Church, good to see you today. I want to invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 16, if you would. We are, as Daniel mentioned, in a mini-series on radical generosity because we want to become a radically generous church. This summer we announced a number of significant investments in ministries and things around the world, and we don't want those gifts to be sort of our last big gifts. We want them to be our first big gifts in investment around the world. And we wanna be generous, not just with our money, but with our resources, our people. We don't want Sal's plant in Horizon to be the last plant or the boxes checked. Now we planted a church, but rather the first of many plants. So here's my goals for this series. First, If you are part of Cross of Grace and you've been here for a while, you know that we don't do a series every year on radical generosity. In fact, I think we do one, if memory serves, about every— according to at least how long I've been here— about every 15 years. So it's not an everyday thing for us, but we felt like with where we were, we wanted to reset out this value that we've had for many years as a church. So if you are a faithful giver to the church, if you have invested over the years in this work and in this place or in another local church perhaps, we want you to be encouraged that what you are doing is making a difference, that it is valuable and good in the sight of God. And you're not gonna hear that out there. No financial advisor expert is gonna be like, yeah, that's a great investment for you. No, but it's a great investment for the kingdom. And so we wanna encourage you and stir you up. Second, if you are not currently giving to your local church, whether it's this one, whether you're part of another church, we wanna encourage you to consider it by essentially laying out in front of you what the Bible says about giving and generosity in the church. We're not aiming to twist your arm. We're not aiming to give you a dollar amount that you need to give by the end of the series. Instead, we're just trying to lay out before you, here's what the Lord would have you consider. And third, if you are in transition, we know El Paso del Norte is famous for having people here for a season. Maybe you come for a season, maybe you're going away for a season. We would love that. One of the legacies of Cross of Grace is that we sow generous givers into churches all across America and perhaps all around the world. We would love that to be one of our sort of looking back things that we've invested in the kingdom of God. But right now we're going to turn our attention to an even more fundamental question than giving in Matthew 16.
So Matthew 16 is where we are. We're going to begin reading in verse 13. And as we read, let's remember this is God's Word. Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, who do you say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And He said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And then He strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that He was the Christ. This is God's word.
And Lord, we pray for your blessing over the preaching and the hearing of your word today in your house. Amen.
Well, for a very brief, all too brief moment in my life, I owned one of the most beautiful automobiles ever made. It was a 1973 Ferrari. Ford Mustang, baby blue with a white leather interior. Now, if you're a car guy, you're like, yep, that, like, I remember this. It's a very distinct sort of era in the early '70s with this. The car though needed a significant amount of work and it guzzled gas like nothing that's ever been produced in America. I think that the gas, I don't remember what the gas mileage was, but it was in the single digits. It was like 6, you know, I wasn't used to seeing that for a car. 6 miles to the gallon, okay. And my grandfather, my granddad had given me the car because he had kept it in storage for a number of years after he got it in payment for a job. So he was a contractor kind of a guy, and so he had done some work for somebody and they gave him this old car and kind of, he held on to it. And so he gave it to me because he thought, well, this would be great for my grandson. There was a problem though. It was an expensive car. It was going to be expensive in repairs. It was going to be expensive as things broke down. It was going to be a pain in repairing. I didn't have a ton of money, so I was going to have to learn like from the ground up how to repair this thing. And I knew zero about cars. I think I knew negative zero about cars. I didn't even know there were 2 air filters, right? There's a car air filter and an air filter for me. I don't— what does that even mean? So that's where I was. And there was another problem. I was living on the West Side at the time. I was going to college at UTEP. And then I was working. My college job was all the way over at the Zaragoza Bridge. If you know where that is off of the Loop. Right. If you, if you were like, okay, wait, so the car gets 8 miles a gallon. You're driving from the West Side to UTEP, UTEP to Zaragoza, back home. I had calculated and realized I think maybe I could break even by going out there to work and earn the money that it costs to drive out there. And so I realized this is, this is a problem. And so I did what is now unthinkable to me. I sold the car and got a sensible, boring sedan. Now, When I look back on that, I think exactly what you are thinking. How in the world could you have given that car up? I had a brother at the end of the first service say, I would— I think you need to go into counseling. Like not to counsel someone, but you need to receive counseling from a car club to just try to help you understand what things are worth, Ricky. And every time, I will say this, every time I see a 1970s era Ford Mustang, I die a little bit inside. It just, it wears away at me every time. I just, oh, just I feel it. And the car was so unique and so precious, but at the time I did not see it for what it was, right? I just saw, okay, I need a vehicle, I need to go to work, I need to go to school, I like, I whatever, I need what's right in front of me.
And sometimes, friends, we miss the value that is staring us in the face right in front of us, don't we? Now today, we're gonna connect this to the local church and to giving because one of the most fundamental questions about giving is not just should I be generous and give in general? Should we be blessed to be a blessing in general? But why would I consider giving to the local church? Very common question, very honest question because in a world of practical needs, there's so many needs around us, why would the local church be a place I invest? And that question, I think, there's a question underneath it. And the question underneath is this, well, what is a local church? Is a local church just another NGO nonprofit that's out there, one of see what aligns with your interests and give to that? Or is it something different? And what I want to argue from Matthew 16 is the local church has no comparison in the world around us. It is unique and it is valuable, and yet we often miss it as it's staring us in the face.
So we're gonna answer 3 questions today, very brief. What is the church to the Lord? What is the church to us? And then what is the church to the world?
