizing that the Lord was already at work in Corinth before Paul arrived, that God already had his chosen people in the city, and that God invited Paul into his plan rather than Paul initiating the mission and God joining him

But the Lord is there to help. Look at, very briefly, at the end what Paul says— I mean, what the Lord says to Paul in this vision. "Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent." 'For I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.' Here's the encouraging thing as we close in looking at this. We do not start the mission and God joins us along the way.

No, the Lord is already at work in the city of Corinth before Paul even shows up. The Lord is with Paul. The Lord says he has people in the city of Corinth that are his people, that God has already before the foundation of the earth called and is going to save. He has a plan for the city of Corinth, and he invites Paul. He invites Aquila and Priscilla.

He invites Timothy. He invites this church into his plan. And that's the good news, church. The gospel is creating this culture. The Lord is building this culture.

The question is whether we will join him.

35 · The preacher prays through all five cultural principles, asking God to preserve the church's collaborative mission culture, continuous hiring, radical hospitality, open-handed sacrifice, and gospel priority from the present into the indefinite future, until either the church ends or Christ returns

Would you stand and let's pray.

Oh, Lord, I pray for us. Lord, I pray that these marks that have been true of us over the last 40 years would continue to be true of us in the many years to come. Lord, I pray that we would always be a church where mission is not a department of the church. It is not a task delegated to some evangelist pastor, but Lord, it is something that we carry in our hearts together, whether that's making meals for Alpha or leading discussion groups or teaching, Lord, whatever it is, I pray that we would all be involved in this. And Lord, I pray that we would be a church that never stops hiring and recruiting and adding people into gospel mission.

Lord, I pray that from the very beginning, Lord, that people in our church would feel the invitation that we want you, we need you, we would love to have your help, that we would invest freely into leaders, capable men and women in our church. Lord, I pray that we would be a church that never runs out of chairs, Lord, that the value of hospitality mentality that's built our church in many ways over the last 40 years would not be ever lost. We would not— our lives would never be too full or too crowded to welcome someone else new into it. I pray, Lord, that we would never close our hands around preferences and people and things in our church. Lord, I pray that we would have an open hand about our lives.

Lord, that we'd be willing to make sacrifices, that we'd be willing to take up a cross and follow you, and we would trust you to give us what we need. And then last, Lord, I pray, I pray according to what we're about to sing here at the end, Lord, I pray that we would never confuse first and second in our church. Lord, let there never be a day where the gospel is first on our statement of faith, but it is not first in our hearts. It's not first in our groups. It's not first in our relationships.

Lord, I pray that the church would be known for many good things and good deeds and service to the poor and service to the campuses of El Paso, UTEP, UNI, PCC, and services to the fatherless. I pray that we would be faithful to demonstrate the reality of the gospel. But, Lord, I pray, I pray, I pray for the life of this church, however long that is. Lord, you know your plan for it. I pray for it, for the life of this church, that we would never confuse first and second.

That until the end of this church or until you return, our confession would be what is of first importance is that Jesus died according to the scriptures, that he rose again according to the scriptures, and on that our faith and life rests. Amen.

Where this fits

Recent preaching context

The three sermons immediately preceding this one in the preaching schedule.

Aug 6, 2023

Why Is Life So Frustrating

Life's frustrations exist by God's design to lead us from despair and self-reliance into humble trust and joy in the Lord, who alone is eternal and sovereign.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-14

Aug 13, 2023

Enjoy Your Frustrating Life

Aug 27, 2023

Vision 2023 - Gospel Ambition

Gospel people are called to be an ambitious people who, empowered by God's calling and Spirit, pursue the multiplication of local churches as the primary means of fulfilling the Great Commission until Christ returns.

Romans 15:14-24

September 3 · This sermon

Vision 2023 - 100 Churches Principles

The mission of planting 100 churches over 100 years will only be sustained if Crossroads Grace builds a culture—not merely a strategy—defined by collaborative mission, continuous leadership recruitment, radical hospitality, sacrificial open-handedness, and the uncompromising priority of the gospel above all else.