6 · The pastor exposes the weight of the possessive pronoun 'my' in Matthew 16:18, arguing that Jesus' use of this word establishes a unique, covenantal, and unconditional relational commitment to the church that no other organization in the world can claim
So first, what is the church to the Lord? Now notice in Matthew 16:18, a particular word that changes everything in proximity to it. Jesus says, on this rock, I will build my church. If you have a pencil or a pen, I think you should underline the word my. Notice that Jesus does not say, I will build a church. He says rather, I will build my church. Church, only the church out of all of the millions of organizations and groups in the world, only the church has this said of it by Jesus. This particular relational connection, this covenantal connection, if you know your Old Testament. This is not a casual commitment. It is not, well, I'm gonna build a church and if it doesn't work out, then I might try a different one. No. He's saying, this thing is mine. I take ownership of it. And my commitment to it is not casual, but convictional, covenantal.
7 · The pastor tells a story about confounding a car salesman who expected a casual commitment but encountered instead a long-term, 'until the wheels fall off' commitment, illustrating the contrast between casual and covenantal relationships
A few years later, I was on a car lot and the salesman saw a young man on the car lot and he thought, this is easy pickings. Young man on a car lot. I know exactly what to do. So he walks up. You know how, if you've ever been to a car lot, sometimes they walk out and they're already talking before they, you know, you can even get a word out, right? And he's like, all right, young man like you, I see you admiring these automobiles over here, and I know exactly what a young man like you is going to need. I know you guys. I know your whole life's ahead of you, and here's what you want out of a car, OK? Here's what you want out of a car. You want something you can get into easy and get out of easy, right? You want to get into a car for a while, like it, and then you want to be able to get out of it and get something else and get you, you know, several cars, find out what works for you. You're a young man. You have your whole life ahead of you. And I remember thinking like, oh no, he has badly miscalculated because he asked me, so how long, about how long do you want to keep the vehicle? And I said, until the wheels fall off. And he realized, uh-oh, I have used the wrong pitch. I'm in the wrong car section, right? Because he's used to people walking in and especially young people going like, hey, I don't want to get tied down too far here, right? I don't want to get tied up in this. I just want a car for a while and then I'll probably see something I like better and then I want to get into that. And you've got this weird, you know, 21-year-old going, I plan to raise— to drive my grandchildren in this car. And he's going, oh my goodness, right? He was expecting a casual commitment, but he got something totally different.
8 · The pastor draws the doctrinal conclusion from the car salesman illustration: Jesus' commitment to the church is not casual but covenantal, proven by His willingness to go to the cross—the word 'my' in Matthew 16:18 is written in His blood
Similarly, when we come to Jesus in Matthew 16, we do not see a casual commitment to the church. We see a convictional, relational, covenantal commitment between Jesus and the church. In fact, this commitment to— that this would be his people and his church is highlighted by the extent to which Jesus will go for this statement. In saying that Jesus will build his church, Jesus speaks that knowing that to build this church, he would go to the cross. Right? Jesus makes this people his people, not by casual association, but by offering his very life and body and blood for his people. That word my is written in the blood of the only Son of God. He says, this is my people. This is my church. Church.
9 · The pastor exposes the 'gates of hell' promise in Matthew 16:18 as Jesus' warranty without terms and conditions—an unconditional guarantee that no power (demonic, worldly, cultural, or temporal) can overcome His commitment to the church
And notice then what he says after it. He illustrates his commitment and then he gives you an illustration of how unconditional his promise and commitment to this church is. Everyone knows that when you buy something expensive like a car or a fridge or a washing machine, there's always these big statements on the front like 10-year warranty. Right? And then if you look in or try to get them to honor that, there's a phrase that you become very familiar with, right? Terms and conditions apply. You guys ever run into that? Yeah. Some of you have never bought a washing machine. It becomes very important. What are the terms? What are the conditions? Because a lot of times it's like, oh yeah, well, if it breaks in June, we don't cover that. We cover the other months. You know, you're like, what? Right? That's, that's often what our world does. And notice how unconditional Jesus' promise and commitment to the church is. I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Jesus is using that as an illustration to say, there is no power that can stop my commitment to the church. It is unconditional. No matter what happens, no matter the age, No matter the nation, no matter who my people are or where they are, this promise will apply to them. There is no demonic attack, no worldly authority that will overcome them, no persecution, no cultural trend, no opposition. The church will stand because it is his church backed by his promise. That's— do you see how radical Jesus' relationship is to this thing we call the church?
10 · The pastor applies the exposition by contrasting our casual, 'get in and get out' posture toward the church with Jesus' covenantal commitment, calling the congregation to examine whether their own relationship to the church reflects Jesus' convictions about it
Now, compare that then to us. The question then is, do we relate to the church the way that Jesus relates to the church? I think for so many of us, we relate much more like the used car lot. We want a group or a people or a study or a church that we can get into easily and get out of easily. Low commitment, lots of terms and conditions apply. And yet Jesus, by his commitment to the church, listen, let's remember, it's not just commitment to a church, it's his commitment to us. This is Jesus' commitment to us as his people, as we'll talk about more in a second. And so then the question is this, do we have Jesus' conviction about His place and His people. And the reason I'm going there is often when people are going, well, why should I give to the church? It relates to a much deeper question is, what is the church? And that question is answered by, well, what is the church to Jesus? It's His people, His commitment.
11 · Structural pivot from the first main point (the church to the Lord) to the second main point (the church to us)
That's the first question. Second question, what is the church not just to the Lord but to us then?
12 · The pastor provides lexical and historical context for the word 'church' (ecclesia), defining it as 'assembly' and connecting it to Old Testament usage for the gathered people of God, stripping away modern architectural and institutional associations
Now, it's important to remember that there were no— when Jesus spoke this, there were no churches with steeples anywhere in the church. There were no denominations. There were really none of the things that we often think of. There was no website for the local church down the street. It was a totally different world. And so what did Jesus mean when he said, I will build my church? Well, that word church means— is ecclesia. It literally means assembly. And it was often used in the Greek Old Testament to talk about the assembly, the group called together of God's people. People.
13 · The pastor identifies and refutes a common misconception—that the church is for good people who have cleaned up their lives—setting up the corrective exposition of Peter's role in the text
Now, what is the church to us? Well, I want to tell you first what it's not, because this is one of the most common things I hear, especially in the city of El Paso, which is a relatively religious city. A lot of people in El Paso will think, okay, well, the church is a place for good people and I should get back to it at some point. Or the church is a place for good people and I should really clean up my life and fix it up. And then I can get back in there. You guys, I've heard this from multiple people that people are going, hey, I'd love to, you know, I want to get back to church, Pastor, but, but man, there's so many things in my life I gotta, I gotta fix. Almost like I need to get better as a person and then the church is a place for me.
14 · The pastor exposes the Petros/Petra wordplay, refutes the Roman Catholic papal interpretation by showing Peter's immediate failure in the next verses, and argues that Peter's role as the foundation stone demonstrates that the church is for flawed, failing people like him—not for the perfect or infallible
Who is the church for? What is it to us? Well, I want to give you Exhibit A of who the church is for in the Apostle Peter right Here. Now Jesus is using a play on words with Peter and his name. So in, in the original Greek, Peter's name would be Petros and a stone or a rock would be Petra, right? So he's saying, you are this Petros and on this Petra I will build my church. So he's, he's using the image of a, of a, you're starting a building, What's the first brick that goes down after the cornerstone? That's that rock, that is Peter. Now, here's the question then. How though is Peter the rock on which everything else is gonna be built off of? Because the Roman Catholic Church will often take this verse and use it to create, construct a theology of popes. If you've ever encountered the Roman Catholic Church theology here, you know this, that they would say, well, this shows that Peter is the first pope because Jesus gives the authority to him, and Peter then becomes a Pope, an infallible sort of speaker for God on the earth. The only problem with that is he doesn't last 5 verses as an infallible prophet, right? What happens is they have this great moment. This is Peter's— Peter and Jesus are always having a great moment, and then you're like, Peter, what are you doing? Because They have this great moment, and then Jesus says, and therefore, to build this church, I'm going to the cross, Peter. I'm going to the cross. And Peter goes, no, you're not. You shouldn't do that. You shouldn't go to the cross. Nope, don't like that. And Jesus is going, okay, you're acting like Satan. Get behind me. I got some work to do. Right? Peter's infallibility or his goodness is not what makes him the first stone in the church that Jesus is building. Instead, this text I think is illustrating the opposite, that Peter, even Peter, a guy who misunderstands, a guy who shoots his mouth off, a guy who bumbles into things, a guy who is maybe perhaps well-intentioned at times, but also is poorly intentioned at others, even someone like that can be a brick, maybe the first brick in the building that God is building.
15 · The pastor makes the direct application of the Peter exposition: the church is not for the perfect but for failures like Peter—and therefore it is 'our place,' the place for anyone who has found grace in Christ despite (or because of) their brokenness
Because who is the church for? It is not for perfect people or good people who are better than the rest of us. The church is for people like you and me and Peter. So friends, what is the church to us? The church is our place. The church is the place for anyone who has ever failed and fallen and shot their mouth off just like Peter. Anyone who has reached rock bottom and come to find the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ like Peter. Somebody who knows, I don't know, who says, I don't know anything about life. I'm questioning everything. But one thing I do know, this guy is the Son of God and I'm gonna follow him. Church, the church is for people like that. The church is for us.
16 · The pastor articulates the church's unique function: it is the place where God supernaturally draws rebels to Himself, gives them a home and new life, and in drawing them to Him, draws them to one another—a work that happens nowhere else in the world
And here's what's amazing as well. What then happens in the church is something that does not happen anywhere else in the world. And I say that advisedly because the church becomes a place where according to this, where Jesus tells Peter, hey, you know how you know this? God has drawn you to know this. God has given you this knowledge to know this. The church is a place where the living God draws lost, distant, prodigal rebels to Himself. That's the church. And not only does he draw lost, distant, prodigal rebels to himself, he gives them a home. He gives them a new life. He gives them a trajectory to heaven, right? That none of that happens anywhere else in the world. And not only that, not only are we drawn to the Lord and we find a place with the Lord, we are then, as we're drawn to the Lord, drawn to one another.
17 · The pastor uses the analogy of a wedding—where disparate and even antagonistic people are drawn together solely by their relationship to the bride or groom—to illustrate how the church unites people through their common relationship to Christ
Do you see that? I love weddings because one of the funny things about weddings is everybody is there united mostly because they just know the bride or the groom. Right? It's such a weird group of people. Sometimes there's like people who haven't seen each other in years. So there's enemies at weddings. I love that. Right? People, family members who refuse to speak for 10 years are suddenly in the same room together. You love that. Why? Because they're drawn in by something bigger than them, right? They're drawn near to this couple but then drawn together.