Acts 18:1-21

Take it further

Discuss · apply · pray

Small groups

6 discussion questions

In Acts 18, Paul arrives in Corinth alone and immediately begins working alongside Aquila and Priscilla. What does this pattern tell us abou…

Daily readings

5-day reading plan

This week, we walk through five cultural anchors for sustained gospel mission—principles that outlast strategies and can be carried across generations—drawn from Paul's planting of the church in Corinth.

Prayer

Father, Build Us as Builders

Father, we come before you in awe of the simple power you have given to your church. We confess that we often underestimate what you can do…

Family table

Never Going Alone

This card invites your family to reflect on Paul's experience in Corinth—he didn't plant the church by himself. Use this prompt to help kids…

Couples

Building a Culture of Mission Together

Which of the five principles—never go alone, never stop hiring, never run out of chairs, never close our hands, never confuse first and seco…

Memorize

2 Timothy 2:2

This verse captures the sermon's second principle—never stop hiring—and establishes the pattern of continuous leadership recruitment that sustains mission across generations. It anchors the theological claim that the work is never restricted to one leader or one generation, but must be perpetually passed to new faithful workers.

Memory verse this week

2 Timothy 2:2

And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Why this verse: This verse captures the sermon's second principle—never stop hiring—and establishes the pattern of continuous leadership recruitment that sustains mission across generations. It anchors the theological claim that the work is never restricted to one leader or one generation, but must be perpetually passed to new faithful workers.

Draft · pending review

Small-group discussion

6 questions for your group this week

In Acts 18, Paul arrives in Corinth alone and immediately begins working alongside Aquila and Priscilla. What does this pattern tell us about how Paul understood the nature of gospel work—and why do you think he didn't try to carry the mission by himself?

Acts 18:1-3; see also 2 Timothy 2:2

→ Where in your own life or ministry have you felt the weight of trying to do something alone? What changed when you invited others in?
The sermon names five cultural principles: never go alone, never stop hiring, never run out of chairs, never close our hands, never confuse first and second. Which of these five feels most countercultural to you right now, and why?
Paul's vision in Acts 18:9-10 shows Jesus telling him to speak and not be silent because 'I have many people in this city.' How does knowing that the gospel belongs to Christ—not to us—change the way we approach recruitment and leadership development?

Acts 18:9-10

→ What happens to our willingness to 'hire' and invest in new leaders if we believe the mission is ultimately Christ's, not ours?
The sermon describes a culture where the church 'never runs out of chairs'—always making room for one more person, one more family, one more generation. What is the spiritual condition underneath a church that stops doing this? What does it reveal about what we believe about the gospel's power?

1 Peter 4:9
Acts 18 shows Paul and the early church holding their meeting places, their time, their relationships, and their resources with open hands—willing to surrender them when the mission required it. What is one thing in your life right now that you're holding too tightly, and what would it look like to hold it as gift rather than possession?

Luke 14:33

→ How does the gospel—what Christ surrendered for you—reshape your answer to that question?
The sermon emphasizes that Paul never confused 'first' with 'second'—he remained laser-focused on preaching Christ even amid Corinth's many urgent social problems. How do you discern the difference between being indifferent to human suffering and maintaining gospel priority? What does that balance look like in your own life and community?

1 Corinthians 2:2

Draft · pending review

Daily readings · Monday–Friday

5-day reading plan

Monday Matthew 16:18

Jesus didn't build a program or a strategy—he built a church, and promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. This is the foundation: the local church is Christ's chosen vehicle, not Plan B. When we commit to planting churches, we're not betting on an organizational trend; we're aligning ourselves with the most enduring and powerful force Jesus promised to build.

Tuesday Acts 13

Paul's mission in Acts 13 wasn't a one-off event—it was the seed of a *repeatable culture* of missionary sending and collaboration. Notice how the pattern reappears in different cities with different needs: the method changes, but the DNA of collaborative, Spirit-led mission remains. Culture travels; strategies don't. This is why we establish principles, not just plans.

Wednesday 2 Timothy 2:2

Paul tells Timothy to entrust the gospel to faithful people who will teach others. There are no final hires in the kingdom. The moment we declare a team complete or stop looking for the next generation of leaders, mission begins to calcify. Our role is to see potential in others, invite them into the work, and train them to invite others—a chain that spans a hundred years.