18 · The pastor asserts that the church's unity is not based on natural affinities (economic, political, cultural) but on the supernatural reality of shared relationship with Jesus—making the church a home for believers in a fractured world
That's the church. The church, friends, is not united primarily by economic or political or cultural or national sort of unity concerns. We're not drawn together because we have the same background or the same interests or the same likes and dislikes. We're not drawn together because we're a club that we find a common interest. We are drawn together because we come to this room and we have one thing in common with the people around us. They've met Jesus and so have we. They've been drawn near by the Lord and so have we. And all of a sudden, not only do we find a home with the Lord, we find a people around us who value the things most valuable to us. Friends, you may look at this room around you and think, I have nothing in common with these people. I don't know if this is a place for me. I'll tell you what, if you're a believer in Jesus, this is a place for you. That's what the church is. It is our home in a broken, fallen, splintered world of disunity and anger and hatred. It is a place where we gather to the Lord and with one another.
19 · The pastor argues that the church's power is not formulaic but covenantal—God uniquely dwells with His assembled people—and provides examples (songs, sermons, prayers) of how God unexpectedly meets individuals in corporate worship, contrasting this with the American church's emphasis on encountering God anywhere
And friend, let me just say this, and that is why the church has moments of profound beauty and power in our lives. Look, the church is powerful, not because we found the right formula to run a service, but because this is the place where God meets his people. Look, I am grateful that the American church has a high value on, I can encounter Jesus in my car. I can encounter Jesus in my living room. I can encounter Jesus, you know, out on, I don't know, a golf course praying for a putt. Actually, that one doesn't count, but some people think it does. Okay. So just that some people think it does, right? They have this high value of like, I can encounter God anywhere. Okay, that is true. There is a sense in which the Lord meets you wherever you are. But friends, the Old Testament and the New Testament hold out the beautiful truth that when God's people gather, remember ecclesia, when God's people assemble, God uniquely dwells with them and meets them. Look, have you ever been here and you've been singing a song and all that your thought is, how did they know I need this song? How did they know what I was going through in my life that this is the song we're singing right now? And God touches you and meets you. Why does that happen? Because God dwells with his people, right? Or maybe you've been here and somebody's been teaching the word and you thought, you know, you're sinking lower because you're like, they're reading my mail. How did they know? How did they know I'm dealing with that? There's no way. We don't know. There's no way we know. Right? AI knows more about you than we do, right? You're putting in your little searches, they might know. We don't know anything. All we know is this Word and we speak the Word and when we do in the presence of God's people, God meets his people, right? When you are gathered together and all of a sudden somebody says, man, how are you doing? Can I pray for you? You were on my heart this week and you've been thinking all week, I'm alone, I'm lost, nobody cares, and God meets you. Friend, That's power, not because there's some formula for church, some lighting ratio that we use to make those moments happen, but because the living God dwells among his people. That's what the church is to us.
20 · Structural pivot from the second main point (the church to us) to the third main point (the church to the world)
And third, what is the church then to the world?
21 · The pastor exposes the meaning of 'the keys of the kingdom' in Matthew 16:19 as the gospel message—the proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah—entrusted to the church as the means of unlocking the kingdom of heaven
Oh friends, oh friends, what is the church to the world? This is where we get into the keys to the kingdom. Now I'm going to, fast forward through some of this only because I wanna use our time well. And some of you are familiar with this, but in verse 19, Jesus says, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. So Peter confesses, Jesus commits to his people, promises that he's gonna be with his people, and then says, here's a word picture. I'm gonna give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Now, remember, Jesus is not giving Peter because he's a brilliant genius the keys of the kingdom. Peter says, I'm with Jesus. And Jesus says, that's how the church is gonna get built. And the church will hold the keys of the kingdom. Now, what are the keys? Well, the keys in context of this is the proclamation of that confession, meaning the message that Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God. That message is the key. In a sense that unlocks the Kingdom of Heaven. Does that make sense? You guys tracking so far? So, so the keys of the Kingdom are the Gospel of Jesus Christ held by the Church of Jesus Christ.
22 · The pastor exposes the 'binding and loosing' language of Matthew 16:19 as the eternal consequences of receiving or rejecting the gospel keys—acceptance opens heaven's doors, rejection keeps them shut
And when the Church holds out what it is meant to be, when the Church holds out the keys and proclaims the Gospel, what happens? Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Meaning this, when somebody offers you a key, if you say, yes, I wanna go, then in that moment, it may look very mundane here on the earth. It might just be you and a brother in a living room, right? But in that moment, heaven's doors swing open. Or if that message comes to you and you say, no, I'm gonna keep living my life. I'm gonna keep doing what I wanna do. That door does not open, right? It stays shut in a sense.
23 · The pastor synthesizes the exposition by asserting that while many organizations address real temporal needs (worthy of affirmation), the church alone is entrusted with the gospel keys that address eternal needs—making it categorically unique in scope and mission
Now, that then is all in the service of this very simple point. When the church of Jesus Christ stands in the middle of the world around it, it offers a way to eternal life through the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus. And in doing that, the church does something no other organization in the world can offer. Look, friends, there are many good organizations in the world around us. Some aim to feed the hungry and we say amen. Some aim to help the sick and we say amen. Some aim to create jobs and we say amen. Some aim to raise awareness about important issues and we say amen. Those are real needs in a fallen world, but only one organization in the whole face of the earth is given the keys to the kingdom of heaven and the proclamation of the gospel. Only one organization is working not on the scale of next week or next month or next year or next decade, but is working on the scale of eternal life.
24 · The pastor uses a marketing class teaching about 'giving the stakes' (illustrated by WD-40 and timeshare pitches) to set up the question of what stakes the church operates on, preparing for the climactic assertion about eternal consequences
Now look, I was taking this marketing class a while back, and one of the things in this marketing class is they say, listen, whenever you're trying to get people to commit to something, make sure to give them the stakes, okay? If you're trying to sell a can of something or get them to sign up for a membership, give them the stakes. Here's what's gonna happen if you succeed and what's gonna happen if you don't, 'cause people are just gonna be like, okay, I'm just gonna take a pass. No, you need to convince them, listen, listen, this may seem a simple can of WD-40, but here are the stakes. You're gonna be slowly driven mad by that squeaky door for the rest of your life. You're going to be irritable. Your quality of life is going to suffer. As an old man, you're going to think, I wish I had fixed that door. Or you can fix it right now and you'll enjoy a blissful, peaceful existence. Your home will be a respite. And you're like, I got to get that can of WD-40, right? Like, that's, that's where it's at. Or, or, you know, the person telling the timeshare, you know, you have a hard life. Don't you want a place you can escape to? Because if you have a place you can escape to, you'll enjoy life and it'll be good. Or if you don't have an escape, you're just going to be an Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge scraping through life, slowly warped inward on yourself. Don't you wanna buy the timeshare? You're like, yeah, I guess. Like, I don't wanna be Scrooge, sure. Right, so okay. So let's just for a second say, okay, great. Humans are motivated when they make commitments by the stakes. What are the stakes of the church of Jesus Christ? What are the stakes that we're operating on?
25 · The pastor delivers the climactic assertion: the church operates on the highest possible stakes—heaven and hell, eternal life or loss—making it not an optional accessory but the God-appointed bearer of the gospel keys
Friend, The stakes are no less than heaven and hell. The stakes are no less than eternal life or eternal loss. Friends, the church of Jesus Christ is not an optional accessory among thousands of other similarly good organizations. The church of Jesus Christ is the place that God has given the gospel proclamation that serves as the keys to the kingdom of eternal life. John Piper has said really well, we as a church are, and as the people of God, as Christians, we're to care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering. We're to care about all of life, especially eternal life. That's why the church matters so much.
26 · The pastor signals a shift from doctrinal exposition to personal testimony, connecting the three-part theological framework to the practical question of how this understanding should affect giving
Now, oh man, I want to, I want to give you a personal testimony here. Okay. So if this is what the church is to the Lord, it's what the church is to us. It's what the church is to the world. What then difference does that make with our own giving? Okay. I'm going to just, I wasn't even planning on doing this, but I'm going to just give you my own personal testimony on this issue.
27 · The pastor shares a vulnerable personal testimony about lifelong financial anxiety rooted in a survival mentality, his conviction about insufficient generosity to the church, and the surprising experience of greater freedom and joy as he has increased giving—reframing the shift from kingdom-building to kingdom-joining
I am a person for whom money has been tied with anxiety for my whole life. Including my childhood. Okay, so I was the kind of kid that if somebody gave me a gift card to like Toys R Us for my birthday, everyone else would be like, sweet, here we go, baby. I would get it and go like, oh man, oh man. And I would wander the aisles of Toys R Us, fearful that I would make the wrong decision, fearful that I would buy the wrong toy, fearful that I would buy a cheap toy that would break after 2 weeks of play. Which toy will last the longest? Which one can I use in the most places? Which one, you know, like I'm freaking out and my mom is going, Ricky, you have got to pick something. We cannot stay at Toys R Us all day. You've got to just choose a toy. And so that was the beginning, right? And it got worse from there, right? And one of the things that happened is I think over the years I've seen that a lot of times my mission in life is just to survive and like stay alive, right? Just kind of like build up walls of financial protection and survive and get through life. And, and one of the things that, and just the anxiety was wrapped up in that. And then about a year ago on a retreat, the Lord began convicting me about my posture of generosity toward the church. Now it'd probably be helpful for you guys to know that all of our pastors at the church give to the church. It's not like, well, we work at the church, so we don't have to give. No, we believe in the church. We give to the church, but I want to confess something. Often my view of generosity was driven by, well, my main goal in life is to survive and protect my own little kingdom. And I was constantly worried that it might crumble. And so when it came to generosity, I would almost have excuses like, well, I'd love to give more here, but of course I need to keep this safe. I'd love to do this, but I need to keep this safe. I'd love to do that and need to keep this safe. And the Lord just began convicting me about a year ago and slowly, slowly, friends, I've been increasing, Jen and I have been increasing the amount we give to the church. And I expected that to be followed by spikes of anxiety, right? Like that, ooh, when I would like go into the little online system and move it up just a little and just a little, just a little, right? I expected to die. You know what's been so funny? Every time I've gone and done that, I've actually felt freer and happier. And I couldn't put my finger on why that was happening. And I think this is what's going on. My default life, at least financially, was I just want to survive and not get hurt. And Jesus has been holding out a vision for I'm doing something in the world and I get to join him. And I'm going to trust him to take care of me. I'm going to try to be a wise steward, but I'm going to try to join what God is doing. And that, friends, that has actually been doing more for my financial anxiety than anything else. Now, don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying if you have an anxiety issue, just give to the church and it'll boop. No, that's not what I'm saying. Please don't— somebody's gonna be like, did he say to fix my anxiety by giving? That doesn't seem— you know, that's not what I'm saying. But I'm saying this, that friends, so much is out of balance in our lives when we don't have Jesus' priorities and we're not living in the good of Jesus' freedom and joy and purpose because we're seeking to build our kingdoms and we're looking at all the opportunities going, well, why do you want, why do you want, why do you want this? Rather than going, what is Jesus doing in the world? And how can I join him?