Thursday 1 Peter 4:9

Hospitality in the New Testament isn't mere niceness—it's missional openness. When we stop making room, we stop growing. Peter's command to offer hospitality without grumbling is a statement about culture: we never run out of chairs because we're never satisfied that the mission is done. An open hand and an open door are marks of a church that believes God is still moving.

Friday 1 Corinthians 2:2

Paul didn't distract himself with secondary goods in Corinth. He knew that a city divided by class, sexuality, and power needed the gospel more than it needed programs. This doesn't mean we ignore suffering—it means we refuse to confuse first and second things. The gospel *is* the most powerful solution we can offer our city, and our mission is sustained when we keep that priority unshakeable.

Draft · pending review

Pray together this week

Father, Build Us as Builders

Father, we come before you in awe of the simple power you have given to your church. We confess that we often underestimate what you can do through gathered believers, and we too easily settle for strategies and programs rather than the culture you call us to build. We have been tempted to go it alone, to hoard our gifts, to close our hands around what is ours, to believe the mission is finished when it has only begun. Forgive us for these partial visions and our small faith.

But here is the good news: you have made the local church the most powerful movement in human history, and you have invited us to be part of it. Through the death and resurrection of Christ, you have established a people who are called to collaborate, to multiply leaders, to make room for more, to sacrifice gladly, and to preach the gospel without apology or distraction. You have given us the pattern in your word and the power in your Spirit.

So we ask you, Father: make us a church that never goes alone. Give us the courage to recruit new leaders continuously, to see potential in others, and to share the work of the gospel generously. Open our hands so that we hold nothing—not our buildings, not our comfort, not our preferences—more tightly than we hold the mission. And keep us laser-focused on the one thing that matters: the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen, the gospel that is sufficient for every city, every problem, every heart.

Make us a culture of mission, not merely a strategy. Let the five principles you are teaching us—never go alone, never stop hiring, never run out of chairs, never close our hands, never confuse first and second—become the air we breathe, the way we love, the inheritance we pass to the next generation of gospel planters. We commit ourselves, by your grace, to this vision of 100 churches over 100 years. Amen.

Draft · pending review

Sunday-evening family table

Never Going Alone

For the parent

This card invites your family to reflect on Paul's experience in Corinth—he didn't plant the church by himself. Use this prompt to help kids see that God designed us to do important work *together*, not in isolation. Listen for where your kids already experience this in their own lives (teams, friendships, school projects).

In the sermon, Pastor Ricky talked about how Paul never did ministry alone—he always had people with him, working together toward the same mission. Think about something important you're trying to do right now—maybe a sport, a school project, a hobby, or helping around the house. Who are the people doing it *with* you? What would it be like to try to do it completely alone?

works for ages 7+

Draft · pending review

Couples · three questions over coffee

Building a Culture of Mission Together

Which of the five principles—never go alone, never stop hiring, never run out of chairs, never close our hands, never confuse first and second—most convicted or challenged you this week, and why?
Where in our marriage do we tend to spectate rather than collaborate, or to grip tightly rather than hold with open hands? How might the gospel's call to shared mission reshape one area of our life together?
What is one specific way we can pray for each other to live out these principles—whether in our church community, our neighborhood, or our home—and what gift do we each bring to that calling?

Draft · pending review

Where this was preached

About the church

Cross of Grace Church

About us · What we believe

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# Cross of Grace Church

A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible.

## Sermons
- [Why Is Life So Frustrating (Ecclesiastes 1:1-14, 2023-08-06)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2023/08/why-is-life-so-frustrating)
- [Enjoy Your Frustrating Life (2023-08-13)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2023/08/enjoy-your-frustrating-life)
- [Vision 2023 - Gospel Ambition (Romans 15:14-24, 2023-08-27)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2023/08/vision-2023-gospel-ambition)
- [Vision 2023 - 100 Churches Principles (Acts 18:1-21, 2023-09-03)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2023/09/vision-2023-100-churches-principles)

## About
- [About the church](/about)
- [Plan a visit](/visit)

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