28 · The pastor addresses the practical question 'where does the money go?' by detailing four budget categories at Cross of Grace: facilities (hospitable but not fancy), ministry spending (meals, coffee, donuts for hospitality and lingering), outside giving (10%+ to Sovereign Grace Churches and fatherless care), and staff (the largest category, justified by Ephesians 4 as equipping the saints for ministry, not replacing their ministry)
Now, with that testimony out of the way, I want to answer 2 very common questions about giving. We're going to do a larger FAQ about giving and the local church. So I'm not going to go through all of that, but I'm going to answer 2 of the most common and almost boring questions about giving in light of Matthew 16, because too often it's easy to be like, great, let's, you know, be excited for the kingdom. And then the church financial update is the one part that everyone's eyes glaze over. I know I've given the update and I've sat in the update. And sometimes my eyes glaze over while I'm giving the update. Percentage of 3.5. And we're going to, you know, like one of those, right? So 2 questions I want to answer. Number one, when you give to the church or to a local church using us as a representative, where does the money go? Somebody tell me, where does the money go, right? And I'm gonna give you 4 main places church giving goes, and none of them are particularly exciting in the eyes of the world, okay? Here they are. Number 1, a place to meet, right? It's just, we need a place to meet. If we're an assembly, an ecclesia, we— it's helpful to have a place to assemble. And we believe, right? We believe that we need this place. And friends, Let me just say this. We get to sit here to whatever extent we enjoy any comforts because 40 years of faithful giving have gifted it to us. And some of you guys are in this room and we are grateful for you. We're grateful that we have people in this room because you've invested here to create that opportunity. And so we believe in those things. Now we believe in using our facility as a tool. We believe in friendly buildings that are hospitable, but not fancy buildings. Now, some of you who've been here with us through the summer, you were like, well, I think the cooling could be a little fancier. We could move the fanciness up there. No, we're not. I don't think we're in danger of fancy there. So in a couple of weeks, we are gonna lay out, you know, some building upgrades we hope to make. And that is one of them. But that's where your money goes. It gives us a place to meet, a place to do ministry from. Second, ministry spending, right? Ministry spending. We do very practical things with money here. We provide money to buy meals so that people at our church Alpha can enjoy a hot cooked meal when they come to find the community of Jesus, right? When our kids workers are gathering for a training, we buy them a bunch of muffins and coffee and as much, you know, breakfast stuff as we can, 'cause they're doing hard work, right? If you've been here, I think, I have no data for this, but I believe we may be one of the leading purchasers of donuts in the city of El Paso. I want that. I want us to become known by the donut people of El Paso of like, you've got to get the Cross of Grace contract. It's the most lucrative donut contract in the city. Right? Why? Why do we do that? Guys, we do that, we do coffee and donuts and all that stuff because we don't want this to be a place you come and go and you peace out. We want this to be a place you linger, where you hang out with people, where you experience the hospitality of the people of God, right? That's what we're doing. And so sometimes it feels like, well, yeah, the kingdom feels big and fancy and esoteric, but my money's buying donuts. Yep. Amen. That's exactly right. Third thing we give, outside giving. Over 10% of our budget goes to outside the walls of Cross of Grace. We give specifically to Sovereign Grace Churches, our denominational partnership, and that helps build strong local churches and plant strong local churches in the US and around the world. And let me just say, we're going to give some updates on that. The global part of that partnership in particular is flourishing. And it is not an exaggeration to say that within a couple decades, easily, maybe a decade, we may have more Sovereign Grace churches outside the US than in the US, which the Lord is just doing amazing things. And we also believe as a church, we prayed and we're convicted that the place we want to give beyond that toward the care of the fatherless, where we can combine spiritual care and practical care. And we do that at Rancho 3M, we do that with Covenant Mercies. And so every dollar you give, more than a dime of it goes beyond us. And last, staff. Now let me say a word about staff, because staff is our largest part of the budget. And some of that's enabled because we paid off our mortgage, so we can put a little bit more money there. But in Ephesians 4: we learn the purpose of church staff. The purpose of church staff is not we pay people and they do the ministry, right? Or perhaps at worst, we pay them so we don't have to do the ministry. That, yeah, it's good for him to do the ministry, go for it. No, that's not Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4 says God gives things like pastors, evangelists, teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry. The reason we have staff is so that we can equip the saints and enable the saints to do the ministry, right? And so, so when we've got big, like right now, we've got giant whiteboards in Daniel's office that I've seen of the kids ministry schedule of like that thing looks, it looks like John and Daniel are designing a fusion reactor because there's so many names and lines and swirls of things. But guys, why are we doing that? So that people can be in those classrooms teaching kids about Jesus, right? We're not doing that. We're enabling the work of ministry. And so we want to keep doing that. We want to pay faithful pastors and we want to try to hold onto them over time. 1 Peter 5 and Galatians 6 encourage us to pay those that are helping equip the saints with the word in all of life. And so we want to do that. So are those things the most exciting to the world around us? Is that going to get a venture capitalist fired up? Probably not. But friends, it's what the Lord's called us to do in the Church of Jesus Christ.
29 · The pastor introduces the second practical question—'what kind of church are we building?'—and frames it by noting the church's many surface-level changes over 40 years, then promising to articulate five unchanging priorities that define Cross of Grace's long-term vision
Second question I want to answer: what kind of church then are we trying to build with the money given to us? So it's helpful for you to know where we're trying to go, because here's the reality: over the last 40 years, so much about this church has changed, hasn't it? And if we're overly focused on, well, this very particular thing this year, that's what I'm giving for. No, no, no. We wanna be focused on the larger priorities of the kind of church we're gonna build. Like over the last 40 years since I've been here, I was born basically into the church. The floor has changed, the carpet's changed, the chairs have changed, the classes have changed. You know, everything about the church almost has changed. Even the paint on the walls has changed inside and outside multiple times. Backyard has changed. These are 5 things that will not change. These are 5 things that we want to build that might take a— that'll take longer than a year and take longer than a decade. And here's the 5.
30 · The pastor articulates the first of five unchanging priorities: preaching God's Word God's way through expositional teaching (75%+ of the time), rejecting TED Talk-style tips in favor of book-by-book exposition, because Jesus is the foundation and Jesus gave us the Word in book form
This is where we want to go. We want to be a church known for preaching God's Word God's way. We want the Word of God to come clearly through without a filter in everything we do, especially in our preaching. We do not want the church to become a TED Talk with tips for life. There is enough of that stuff out there in podcasts and YouTube, right? We don't need more tips and tricks from life and, you know, how to— 5 better ways for a marriage or whatever. What we need is the Word of God preached as God delivered it to us. Now, we may do some topical series intentionally, But 75% of the time plus, we are teaching section by section and book by book. And if we ever get to the end of the Bible, I'm gonna happily report we're gonna go back to the beginning and do it again. Because Jesus gave it to us that way. And who's the foundation of the church? Jesus. Who's the one that builds a church? Jesus, right? Amen. And so look, we're not trying to go like, man, here's our best ideas about life. We're saying here we have a book. It's written by Jesus. That's what we build on.
31 · The pastor articulates the second unchanging priority: services as a 'gospel choir' rather than a concert, emphasizing corporate participation in every element (singing, teaching, communion, greeting) as the assembled people of God worshiping together, not passive consumers of a performance
Second, we believe that in our services, our goal is to create a gospel choir and not a concert. Right? We are not here to kind of just create good vibes and a subjective internal reaction that we like when we come to the church services. We emphasize that every part of our church service is us together, the people of God, the ecclesia together, right? This is not a concert where we go, that was pretty good, pretty good, pretty good bass playing today, above average I'd say, right? That's not what we're doing, right? The band exists that we as the choir of God might sing to the Lord as the living stones gathered for the worship of God. And every part then of the service is all of us together. We— our music, that's us singing. Our teaching, that's us learning together. Communion, that's us going to the Lord together. Even the beginning of the service when we're doing the meet and greet, that's not a warmup. That's the nature of the church, that the gospel has called these people into this place under the banner of Jesus Christ. And we say, even if I don't know you, I know one thing about you. If you love Jesus, I do too. And this is our place. Right? That is what we're aiming to be, a gospel choir.
32 · The pastor articulates the third unchanging priority: plurality in leadership over personality-driven leadership, rejecting celebrity and personal magnetism in favor of shared leadership because all leaders are merely pointers to Jesus
Third, in our leadership. Look, friends, over the years, leaders have changed, leaders will change, but this is what we're aiming to build. We're aiming to build plurality in leadership over personality in leadership. We do not want to do leadership the way the world does. We're not looking to celebrity or personal magnetism to carry things. What does Peter confess? Not that he's the head of the church, but rather that Jesus is. Peter confesses, you're the Christ, you're the Messiah. I got to tell a funny story that Todd hates at this point. I'm sorry. We were in a meeting and there was— we were talking about the danger at times, especially when you have a pastor that's there for a long time, things can be in an unhelpful way begin to be built around that pastor, especially if they have a strong personality or maybe perhaps that pastor has a way of sort of drawing people to themselves. Their loyalty is to the pastor and not to other things. And, you know, we were talking about that danger and I was, you know, saying, yeah, I don't want that to happen. And Todd in the meeting goes, yeah, I don't think you have to worry about that. And then I became offended. Like, he's like, well, you don't really draw people to yourself. And I was like, I can draw people. I can draw some people right now. Like, I'm very charismatic and, you know, and so we joke about it all the time. But the reason that I love that, the reason that sticks in my mind is I think that's exactly right in many ways. We are not aiming to be like, man, I only go to home group because of that one personality guy. That's who I really jive with. We're not aiming to like, that's my pastor. I'm not going to listen to anybody else. We're rather aiming to, we do this together. We do home group together, we do pastoral ministry together, we do ministry together. That's what we're aiming for because we're all just pointers to Jesus anyway.
33 · The pastor articulates the fourth unchanging priority: deep, disruptive relationships over disposable, low-commitment connections, contrasting the cultural desire for easy-in/easy-out churches with Cross of Grace's intentional pursuit of relationships that require sacrifice and rearrangement of life
All right, 4th, we aim for deep, not disposable relationships, right? We live in a world of ephemeral digital relationships and friendships that are, you know, these people that we have tenuous online connections to. And we often find that if you pull Christians and we're like, what kind of a church do you want? A lot of times Christians will go, you know what? I want a church it's easy to get into and easy to get out of, right? I want to be able to come and not really nobody bother me and be able to leave when I want and I can kind of participate in whatever I want and it's not real disruptive to my life. Friends, we're trying to build the opposite of that at Crossroads Grace. We want a disruptive church in the best of ways, right? We want to have to go like, oh man, my home group's meeting on Thursday. I got to move some stuff around. Maybe I can still make it, right? We want to go like, man, this friend really needs me. I'm not saying too bad, call somebody else. I'm saying, how can I get over there tonight? Right? That's what we want. Deep relationships, not disposable ones.
34 · The pastor articulates the fifth unchanging priority: preaching timeless truth in kids and youth ministry rather than chasing generational trends, because the next generation needs Jesus' unchanging truth, not culturally tailored methods
And 5th and last, just because it's so live with kids and youth, that's where so many churches go off in so many different directions. In kids and youth ministry, here's our commitment. We want to preach timeless truth not chase trends, right? I have reached the age where I never know what's popular in terms of fashion. And when I go to Costco, all the clothes look pretty good to me. I'm like, that looks pretty good. That's fine. You know, at first when Costco opened, I was like, oh, I'd never be caught dead in those clothes. And now I'm like, they're fine. That's fine. Right? And marketers and content creators will often say, listen, you got to chase Gen Z, you got to chase Gen Alpha, you got to be able to speak Gen Alpha, you got to be able to connect with those people. Just exactly they want to be connected with. And look, some of that is not bad to try to be understandable, but friends, our kids do not need us chasing trends. They need the timeless truth of Jesus Christ. And they needed it in the '80s and the '90s. They need it today. And they're going to need it 20 years from now. That's what we aim to give our kids over time, the truth of Christ.
35 · The pastor tells a third car story—about his 2007 Pontiac Vibe, which was not attractive but became precious through a decade of memories (honeymoon, pastoral training, bringing his son home from the hospital)—as an analogy for how the local church becomes valuable not through initial glamour but through accumulated experiences of God meeting His people
All right, let me wrap up with this. I need to tell you about one more car, and then we'll be done. I miss the '73 Mustang, but it's actually not the car that I miss the most. The car I miss the most is my 2007 Pontiac Vibe. It is extinct on the face of the earth for a number of reasons, some of which are legitimate. And I bought the car for its practicality. It was It was reliable. It had a great powertrain. It was a hatchback so I could put a lot of stuff in it. It was not what I'd call a looker. If you look up the pictures afterwards, yet after almost a decade, it became by far my favorite car. And you know why? Because that was the car that Jen and I drove from our honeymoon back to our new life together. That was our car that I drove to Washington, DC and back twice as I pursued pastoral training. That was the car that my first son Ford came home in from the hospital. Right. And so over a decade, I had all of these memories built up in it. And then I was in an accident and, you know, the insurance company's like, yeah, it's not worth it. You should just take this check and move on. And you know what my biggest regret is? It's not even actually selling the '73 Mustang. It was selling the Pontiac vibe. Because I was like, it had become my car. Like, it wasn't the best looking car, but it was mine.
36 · The pastor draws the sermon to its climax by applying the Pontiac Vibe illustration to the local church: the church may not look impressive at first, but over time it becomes precious through experiences of meeting Jesus, finding grace, and discovering family
Friends, I think in many ways the local church is like that. It sneaks up on you. When you arrive, you think it's not a looker, right? Especially this one looks like a, you know, big bank building or whatever. And yet, friends, this place becomes over time, if we let it, as precious to us as perhaps it is to the Lord. This is the place, friends, where I met the Lord and became a Christian in this building. This is the place where many of us have walked in at our lowest points and found not condemnation but grace. This is the place where we went from, I'm just a person in a seat, to this, is my family, right? This place, friends, is special not because of any magic or strategy we have, but because this is where Jesus Christ dwells with his people. So friends, when it comes to what we give our lives to invest in, let us give our time and our money and our attention and our love and our commitment where Jesus has His, in the Church of Jesus Christ. Amen.
37 · Closing prayer thanking God for the founding generation's sacrifice in building Cross of Grace, asking God to reframe the congregation's relationship to the local church from minimum-bar thinking to Jesus-centered vision, and praying that God would be their vision as they pursue Him with all they have
Would you stand and let's pray. Oh Lord, as we end, Lord, we— What a thing, and I'm just overcome by the effect that our founding generation had in building this place, that this gathering of believers that started down the street at Radford School in the gym became a very special place. Lord, and I think of the saints who gave their weekends to put the walls up and the saints that gave any extra money they had to get this sheetrock up and the people that stayed late and arrived early and the people that loved this place. And God, we benefit today, right now, because of their commitment and their investment. And so, Lord, we just, we thank you for them. God, we thank you for what they've done. We thank you for what they've invested. And Lord, I pray that today, Lord, that you would just reframe our relationship to the local church, not as, okay, what's the minimum bar I have to clear? How much do I have to give? Or how many nights a week do I have to give up? But rather, Lord, help us to go, man, what does Jesus say about this place? What is his relationship to it? What's mine? How important is this in the city of El Paso and the world? Lord, I pray that you would just reframe it. And I pray that as we end, you would be our vision and that we would pursue it with all we have. In Jesus' name, amen.